Executive summary
Slow execution is usually a decision problem. Work stalls because a decision has no owner, keeps getting escalated or gets re-opened after it was made. Fixing decision making in organizations is one of the highest-return moves a leadership team can make, and it needs no new technology or reorganization.
- Only 20% of executives say their organizations excel at decision making.1
- Slow, ineffective decisions waste about 530,000 days of manager time a year at a typical Fortune 500 company, roughly $250 million in wages, and 61% of managers say at least half their decision-making time is ineffective.2
- Only 35% of chief strategy officers say they co-lead or own decision making on their organization's top priorities.3
Fast, effective leadership teams make three moves:
- Own: every decision has one owner, and input is never a veto.
- Place: decisions sit at the lowest level with the information, and each has a date.
- Stick: once made, decisions are backed in public, written down and revisited only for an agreed reason.
Waiting is the biggest cost nobody budgets for
Teams rarely stall because the work is too hard. They stall because they are waiting: for approval, for a steering committee, for a leader who is travelling, for two functions to agree on who decides.
From the outside it looks like an execution problem. Inside, it is a decision problem. Because waiting doesn't show up as a line in any budget, it rarely gets fixed. McKinsey's estimate of $250 million in wasted manager time for a typical Fortune 500 company doesn't include the cost of the work that sat idle while the decision waited.2
Matrixed work and heavy governance make decisions slower
Waiting can feel like the safe choice, and in isolation it often is. Deferring keeps options open and keeps anyone from being visibly wrong. Repeated across a leadership team and a portfolio, it drains momentum.
Two conditions make it worse. The first is the matrix. Most important work crosses functions, and in a Harvard Business Review study of 7,600 managers, only 9% said they could rely on colleagues in other functions all of the time.4 The second is governance. Only half of the CEOs in Bain's 2026 survey say their governance is simple enough to support speed.5
Decision making in organizations breaks down in six places
Two breakdowns are about ownership, two about where and when decisions are made, and two about whether they stick.
01. Nobody knows who decides. A decision has five stakeholders and no owner. Each meeting ends with "let's take it offline."
02. Consensus becomes the bar. Leaders wait until everyone agrees. On anything that matters, someone won't, so input turns into a veto and the decision waits.
03. Everything escalates. Decisions a director could make go to a VP, then a committee. Senior leaders spend their week on calls that should never have reached them.
04. Nothing has a deadline. Teams ask for one more analysis, one more scenario. Without a date, more data stops improving the decision long before people stop asking for it.
05. Decisions get re-opened. A call is made in the meeting, then someone who disagreed takes it up again in a side conversation. The team learns that no decision is final, so nobody acts on one.
06. Nobody records what happens next. The decision is made but the owner, timeline and communication aren't. A week later, half the room remembers it differently.
Three moves make decisions faster and make them stick
Own. Name one owner for each decision that matters. The owner hears input, then decides. Input shapes the decision but doesn't block it. This fixes breakdowns 01 and 02.
Place. Decide at the lowest level that has the information and the accountability, and keep the leadership agenda for decisions only the leadership team can make. Put the decision date on the calendar when the question is raised. This fixes 03 and 04.
Stick. Once the call is made, the whole team backs it in public, including the people who argued against it. Agree in advance what new information would trigger a revisit, and revisit only in the same forum. Write down the decision, owner, date and who needs to hear it. This fixes 05 and 06.
For the ten or fifteen decisions that matter most this year, five answers on one page will do more for speed than any new process:
1. Who owns this decision? One name.
2. Who must give input before it is made?
3. When will it be made? A date.
4. How will it be communicated, and to whom?
5. What would cause us to revisit it?
The decision speed test
Six questions, one for each breakdown.
- For your five most important pending decisions, can you name one owner for each?
- Do people know the difference between giving input and having a veto?
- How many decisions on your leadership agenda could have been made a level lower?
- Does every open decision have a date?
- When a decision is made in your leadership meeting, does it stay made?
- Are decisions written down with an owner, a date and who needs to hear about them?
What fast leadership teams do in practice
1. They keep a decision register. The decisions that matter most this year are listed with one owner each, visible to everyone involved.
