As church leaders, we make dozens, if not hundreds, of decisions every week.
Sometimes we make those decisions without getting enough input from our team. Other times, we spend so much time figuring out who needs to be involved that the decision itself takes longer than it should.
And somewhere in the middle, people get frustrated.
Think about the last time a decision created tension on your team. Maybe someone felt left out of the conversation. Maybe too many people had an opinion, and no one knew who was responsible for making the final call. Or maybe a decision was made, only to be questioned and revisited a few weeks later.
Now consider this: Could some of that frustration have been avoided if everyone knew who had the authority to make the final call before the decision was made?
There's a big difference between getting everyone to agree and getting everyone aligned.
Your leadership team isn't going to agree on every decision. That's part of working with people who bring different perspectives, experiences, and responsibilities to the table. And that's a good thing.
But even when everyone doesn't agree with the outcome, they should understand how the decision was made and who was responsible for making it.
That's why we created a simple tool called the Decision-Making GRID.
Four Roles in Every Decision
The GRID helps leadership teams clarify four roles in the decision-making process:
G – Give Input: Who needs to weigh in?
R – Recommend: Who brings recommendations or proposals?
I – Inform: Who needs to know about the decision?
D – Decide: Who has the final authority?
Think about how this applies to your church.
Who has the authority to approve a new ministry initiative? What about hiring a department director? Changing your organizational structure? Approving a major expenditure?
In some churches, the board gets involved in decisions that should belong to the lead team. In others, ministry leaders make decisions without involving the people who will be most affected.
And sometimes, everyone assumes they know how decisions get made until a disagreement reveals that they were operating with completely different expectations.
The GRID gives your team a framework for having those conversations before frustration builds.
Try This at Your Next Leadership Team Meeting
Pick one decision that recently caused confusion or frustration.
Walk through the GRID together and discuss who should have played each role. Who needed to give input? Who should have made a recommendation? Who needed to be informed? And who ultimately had the authority to decide?
Then take it a step further. Identify a few recurring decisions your church makes and establish those roles ahead of time.
You might be surprised by how much clarity comes from simply agreeing on who owns the decision.
Download the Decision-Making GRID
We've put together a free, downloadable Decision-Making GRID with examples of common church decisions across four areas:
Governance
Ministry direction
People
Operations
Use it with your leadership team to identify where you already have clarity and where expectations might need to be addressed.
Listen to the Full Conversation
On this week's episode of The LeadingSmart Podcast, Holly Tate on our team walks through the framework in more detail, including practical examples of how churches can use it.
Here's my question for you: Does your team actually know who gets to make which decisions, or are you just assuming everyone is on the same page?
How LeadingSmart Helps
If decision-making has become a source of tension or confusion on your team, we'd love to help you bring clarity to the process. Sometimes an outside perspective can make all the difference. Book a time on my calendar here if you want to talk through it.