The Decision Rights Ladder: Who Decides What Between a Visionary and an Integrator
At Arcules I had a real Integrator. The chart said operations belonged to that seat. The decisions that mattered still came back to me. I gave it up from a responsibility perspective, but not from an authority perspective.
The Decision Rights Ladder is how you close that gap one decision at a time. Five rungs, from the founder decides alone to the second seat decides and the result shows up in the weekly numbers. List your recurring decisions, mark where each one sits today, pick the rung it should move to and write the condition that sends it back up.
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The Decision Rights Ladder
Which decisions leave the founder first, to which rung, and what sends them back?
What you get
- The five rungs, defined
- A fill in grid with the decisions most founders hold too long
- One worked example, quarter by quarter
- Print and CSV, with nothing sent anywhere
The five rungs
| Rung | Who decides | Who is told, and when | Typical decisions at $1M to $10M |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Founder decides | Team informed after | Vision, capital, the second seat itself, selling the company |
| 2 | Second seat recommends, founder decides | Founder answers within an agreed number of days | Senior hires, prices outside the agreed band, new service lines |
| 3 | Second seat decides, tells the founder before acting | Founder can object within an agreed window | Budget moves inside the plan, larger vendor changes, reorganizing a team |
| 4 | Second seat decides, tells the founder after | Reported at the weekly leadership meeting | Hiring below the leadership team, process changes, customer escalations |
| 5 | Second seat decides, no report needed | Visible in the scorecard | Daily operations, purchasing inside budget, scheduling |
Three rules
- Start with the decisions you are worst at making. For most Visionaries that is scheduling, process and people logistics, not strategy.
- Move one type of decision at a time, one rung at a time, and hold it there for a full quarter.
- Write the condition that sends a decision back up.
Your ladder
List your recurring decisions. Mark where each one sits today and the rung it should reach. The first row is a worked example. Overwrite it.
| Decision | Rung today | Target rung | Move by | Condition that sends it back up | Second seat owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing exceptions | Quarter 3 | Average margin below the agreed floor for two months | |||
| Senior hires | |||||
| Prices outside the agreed band | |||||
| New service lines | |||||
| Budget moves inside the plan | |||||
| Larger vendor changes | |||||
| Hiring below the leadership team | |||||
| Process changes | |||||
| Customer escalations | |||||
| Purchasing inside budget | |||||
| Scheduling | |||||
One decision moving down the ladder
- Quarter 1, rung 2. The second seat recommends each pricing exception with the margin impact. The founder decides within two working days.
- Quarter 2, rung 3. The second seat decides inside a written band and tells the founder before the quote goes out.
- Quarter 3, rung 4. The second seat decides and reports the week's exceptions at the leadership meeting.
- The condition that sends it back up. If average margin drops below the agreed floor for two months, the decision returns to rung 2 for a quarter.
Rungs 2 to 4 follow the three authority levels in the 5 Minute Leader material: recommend and I decide, decide but tell me before, decide and inform me after. The ladder adds the founder's own rung at the top and a scorecard rung at the bottom.
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Independence
Leaders ADAPT is independent and not affiliated with, certified by or endorsed by EOS Worldwide or any other framework owner. Visionary and Integrator are their terms, used only to describe the seats. The ladder is our own template, and no proprietary worksheet is reproduced.
Where this fits
This ladder belongs to the Visionary stuck in operations guide, for founders whose second seat has the responsibility but not yet the authority.
- The Visionary stuck in operationsThe hub. How a founder gets out of the operating seat.
- Delegating authorityWhy founders hand off responsibility and keep every decision.
- Visionary vs IntegratorThe two seats, and what to do when you are both.
- The Visionary and Integrator ManifestThe two page rule book that sits on top of the ladder.
Common questions
What is the Decision Rights Ladder?
It is a Leaders ADAPT worksheet that lists a company's recurring decisions and gives each one a rung, from the founder decides alone to the second seat decides with no report needed. It is used to move authority, not only work, from a Visionary to an Integrator, one decision and one rung at a time.
What are the five rungs?
Rung 1, the founder decides and the team is told after. Rung 2, the second seat recommends and the founder decides. Rung 3, the second seat decides and tells the founder before acting. Rung 4, the second seat decides and reports at the weekly leadership meeting. Rung 5, the second seat decides and it shows in the scorecard.
Which decisions should move first?
Start with the decisions the founder is worst at making. For most Visionaries that is scheduling, process and people logistics, not strategy. Move one type of decision one rung at a time, hold it there for a full quarter, and write down the condition that would send it back up.
What happens when the second seat gets a decision wrong?
Most wrong calls on reversible decisions are tuition. Do not pull all the authority back. Move that one decision up a rung, openly, with a date to try again. A pattern of wrong calls is different, and then the question is the person or the seat, decided within 30 days.
Make the ladder stick week to week
What it is: The 5 Minute Leader, the protocols for the how that EOS leaves out: delegation, accountability, 1:1s, feedback and rhythm. Who it is for: Founders and second seats who have agreed on paper who decides what and now need the weekly habits that make it stick.