When every decision keeps landing back with the founder
The entrepreneur wants the team to take more initiative. The team wants to know what it may decide independently. Yet an important customer question still ends up on the owner's desk.
You could describe this as difficulty letting go, or a lack of ownership. But that still doesn't clarify which decision belongs to whom, which boundaries apply, and what happens if someone makes a different choice than the owner would.
First examine how the work is organised. Only then can you determine what other factors might be at play.
Responsibility is not yet decision-making authority
An employee can be responsible for a product's growth while a manager decides everything about price, budget and effort. The result has then been assigned, but not the influence needed to achieve it.
The reverse can also happen. Someone may decide independently but doesn't know which outcome matters or when alignment is needed. Waiting can then be an understandable response to uncertainty.
So distinguish between what someone must achieve, what someone may decide on, and what information is shared with others.
Look at a recent decision
Choose one example where a decision came back to the owner. What was the question? Which agreement applied? What information was missing? Who asked for approval, and why?
Also ask what happened with earlier decisions. Were independent choices respected? Were they later redone? Was it clear which deviations were acceptable?
Questions like these examine the collaboration. You don't need to conclude that the entrepreneur is controlling or the team is passive. Such labels can too quickly lump different situations under the same heading.
What did the current way of working once make possible?
In a small organisation, an owner's direct involvement can bring a lot together: knowledge of the customer, financial trade-offs and execution decisions. As the organisation grows, the same way of working may fit less well with the number of people and enquiries.
It is worth discussing what function that involvement serves. Is quality being safeguarded? Are commercial risks being weighed? Is the owner the only one with certain customer knowledge?
Once you make that concrete, you can explore how that function could be filled differently. Perhaps it calls for sharing information, better guidelines, or a different moment for consultation. "Let go more" is then not the whole assignment.
What can you examine with an organisational constellation?
In an organisational constellation you can, for example, give the roles of owner, manager, team and shared assignment a place. That can help discuss how those involved experience their responsibility and relationships.
One possible question is: which responsibility currently belongs to no one clearly? Another is: does the team have its own assignment, or does it mostly carry out separate decisions made by the owner?
What comes up in the session is grounds for further research. It is not proof of a hidden personal motive. Nor is it necessary to automatically bring someone's family history into a business question. Read more about examining the undercurrent concretely.
Make one decision category independent
A possible practical test is to place one type of decision clearly with the team. Choose a category that is relevant and whose boundaries can be well described. Record which outcome counts, which resources are available, and in which exceptional case consultation is needed.
Also agree how the owner stays informed. Being informed afterwards is different from asking for permission beforehand. The two are easily mixed up if nobody makes the difference explicit.
Decide how you will handle a decision that turns out differently than hoped. An independent role has little meaning if every difference of opinion leads to the task being taken back over.
Then look at what actually changed
After an agreed period, discuss a few real decisions. Were they made faster? Was the boundary clear? Could the team access the information it needed? Did the owner stay involved in the agreed way?
Even a disappointing result can provide information. Perhaps knowledge was missing, the framework was too broad, or the assignment was insufficiently defined. Adjust the agreement accordingly, rather than immediately concluding that delegation doesn't work.
Ownership requires agreements on both sides
A team can take responsibility once it is clear which assignment and room it has. An entrepreneur can step back from individual decisions once relevant information stays available and the boundaries are clear.
The first step doesn't need to be a big change. Getting one decision category properly organised provides a concrete basis for further learning. In the article on preparing an organisational constellation you can read how to turn situations like this into a researchable question.