Reconstruct one decision
Take a recent example and write down four dates. When did the question arise? When were the options ready? When did the last required input arrive? When did someone make the decision? Each gap can have a different cause. Legal may have been waiting for information while the director assumed the working group owned the decision and the group kept gathering input without a deadline.
Give approval a home outside the group chat
Suppose a team has spent a week choosing a supplier. The procurement lead collects two comparable proposals by Wednesday. Finance checks the budget, a technical specialist confirms requirements, and the director chooses by Friday. Everyone who needs to know receives a short note with the decision and its rationale. Atlassian’s DACI framework gives the team a way to name those roles in advance.
What to check in a month
For several decisions of the same kind, compare the time from question to answer and the number of repeat approvals. If the delay persists, see whose queue is growing. That person may need a deputy, an explicit approval threshold, or a regular slot for decisions.