We build organizations that look like us.
At the center. Informed of everything. Signing off on the things that matter and plenty that don’t. It feels like leadership. It feels like being needed.
Sam Goodner’s concept of decentralized decision-making directly challenges that feeling. Push authority out. Put the decision where the information lives. Trust the person closest to the customer, the problem, the moment.
The hub-and-spoke model is seductive because it feels like order. One center. Lines radiating outward. Clean. Controlled.
But in a hub-and-spoke organization, the hub is also the constraint. The spokes can only move as fast as the center allows. And the center is one person with one calendar and one finite supply of bandwidth.
We tell ourselves we’re protecting quality. Maintaining standards. Ensuring alignment.
What we’re actually doing is slowing everything down and training our best people that their judgment doesn’t count.
Decentralized doesn’t mean chaotic. It means designed. Clear decision rights. Defined outcomes. People empowered to act within a framework they helped build.
The organizations that scale are those where the founder or CEO becomes less essential to day-to-day decisions over time. Not because they mattered less. Because they built something that mattered more.
What would your organization look like if the best decision-maker was always the one closest to the problem?
