Do you know the best way to win a street fight?

Don't get into one.

This wisdom also applies to getting approval for something. Approval processes in organizations are controls over important decisions that people with the most knowledge to decide are not empowered to take. These controls may be signs of an entrenched bureaucracy or whitespace in organizations.

You can eliminate asking for approvals in whitespace situations.

White Space

Most growing organizations have many whitespaces - these are areas between organizational functions without policies or processes. One option is to ask someone higher up in the command chain for approval when we hit this grey spot. Depending on our cultural background, this could be the first option for some of us. We can make this the last choice by keeping a few things in mind.

Chances are you are best placed to make the right decision and want to understand if you can take it. Here are some questions you could ask yourself:

1. Is your decision aligned with the values of your organization? This may be tricky if your organization does not have a written set of values.
2. Are you making someone a promise that you are sure you can keep?
3. Are you taking a risk that you are confident will be mitigated based on current data?

If you answered "yes" to all the above questions, I would suggest you verify your decision with one or more peers and then take the decision if you and your peers are aligned. Remember, you are still responsible for the decision. It is yours to bear the fruits and consequences. Communicate your decision up and down the chain of command and be receptive to feedback from any direction. This feedback will help you improve the current decision as well as the decision-making process.

Some things to avoid are as follows.

1. Don't make unilateral decisions. If all your peers express doubts, or even if one peer has strong objections, or your data does not support your decision, then it's time to go back to the drawing board.
2. Avoid asking your manager to bless your decision. I am confused when someone explains a decision and asks me if I am "okay with it."
3. Avoid asking for approval on a plan. If you need someone to approve your plan, chances are you should have included them or someone they sponsored in the planning process.
4. Don't fall into the trap of analysis paralysis. Decisions need to be made even in uncertain circumstances, and delaying a decision for certainty's sake may take away an opportunity from you. If your organization has a learning culture, even if the decision turns out to be the wrong one, it is a learning moment for you and your peers.

Structuring an Approval

If you run into an approval step in a workflow or answered "no" to any of the questions above, you need to ask for approval formally. The key consideration in structuring a communication for approval is to make it easy for the approver to take a decision. Remember to ask via a formal communication medium in your organization. Email is a safe choice for a formal medium in most organizations. Never ask for approvals verbally.

These are some tips on structuring the approval.

Start with WHY

Start by specifying why you are seeking approval. Is it because the process mandates it? Or because you are not sure if the organization's values align with the decision? Or if you think you are exceeding your authority?

Explain the decision to be made

You need to help the approver understand the judgment call they need to make. Specify the options they have. For each option, specify the values and consequences in terms that they can understand. Say you are looking for budget approval for an initiative. The chances are the approver would want to understand the values and consequences in terms of ROI and risks.

Make your Recommendation without Bias

Your recommendation is welcome, but you need to explain your reasoning. Be careful not to use words that may imply you are biased. If you are not sure, you should specify that - no one expects you to be 100% confident in grey areas.

Present Data and Summarize

Presenting data is both necessary and desirable, but not as a means to make a decision. You should use data to make a recommendation or clarify options. Summarize the data because your approver may fail to spot what you intend for them to infer from the data. If you present both your summary and data, they will validate your assertions for themselves. Being able to validate your proposal gives them more confidence to approve it.

Closing

Close the request for approval with an expectation of following up by a specific date.

Don't Perpetuate Approval Processes

Once the immediate task that triggered an ad-hoc approval process is complete, talk to your manager to handle this situation without going through the motion of seeking approvals in the future. If you don't do this, the approval step will become formalized for this need. This is how organizations eventually get bureaucratic.

If you sought approval because someone made it part of the workflow, first understand that someone in the past did not follow through. Second, talk to your manager about how you can handle this situation in the future without troubling your management chain. For example, if you asked for budget approval, maybe you ask for petty cash that you can spend for small needs such as office stationery. You could also ask for limited budget authority so that you don't bother people with small purchases. You could also conclude that you could automate the approval process. The key is to figure out the missing empowerment and then making management accountable to empower you to make decisions for yourself.

Wherever you come across a manual approval step in a business workflow, it is a chance for organizational improvement.