Deciding and acting capacity is the organisation's ability to decide what a situation requires and to act on that judgement — at the level where the knowledge sits, without unnecessary delay, escalation, or permission-seeking.
Read each of the 15 statements below. The first twelve cover three horizons of operating-layer capacity — today, the medium term, and the strategic edge. The last three ask about the conditions senior leadership is creating for the rest. For each statement, score how accurately it describes your organisation today on a 1–5 scale: 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). Answer based on what actually happens from your perspective — not what policies say should happen.
HORIZON 1
Can your people act today?
Whether the people closest to customers and operations can not only decide but act — at the right level, at the right speed, and with the right line of sight. This is where the gap between having the judgement and being able to use it tends to show up first.
Q1
People in our organisation can name, without hesitation, the decisions they are expected to make on their own.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Q2
Everyday decisions are made by the people closest to the situation — neither pushed up for approvals that add no judgement, nor sideways for sign-offs that add no insight, nor made in isolation from the rest of the business.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Q3
Customers and clients get answers and resolutions from the people they are dealing with — not bounced upward for approvals that add no value, and not given inconsistent answers depending on whom they reach.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Q4
Senior leaders see the decisions they should see — neither flooded with ones that belong below them, nor finding out about consequential ones only after they have gone wrong.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Q5
When the situation in front of someone doesn't fit the standard rules or playbook, they are expected to exercise judgement and act — neither held to a rigid procedure that doesn't apply, nor left to ignore the framework entirely.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
HORIZON 2
Can they develop the business?
Whether the people running pieces of the organisation genuinely shape what they are accountable for, within a shared strategy — and whether capable people are treated in ways that keep them willing to exercise judgement.
Q6
Leaders responsible for parts of the business genuinely shape what they are accountable for, within a shared strategy — neither reduced to executing a central plan, nor operating as independent companies.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Q7
A capable person who makes a reasonable decision that produces a poor outcome is reviewed constructively — not disciplined, sidelined, or quietly held against them.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Q8
Calculated risk-taking is treated as normal at the level where business judgement is exercised — not as exceptional or brave.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Q9
The most capable people exercising business judgement are staying and developing here — and we are not seeing a pattern of quiet, regretted departures at this level.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
HORIZON 3
Can they see what's coming?
Whether the people positioned to see what is coming can do more than notice it — whether they can act on it within a shared framework, and whether the capacity that works is structurally supported rather than resting on a personal workaround.
Q10
When people see something the organisation needs to know about, they raise it promptly and to the people who can do something — not waiting for a pre-approved solution, and not quietly working around it.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Q11
People close to customers, markets, technology, or operations are expected to take steps on what they see, within a shared framework — not only flagging it for others, and not acting in ways disconnected from the rest of the business.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Q12
Across the answers above, where things work, they work because of the structure — not because particular individuals hold the system together despite it.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
SECTION 4
Can senior leadership create the conditions?
These three questions look at the conditions senior leadership is creating for the rest of the organisation — whether the people at the top are modelling the kind of decision-making they expect from others, sharing the risk of the calls being made, and forcing the issues that only they can force. This is the section most likely to be scored too generously by the people closest to it. Honest answers here are what makes the rest of the diagnostic useful.
Q13
Senior leaders make decisions in the way they expect others to — moving with judgement, taking accountable calls, not deferring through consensus or process when the moment requires a decision.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Q14
When a decision made below produces a poor outcome, senior leaders share the risk of having authorised the conditions in which it was made — neither distancing themselves from the call once it has gone wrong, nor second-guessing every choice from above.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Q15
On the matters that only senior leadership can decide — strategic priorities, resource trade-offs, persistent issues that no one below has the authority to resolve — those calls are made and followed through, not deferred indefinitely or settled only on paper.
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
YOUR SCORE
Note your three lowest-scoring statements first. They tell you more about where attention is needed than any single number. Then add your scores from Q1 to Q15.
Your total will fall between 15 and 75. Read it alongside the pattern, not instead of it.
60 – 75EFFECTIVE
People can decide and act where the knowledge sits. Protect it — this capacity is easier to lose than to build. Watch your lowest-scoring items; that is often where erosion begins.
38 – 59PRESENT BUT INCONSISTENT
It works when the right people are in the room — but not by design. The cost rarely shows up as a dramatic failure — it shows up as product launches that slip, customer issues that escalate, and the quiet departure of the most capable middle managers.
15 – 37COLLAPSED
Capable people cannot reliably get decisions through the system. More structure or another transformation programme are unlikely to fix this on their own. This score warrants a closer, structured look that separates structural from behavioural from leadership-conditioned causes.
This is an indicative first read, not a diagnosis. It captures one perspective — yours — and it deliberately does not do the work the full assessment is built for. It cannot tell you whether the causes are structural, behavioural, leadership-conditioned, or — as is usually the case — a mix. Those distinctions matter because the interventions they point to are different.
15
of 15 statements still unanswered. Complete all to see your result.
—
out of 75
—
37
59
YOUR PATTERN
WHAT TO DO NEXT
1
Run it again with two or three colleagues at different levels.
The gap between what senior leadership scores and what operational managers score is usually more revealing than any single total — and it costs you a short conversation, not a consulting engagement.
2
Read the Executive Briefing.Can Your People Still Decide and Act?
sets out the argument, the evidence, and what healthy deciding and acting capacity looks like, including the conditions senior leadership creates for it — enough to have a properly informed conversation inside your own leadership team.
3
Commission the full Ermessensspielraum Assessment.
Where a low score, or a large gap between levels, looks consequential enough to investigate, the full assessment produces cross-level evidence, cause determination, and a clear direction for intervention.
EXECUTIVE BRIEFING
CAN YOUR PEOPLE STILL
DECIDE AND ACT?
A 12-page paper that shows where the capacity to decide and act erodes, what it costs in speed, talent, and transformation success — and a path from diagnosis to action.
Written from nearly three decades of building and leading organisations where that capacity determined the outcome.
Enter your company email — receive the Briefing.
LEAVE YOUR COMPANY EMAIL TO RECEIVE THE BRIEFING.
Thank you. The Executive Briefing will be sent to your company email shortly.
Vielen Dank. Das Executive Briefing wird in Kürze an Ihre Firmen-E-Mail-Adresse gesendet.
Your request could not be sent. Please try again or contact me directly at info@konradgruess.com.
Ihre Anfrage konnte nicht gesendet werden. Bitte versuchen Sie es erneut oder kontaktieren Sie mich direkt unter info@konradgruess.com.
LET'S TALK.
The first conversation is about your situation — not a sales pitch. No cost. No obligation. Straight answers.
