Harvard Business Review LogoDoris Mitsch; Lockdown Vultures (Moab Slope); © Doris Mitsch, archival pigment print; courtesy of CLAMP, New YorkMany organizations use tools like RACI to clarify who should provide input on decisions, who should make them, and who should carry them out. But in practice these frameworks often fail becauseAt one global technology company, 12 executives recently crowded around a table to make the final decision on a heated issue: whether to add the C-suite role of chief innovation officer to their leadership team and expand the central unit that person would run. Their company, which made a variety of tools used in hospital settings, was confronting a changing environment that required it to ramp up its efforts to launch new and improved products. While the new role and the bigger unit would seemingly address that need, the discussion quickly devolved into a power struggle, with several participants arguing loudly and others quietly checking out. After 90 minutes of intense debate, the meeting ended without a decision.A version of this article appeared in the July–August 2026 issue of Harvard Business Review.
What Companies Get Wrong About Decision Rights
Many organizations use tools like RACI to clarify who should provide input on decisions, who should make them, and who should carry them out. But in practice these frameworks often fail because teams don’t apply them properly. Drawing on their research and their work with more than 100 companies, the authors identify four common mistakes: setting decision roles before clarifying goals, treating decision rights as a static list created by a single senior leader, misunderstanding what each role actually means, and letting hierarchy override the assigned roles. To avoid these issues, leaders should cocreate roles with the people involved in or affected by the decisions, define clear behaviors for each role, revisit role assignments regularly, and have ongoing conversations about them. Used well, tools like RACI will reduce conflict, improve collaboration, and increase the quality of decisions and the speed at which they’re made.
