I had a conversation with a subordinate the other day that I’m still thinking about today. She had texted me a good idea, and she said that she was going to put it into action.

Good job, subordinate, right?

Not exactly.

Although her idea was good, the decision to implement the idea was not hers to make. In How to Make Better Decisions I wrote about how important it is for the people working in organizations to understand how decisions are made, and how decision rights are allocated.

When decision rights become confused, the effect on an organization can be paralyzing.

On the other hand, everyone in the organization must be empowered to take initiative to solve problems — even when decision rights have not explicitly been allocated to them.

These two principals can be in conflict.

Suppose we have a decision allocation structure that empowers a manager or leader to make decisions, and this leader uses What’s Your Recommendation? to enlist the imagination, creativity, and expertise of subordinates. This type of decision structure can both result in good decisions and develop decision-making skills in subordinates because it leverages the collective wisdom of the group as well as the superior expertise and judgment of the manager.

As I wrote in a response to Jason Stauffer’s under-appreciated article.

One of the great things about What’s Your Recommendation? is that it leaves a lot of freedom to be wrong. You aren’t asking your subordinate or colleague to actually make a decision. The full responsibility of the decision remains with the leader. Knowing that, you might get the full benefit of their knowledge be releasing them from the fear of being wrong.

However, WYR? leaves little room for subordinates to take initiative when the manager is unavailable to communicate or delegate a decision. The effect on the organization can be catastrophic because:

Important problems or opportunities often emerge at the level of the subordinates long before they reach a manager or leader.

And when subordinates are empowered to take initiative in formulating and implementing solutions, the creativity and productivity of the entire organization can take a quantum step up.

So, how should communications be structured so that everyone in the organization understands how decisions are made, to whom decision rights are allocated, and when subordinates may take initiative without the explicit delegation or permission of their supervisor?

The answer is, “Unless Otherwise Ordered (UOO).”

The Navies of the colonial era faced exactly this sort of communication problem in the 18th century. In the times before radio communications, Naval captains would start their voyages with orders that might become immediately obsolete. Without contact with a superior officer, the Captains were called upon to improvise or adapt to the intention of the orders, as circumstances call upon them to interpret those orders. Communications with the rest of the might take months to reach their recipients, and the tradition has been to grant Naval Captains nearly complete autonomy in governing their ships.

Once radio communications made it possible for commanders to maintain more frequent contact, the tradition of autonomy was already in place.

To meet both the need for empowering those at the edge of the organization to take initiative, the US Navy established the UOO communications protocol. These three letters can preface any decision or communication, and they indicate to commanders and peers what the ship Captain intends to do… unless a superior intercedes.

The UOO ordered protocol allows subordinates to take initiative without usurping the decision rights of the superiors, and consequently, the entire organization can be more agile, creative, and responsive, without loss of discipline or descending into chaos.

One of the most important principals of effective organizations is Keep The Team Informed, and it’s especially important when subordinates are acting independently to exercise initiative. Because there are sometimes when communication is slow, expensive, or otherwise parsimonious, subordinates must often take action before a superior becomes available.

How the superiors respond to subordinates who take initiative (regardless of the outcome of that initiative) will teach the subordinates more about the norms of the organizational culture than any org chart, policy, or mission statement every will.

In retrospect, my conversation with my subordinate yesterday was only necessary because I had failed to train her in the UOO protocol.

Her idea was excellent. Her communication was not, but only because I hadn’t explained how to use Unless Otherwise Ordered, and practiced it with her enough to ensure that she had mastered it.

It is now incumbent on me to correct my error.

Self-Actual Engineering

Empowering subordinates to take initiative…