Insight
The Cost of Approval Chaos
How unclear ownership quitely slows decision making.
Most organisations don't deliberately create approval chaos.
It usually develops over time as additional controls, reviews and sign-offs are added in response to risks, audit findings or previous issues.
The intentions are usually good, but the outcome can be very different.
Control Is Not The Same As Approval
One of the most common justifications for complex approval chains is compliance, particularly within regulated industries.
I've often heard:
"We need these approvals to remain compliant."
At first glance, that sounds reasonable.
However, standards such as ISO 13485 typically require organisations to maintain control over activities and records. They do not generally prescribe exactly how many approvals must exist within a process.
Control and approvals are not the same thing.
As approval volumes increase, directors and managers spend more time reviewing administrative activity and less time focusing on genuinely significant decisions.
The signal becomes lost within the noise.
Low-risk administrative tasks compete for attention alongside customer issues, quality concerns and business risks. The organisation remains technically controlled, but the people responsible for managing risk become overwhelmed by approvals that add little value.
Ironically, the system designed to increase control can begin reducing it.
When Everything Requires Approval
Many organisations attempt to manage risk by increasing approvals.
An alternative approach is strengthening ownership.
Clearly defining responsibilities, permissions and accountability often creates better control than adding additional approval layers. Not every activity requires senior approval, but every activity should have clear ownership.
The objective should be to ensure the right people are making the right decisions at the right level of risk.
Ownership Creates Control
If a director was unavailable for two weeks, what work would stop moving?
The answer often reveals whether an organisation has genuine control or approval dependency.
A Simple Question
-
Are decision owners clearly defined?
-
Which approvals are required by policy?
-
Which approvals exist because they always have?
-
Where does work spend most of its time waiting?
-
Are approvals improving outcomes or simply reducing accountability?
Organisations rarely suffer from too much clarity, but may suffer from too many approvals.