How to Correct Without Taking Control Back

Giving someone authority is only the beginning. The real test comes when that person makes a decision differently than you would have—or when the outcome is not acceptable. In this episode, Bill O’Connor explains how to review and correct a decision without automatically bringing it back under the owner’s control. The discussion focuses on separating personal preference from an agreed outcome, identifying whether the problem came from unclear boundaries, missing information, an incomplete standard, or poor judgment, and making the smallest correction needed to improve the next decision. The goal is not to eliminate oversight. It is to preserve visibility while allowing judgment and capability to develop elsewhere in the organization. Because authority does not become real when you assign it. It becomes real when the first imperfect decision is reviewed, corrected, and allowed to remain with the person who owns it.