Clarify who recommends, who decides and who executes.
Name the recurring decisions
Start with the decisions that repeatedly slow work: hiring, discounts, procurement, design changes, payments or investment proposals. Map what happens today before proposing a new structure. Ask who prepares the information, who recommends, who decides and who needs to know afterwards. A family relationship and an operating role can coexist, but the team needs to understand which role is being exercised in a particular decision.
Separate input from approval
Consulting someone does not automatically give them approval authority. Create a short decision table that names the accountable role, required input and escalation route. Agree it with the relevant leadership before putting it into use. Avoid a system where every person can stop a decision but nobody owns the outcome. Where authority depends on value or risk, document the applicable thresholds and ensure they are consistent with the organisation’s formal arrangements.
Use a decision record
A useful record includes the question, options considered, evidence, decision, owner and review date. Keep disagreement visible without turning the record into a transcript of every remark. If a decision changes, record the reason and notify the people executing it. The aim is organisational memory: colleagues should not have to reconstruct a commitment from a series of informal conversations. Start with a few important recurring decisions before expanding the process.
Review where the map fails
After a trial period, review decisions that waited, were reversed or reached the wrong forum. Ask whether the problem was missing information, unclear authority or lack of capacity. Adjust the process using those examples rather than adding approvals to every task. A workable map gives managers room to execute while keeping significant commitments visible to the appropriate leadership. Its value is clarity and follow-through, not a more complicated organisation chart.