You have your top-notch RAS and you are ready to devolve decision making by operationalising it. My number one tip for operationalising your RAS comes from reading a book first published in 1946. It is called Administrative Behaviour, A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organisations by Herbert A. Simon. Simon is a Nobel Prize winner, no less.

To summarise his book in a nutshell. An organisation is formed to fulfill a purpose. People in the organisation make decisions to act or not act in pursuit of that purpose. They are trying to make optimum decisions by considering all future possible consequences from the options available and making their best choice. The upper echelons of organisations develop policies, frameworks, procedures, processes and systems to guide the decision making of staff. That’s it. That’s an organisation. People make decisions to act or not act in pursuit of a purpose provided with guidance in various forms.

As decision makers are being guided by these various decision influencing tools, these tools become mission critical for you. If they do not reflect the RAS, decisions will be potentially flawed. You will need to work with the owners of all these tools, the policy and framework owners and the designers of processes and systems to ensure they reflect the RAS.

Most organisations have a raft of these tools, therefore you need to prioritise. That means, you need to map your RAS to the key tools that best translate the RAS into reality for staff and then work with the owner to ensure it is fit for purpose. Take procurement for example: if you want value for money with very little risk of fraud or other probity issues, you must ensure the procurement framework delivers this. On the other hand, if you want a more agile organisation you may need to work with the procurement lead to tame the framework.

However, before you approach the key influencing tool owners, you will need to engage with them in the right way. That is the topic for next week’s blog.

Have you downloaded yet the chapter on risk appetite from my 2021 book Risky Business: How Successful Organisations Embrace Uncertainty?