Recalibrating Decision Leadership
from Slow to Nimble

A global energy company with 800 leaders had recently reorganized itself into a more LEAN and scalable organization. But were decisions now being made more effectively?

To optimize leadership in this new structure, the company sought to understand the informal decision-amking dynamics among its leaders.

Specifically, they needed to know:

How would the leaders support a change in structure?
How did leaders collaborate on decisions across the matrix organization?
Who were the informal decision sense makers in the leadership group?

What insights were revealed during the project?

The data confirmed the strong support and need for improved speed in the decision-making process.

Four key findings emerged:

1. The word “slow” was used 3 times more than the 2nd most used word to describe the decision-making process

The top words that describe how leaders perceive decision making

2. Top management held the central network positions, illustrating a very rigid hierarchical structure

A network visualization that show how top management hold central position in the network of all other 800 leaders. The visualization indicates a hierarchical style of making decision.

3. 80% of the top informal decision sense makers were at the top hierarchical level

4. The hierarchical network barrier was more than double compared to the benchmark

What actions were taken?

The company reduced decision-making forums from over 20 to just 8, involving informal change catalysts among the 800+ leaders to ensure acceptance. Additionally, they achieved more agile decision-making by

Establishing mandates and guidelines for all ~800 leaders.
Integrating informal decision sense makers into new decision forums with the principle “Work with the organization – not against it”.
Defining clear roles and responsibilities, meeting structures, and escalation processes for decision forums