Decision Rights Policy Template
Four documents and four sheets that test every escalation against what it actually changed last quarter, not what the org chart assumes.
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Decision Rights Policy
Verrian Digital, one quarter of decisions, 120 logged
| Escalated | 44 of 120, above the natural decider |
| Overturned | 11 of 44 — the other 33 changed nothing |
| Rule | Keep escalation only above a 30% overturn rate |
Four of the eight rules in force
| Decision | Decides | Overturn rate | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discount up to 15% | Account Manager | n/a, 0 escalated | Full authority |
| Discount 15–25% | Account Manager | 16.7% | Full authority, notify only |
| Discount above 25% | CRO approves | 80.0% | Approval required |
| Refund above $500 | Finance Director approves | 60.0% | Approval required |
The other four decision types in the policy — scope changes, vendor engagements, contractor hiring, deadline exceptions — all cleared full authority this quarter, at overturn rates from 0% to 25%.
Every decision rights template on page one is the same blank grid: list your decisions down the side, list roles across the top, and write a letter in each cell. RACI, DACI and RAPID all do this, and all three ask a person to assert who should decide, from title and instinct, before a single real decision has been checked against the assertion. The letters look precise. Nothing behind them has ever been measured.
This pack starts from the other end. It reads what actually got decided recently, who it went to, and whether the person above the natural decider ever changed the outcome. A RACI can still tell you who is nominally accountable for a step. What this tells you is different: whether the person one level up is exercising real judgment, or just adding a day of latency to a call the natural decider had already made correctly.
Verrian Digital, a 38-person marketing agency, logged 120 decisions across one quarter. 44 were escalated, and only 11 of those 44 actually changed. The other 33, kept below the 30% line, moved straight to full authority with a notify-only step upward, and only two of six decision types kept a real approval requirement. This is the same evidence-first approach the handoff agreement pack applies to a bounced task, the process map applies to a queue, and the operating cadence pack applies to a meeting: measure what happened, then write the rule.
What's in the pack
Decision Log
Every decision logged for the period with who decided it, who it was escalated to, and whether that escalation actually changed the outcome or just approved what was already proposed.
Decision Type Register
All decisions rolled up by type, each with its escalation count, overturn count, overturn rate, and the resulting verdict: full authority or a kept approval requirement.
Escalation Trigger
The types that split by size or stakes broken into tiers, so a 12% discount and a 30% discount get the separate rules their separate overturn rates justify.
Approver Map
The usable grid: who decides alone, who gets a notification with no veto, and who must approve before the decision ships, for every decision type and tier.
Decision Rights Policy
The signed document naming every rule in force, with the overturn rate written next to each one so the policy is checkable against the evidence behind it.
Decision Log Standard
The seven fields every future decision gets logged with, so next quarter's re-derivation has real data instead of reconstructed memory.
How Decision Rights Are Derived
The 30% threshold explained: why an escalation below it is latency with nothing to show, and why the number is a judgment call rather than a formula.
What This Does Not Fix
The honest limits: a decision type with no volume yet, a decision nobody logged, genuine disputes over who owns a decision type, and one-off irreversible calls.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Install the pack and hand River your recent decision history, or download all four documents and four sheets blank and run the test yourself.
- 2
Send the decision history
Meeting notes, an approval thread, a CRM trail, or just the last several instances of a recurring decision and who they went to.
- 3
Let the overturn rate decide
Every decision type is tested: escalated count, overturned count, and whether the resulting rate clears the 30% line for keeping a mandatory approval.
- 4
Sign the policy, log what's next
The surviving rules become the Decision Rights Policy, and every future decision gets logged so next quarter's derivation has real evidence.
Frequently asked questions
Is this free, and what do I get?
Free, no signup needed for the download: four documents and four spreadsheets. The AI half is optional. Send River your recent decision history and it runs the overturn-rate test and drafts the policy for you.
Why not just assign decision rights by org chart position?
Because title says who is authorized, not who is actually catching mistakes. An org chart cannot show that a Director has approved twelve discounts in a row exactly as proposed, which is the fact that should retire that approval step.
What does a 30% overturn rate actually mean?
Of every time a decision type was escalated, the share where the person above actually changed the outcome rather than approving it as proposed. Below 30%, the pack argues the escalation is delay without a matching safety benefit.
What if a decision type doesn't have enough history yet?
It stays on the conservative default, approval required, until it accumulates enough logged instances to test, typically eight to ten. A thin sample gets a cautious rule, never a false verdict borrowed from other types.
How is this different from a RACI matrix?
A RACI names who is accountable for a step in a process. This tests whether escalating above that person, once assigned, is actually changing anything. The two are complementary: run a RACI first if ownership itself is contested.
What does Edit with AI actually do?
Creates a free account, installs this exact pack as a private space, and primes the agent to read whatever decision history you send. Nothing gets written until you send something, and the blank pack is always there to download instead.
Stop escalating decisions that never change
Take the four documents and four sheets blank, or install this pack in River and send your recent decision history.
Edit with AI