Protecting time for decisions that cannot be delegated

undefined

Separate decisions that require your authority from choices others are allowed and equipped to make. Check the applicable instrument before treating a decision as yours to make.

Give the decisions that remain yours a dependable review time and an urgent route for matters that cannot wait. Put a recurring decision window in your calendar and identify how urgent matters reach the authorised owner.

Identify the decision and check delegations

Scan requests awaiting your answer. For each, name the choice, its latest useful answer time and the consequence of waiting. 'Review the project' might mean approve a change in scope; 'provide guidance' might mean explain an existing rule. Clarify the question before reserving decision time for it.

Find the instrument that sets authority in your workplace: an Instrument of Delegation or Instrument of Authorisation, a finance delegations matrix, or a financial delegations register. The Queensland Department of Education procedure says limitations and conditions are set out in the relevant Instrument of Delegation or Instrument of Authorisation and refers to finance administrative approvals as the Finance delegations matrix (Queensland Department of Education procedure).

Mount Isa City Council’s Financial Delegations Register cites Section 238 of the Local Government Act 2009 and the Local Government Regulation 2012 (Mount Isa City Council Financial Delegations Register). It limits manual order books to emergency repairs only, to a maximum value of $250, counter-signed by an authorised officer with sufficient purchasing delegation (Mount Isa City Council Financial Delegations Register). Use the register and laws that govern your workplace; this council example is not a universal limit.

For a council example, the VDRC Delegations Manual says a power to make a decision that requires a council resolution cannot be delegated; it also says the power to impose rates cannot be delegated (VDRC Delegations Manual). Check your applicable instrument for the position or body that must decide, then route the matter there rather than holding it in your queue.

Colleagues may still gather facts, compare options or make a choice within their authority. State what they may decide and what must come back to you.

Reserve and protect a decision window

Set a recurring decision window at a cadence that matches incoming work, mark it unavailable and block enough time for the prepared queue. Ask organisers to move routine meetings, silence routine notifications and leave a buffer; if a decision runs over, record what remains and carry it forward. Tell colleagues when ordinary requests must arrive. Identify the organisation’s incident process, on-call route or critical-issue channel and authorised owner for urgent service or safety matters, and put them in the calendar note.

Use a short request template with fields for the precise question, latest useful answer time, consequence of waiting, feasible options, facts that could change the answer and the requester’s recommendation. Ask for enough preparation to make the choice, but keep it proportionate; a full project report is not necessary.

If an essential fact is missing, assign someone to obtain it and set the next decision point. Route a choice outside your authority to its authorised owner.

Close the loop

State the decision, any conditions, who will act and whom to tell. If you must defer, identify what remains open and when you expect to return to it. This lets the team distinguish a deliberate deferral from an unanswered request.

Review recurring requests. Repeated minor approvals may reveal a boundary or instruction worth clarifying. Repeated substantial choices may need more preparation time. Keep your judgement available for decisions that belong to your role while authorised work continues elsewhere.