Scene
Three shareholders. One runs operations, one manages clients, one controls finance. The business has grown fast and now employs forty staff. Everyone assumes the structure works until a crisis exposes that nobody knows who can authorise what. A major supplier contract arrives, the financial director refuses to sign, and work halts. Emails fly. Each shareholder claims authority “based on past practice.” The board chair discovers there is no current delegation schedule and the constitution is silent.

Within a week, all decision-making slows. Routine approvals now take meetings. Staff improvise, fearing blame more than delay. The partners blame “communication problems.” The real problem is architectural: the business has no map.

Pattern: Structural Blindness

As firms scale, they accumulate habit faster than design. Decision rights stay informal long after headcount and revenue demand structure. The partners believe they’re aligned because they talk daily. They mistake proximity for clarity.

The warning signs are small: duplicated effort, delayed sign-offs, inconsistent messages to staff. Over time, those micro-conflicts build a hidden system—decisions by personality. When pressure arrives, that system collapses.

Structural blindness is why many disputes erupt “out of nowhere.” The triggers—supplier default, staff grievance, client defection—are predictable. What isn’t visible is the absence of formal authority lines. No one has ever written down who decides what.

Analysis: How Ambiguity Breeds Escalation

Ambiguity corrodes both trust and speed.

1. Ambiguity breeds reinterpretation. Each leader reconstructs the rule set in their own image. “I’ve always approved this” becomes precedent without consent.
2. Reinterpretation breeds contradiction. Staff receive conflicting directions. They start gaming the hierarchy, going to whoever says yes first.
3. Contradiction breeds paralysis. Decisions stall as people wait for certainty that never comes. Eventually someone bypasses the system, and escalation begins.

What started as missing paperwork becomes an existential question: “Who is actually in charge here?”

Framework: Assess → Align → Act

Assess – From Fog to Facts

Map every recurring decision in the business across five domains: Finance, People, Clients, Operations, and Strategy.
For each decision, record four columns:

| Decision | Owner | Must Consult | Must Inform | Frequency |

Examples:

• Hire or fire senior staff.
• Approve capital expenditure above $10 000.
• Negotiate client pricing exceptions.
• Enter long-term lease or finance agreement.
• Change software or supplier platform.

The output is a simple Decision Matrix. Nothing theoretical—just reality captured. When presented visually, confusion becomes undeniable.

Align – From Deadlock to Decisions

Gather the shareholders to review the matrix line by line. Expect tension. Authority mapping always reveals historical drift. Use commercial criteria, not ego, to allocate ownership:

• Whose expertise drives the best outcome?
• Who bears the direct consequence of error?
• Who can implement fastest without re-approval?

Document the agreed matrix as a living schedule, approved by resolution. Attach it to the governance manual. Alignment is achieved not when everyone agrees with every item, but when everyone knows the rule set and accepts it.

Act – From Drift to Discipline

Institutionalise the map. Review it quarterly or after any structural change. Publish a version to staff so authority is transparent. Require any proposed deviation to be written and time-bounded. Over time, the organisation will re-learn reflex discipline: ask once, decide once, record once.

Tool: The 15-Minute Audit

Run this quick diagnostic with any leadership team:

1. List the ten decisions made most often.
2. Ask each leader ‘who owns each decision’?
3. Compare answers.

If the same decision yields more than two different owners, the firm is operating on personality, not process. That’s the first precursor to internal dispute.

Why It Matters

Absence of defined authority creates emotional waste. It turns competent people into interpreters of mood. Partners start measuring influence instead of outcomes. Staff hide behind “waiting for approval.” The business slows without noticing.

When firms finally formalise governance, the gain is immediate: speed returns, conflict drops, accountability becomes visible. Governance documents are not bureaucracy; they are conflict-prevention devices. The cheapest dispute you’ll ever resolve is the one your constitution makes impossible.

Seen this movie before? Refer early. It stays cleaner for everyone.