2. They name roles at the start. The owner opens each discussion by saying who decides and whose input is needed.
3. They publish delegation levels. Leaders write down which decisions sit at which level, and push back anything that arrives above it.
4. They set the date when the question is raised. A decision without a date is a discussion, so the date goes in the calendar on day one.
5. They close each decision out loud. The meeting ends with the decision stated, the owner named and the whole team committing, including those who disagreed.
6. They send a same-day decision note. A short written record goes to everyone affected: what was decided, by whom, by when and what would reopen it.
Bring The Trust Advantage to your event
The Trust Advantage is my keynote on getting teams moving and results delivered. It covers how to line people up around clear priorities, influence across functions without relying on title, clarify decision ownership so execution stops stalling, and shift teams from passive delivery to active ownership.
I deliver it as a 45- to 90-minute keynote, in person or virtual, tailored to your organization and audience, with a custom tip sheet your attendees can use the next day. It works well for leadership conferences, executive offsites and management meetings.
Conclusion: speed is a design choice
Decision speed looks like a personality trait. It is mostly a design choice. Leadership teams that name owners, push decisions down, set dates and commit in public get faster without taking on more risk.
In a year when conditions keep shifting, that speed is an advantage you can build in a quarter. It costs only discipline, and it pays back in every initiative that stops waiting.
Read next: Say It in the Room
Frequently Asked Questions
What does good decision making in organizations look like?
Each decision that matters has one owner, who hears input and then decides. Decisions sit at the lowest level that has the information and the accountability, and each one has a date. Once a call is made, the team backs it in public, writes it down and revisits it only for a reason agreed in advance.
What are decision rights?
Decision rights define who owns a decision, who gives input, when it will be made and how it is communicated. Clear decision rights stop decisions from stalling, escalating or being re-opened after they are made.
How much do slow decisions cost?
McKinsey estimates that slow, ineffective decisions waste about 530,000 days of manager time a year at a typical Fortune 500 company, roughly $250 million in wages, before counting the cost of work that waits for the decision.
How can leadership teams make decisions faster?
Name one owner for each significant decision, treat input as input and not a veto, push decisions to the lowest level with the information, set a decision date, commit in public once the call is made and write it down.
Why do decisions get re-opened?
Usually because ownership was unclear, people who disagreed weren't heard or the team never committed in public. When re-opening a decision requires an agreed reason and happens in the same forum, decisions stay made.
Does faster decision making increase risk?
Not when it is designed well. McKinsey's research found faster decisions tend to be higher quality as well. Speed comes from clarity about ownership and timing, and input still happens before the decision.
Who is The Trust Advantage for?
Senior leaders and functional heads, cross-functional and matrixed teams, and organizations working on execution and accountability. It suits leadership conferences, offsites and management meetings, and each talk is tailored.
About Suzanne Knight
Suzanne Knight, MBA, MA, is a keynote speaker and the CEO of mBolden, a Toronto-based management consulting firm (mbolden.co). She has led transformation in the Ontario government, at Deloitte for nearly eight years, as Director of Organizational Effectiveness at Philip Morris International in Canada, and as VP, Transformation Services at Walmart Canada.
She has advised more than 80 organizations in 14 countries, including Fortune 500 companies and governments, and has spoken on more than 65 stages in 18 months. Her TEDx talk is The myth of doing it all. Her keynotes are The Next Big Thing, Never Waste a Good Crisis, The Trust Advantage and Create More Time.
Sources and references
- McKinsey & Company. (2019). Decision making in the age of urgency (1,259 respondents). Source ↗
- McKinsey & Company. (2019). Three keys to faster, better decisions (1,200+ managers). Source ↗
- Deloitte. (2026, February 12). 2026 Chief Strategy Officer Survey. Source ↗
- Sull, D., Homkes, R., & Sull, C. (2015). Why Strategy Execution Unravels and What to Do About It. Harvard Business Review. Source ↗
- Bain & Company. (2026, June 1). The 2026 CEO Agenda: Where Ambition Outpaces Execution (survey of 100 CEOs). Source ↗