> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hr-easy.nlead.ch/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Decision making

> Seven methods that distribute authority and record how a decision was actually reached.

Decision-making reveals an organization's real power structure. The module's purpose is
to make that structure visible and, where you want it to be, distributed.

## The methods

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Consent (sociocracy)">
    A proposal passes unless someone raises a **paramount objection** — a concrete
    reason it would harm the organization's ability to do its work. Not a preference, an
    impediment.

    Objections are recorded and must be **resolved**, usually by amending the proposal.
    They cannot be out-voted.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Advice process">
    One named person decides — but only after seeking advice from everyone affected and
    everyone with relevant expertise. The advice is recorded. The decider is not bound
    by it, and is accountable for having sought it.

    This is the method for decisions that need to be fast and owned, without being
    unilateral.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Systemic consensus">
    Participants rate their **resistance** to each option, not their enthusiasm. The
    option with the lowest total resistance wins.

    This finds the outcome everyone can live with, which majority voting systematically
    hides: a 60% favourite that 40% actively cannot accept loses to an option nobody
    loves and nobody resists.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Simple majority">
    More than half. Fast, familiar, and appropriate for low-stakes reversible choices.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Qualified majority">
    A 2/3 or 3/4 threshold, for decisions that should be hard to make and hard to
    reverse.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Dot voting">
    A fixed number of dots distributed across options. Best for narrowing a field, not
    for the final call.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Delegation poker">
    Not a decision about a topic but about **who decides** — mapping a class of decision
    onto a delegation level from "the manager decides" to "the team decides". Run it
    once and the answer applies to every future instance of that class.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Running a decision

<Steps>
  <Step title="State the question">
    A clear proposal, with the background and the constraints, authored in the locales your
    participants read.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose the method — before you start">
    Choosing a method after seeing the input is how a process becomes theatre. The method is part of
    the proposal.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Invite participants">
    Individuals, a team, or everyone. Who was invited is recorded — including the people who did not
    respond.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Collect">
    Votes, resistance ratings, objections, or advice, depending on the method.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Resolve">
    The calculator applies the method's rule. For consent, outstanding objections block resolution
    until they are addressed.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Record">
    The outcome, the rationale, and the full input set. This is the artefact that makes the decision
    reviewable later.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Where it is used

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Hiring" icon="user-plus" href="/guides/recruitment/decisions">
    Which candidate, and on what basis.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Budgets" icon="chart-pie" href="/guides/finance/budgeting">
    Participatory allocation and resource proposals.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Policy" icon="file-lines">
    Working agreements, team norms, process changes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Delegation" icon="sitemap">
    Deciding who decides, once, rather than case by case.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Turning it off

`FEATURE_DECISION_MAKING=false`.

<Note>
  The module offers methods; it does not enforce one. An organization that wants its manager to
  decide can record exactly that with the advice process — the value is in the decision being
  explicit and on file, not in it being democratic.
</Note>