April 17, 2006
The Authority Triangle, a Law Firm Management Tool
The Authority Triangle is a useful tool for managing the assimilation of new additions to the firm or when delegating authority to others.
David Maister posted “What Do You Want From Me?” that included a check list for the delegatee when given an assignment. He noted that “people will assign work to you badly, and that will cause you problems…The key is to take responsibility and ask permission to ask questions.”
But there is also another level of delegation that needs to be considered. Neither associates nor administrative staff members operate in an environment where they are simply carrying out a series of assignments. They hold their position in the firm for the purpose of exercising their own judgment and authority within the scope of their assigned responsibilities. The question is how much judgment and authority are they expected to exercise without touching base with a higher authority.
To answer that question, you need to understand the Authority Triangle. For an individual fully competent in his or her position with the firm, around eighty percent of their job activities including decisions that affect others can be carried on without notification or consultation up the chain of command. Consultation or communications after the fact is appropriate for approximately 15%. Perhaps 5% falls in a category requiring advance permission—where the individual recommends to their superior or others an action for which they would like approval.
For a new addition to the firm, the Authority Triangle is upside down.
Over a reasonable period time the new individual must right the triangle to become a fully competent member of the firm. The individual who fails to respect this process, or who turns the triangle too rapidly, places the law firm at risk by exceeding his or her level of competency. The individual who turns the triangle too slowly is a drain on resources disproportionaly consuming the time and effort of others in the communication, consultation and permission processes.
Obviously the percentages vary depending on job scope and the individual involved but the concept is an important one. It is a concept understood vaguely by most professionals but it is beneficial to reinforce that vague notion by confirming that it is in fact a key management concept related to delegation.
I encourage you to incorporate the Authority Triangle concept into your firm’s core belief system. Once the notion is adopted within a firm, it will facilitate the process through which new associates or employees become fully competent incumbents. It will give supervising partners a standardized and useful tool for communicating about situations that involve a “too fast” or “too slow” problem. Finally this sound management concept is an effective tool anytime you are delegating authority. You can use it to communicate those kinds of actions or decisions that fall into the incumbent's 80% zone and those that are in the 20% zone requiring communication, consultation or permission.
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Filed under Firm Culture, HR, Management by Tom Collins