What is Delegation Poker?

Without agile leadership there is no self-organized work, and without self-organized work there is no agile leadership. But both team members and leaders run into uncertainty — sometimes even conflict — as soon as it comes to actual decisions: How self-organized am I really allowed to work? What does my area of responsibility actually look like? Which decisions am I (not) allowed to make? Who makes this decision? Can my team member make this decision without me?

Delegation Poker is a playful method for aligning the scope of responsibility and decision-making authority between team members and leaders, creating clarity. The transparency gained also helps align differing expectations between leaders and team members.

Each participant receives seven cards. The cards each represent a degree of autonomy in decision-making — from the leader announcing a decision to delegating full decision-making authority to a team member. Decision areas are identified together. For each decision area, team members then play cards against the leader. To rule out mutual influence, cards are selected face-down and then revealed together. Each participant then explains their choice to the others, and a discussion begins. The goal is to agree on a degree of delegation for the respective decision area that everyone involved is comfortable with.

There is no official limit on group size for Delegation Poker. However, it is recommended not to exceed the size of a Scrum team.

As part of the New Work movement, clarifying future decision-making authority and processes is receiving a great deal of attention in many organizations. While traditional organizations are dominated by classic top-down decisions, agile organizations rely on decentralized decision-making. When an organization opts for the agile decision-making path, this results in new decision-making processes and changed responsibilities that initially overwhelm both leaders and team members. While leaders often suddenly feel left out of decision-making, many team members feel overwhelmed by their new scope of responsibility and competence. This frequently creates “neutral zones” where no clear decision-making authority or responsibility can be identified. As a result, everyone involved is left in the dark, and in the worst case, no one makes a decision at all. Delegation Poker helps you prevent such “neutral zones” from forming in the first place.

Clear role profiles

Clear role profiles are indispensable tools for self-organized work. Delegation Poker helps you sharpen your role profiles. With its seven levels, Delegation Poker is anything but a binary choice between “giving orders” and “do whatever you want.” The degree of delegation — and the self-organization that comes with it — is determined gradually. Once a decision on a degree of delegation has been agreed between those involved, it doesn't have to apply forever, and certainly not to all decision areas. Self-organization is a learning process that must be explored, questioned, and adjusted step by step. Both sides need time and experience to get used to changed decision-making processes and to define their comfort zone.

Delegation Poker distinguishes seven levels of delegation — one per card. They are formulated from the leader's perspective:

Tell → “I will tell you.” The leader decides and informs the team members of the decision made.

Sell → “I will try to sell it to you.” The leader decides alone and informs the team members of the decision, explaining the reasoning and trying to convince the team.

Consult → “I will ask for your input before I decide.” The leader gathers the team's opinions before making a decision alone.

Agree → “We will reach a consensus.” Before a decision is made, there is a discussion involving everyone. The goal of the discussion is to reach a decision by consensus.

Advise → “I will advise you, but you decide.” The leader offers advice. After the team has sought the leader's advice, the team makes the decision.

Inquire → “I will ask about your decision.” The leader is not part of the decision-making. The team makes the decision independently, and the leader asks about the outcome and the reasoning afterward.

Delegate → “I will fully delegate.” The leader is not part of the decision-making. The team makes the decision independently, without the leader being involved or informed. The leader grants the team full autonomy.

The structure of the seven levels reveals three groupings. In the first three levels, the leader decides, with varying degrees of team participation. Level 4 sits exactly in the middle and requires consensus among everyone involved. In levels 5, 6, and 7, the team makes the decisions, with the leader's participation varying.

Collect real, concrete decision scenarios from your work environment. Write a Delegation Poker story for each scenario that gives all participants a clear picture of the matter being decided. These can be positive or negative examples of decisions you've already made, or decisions that are currently up for discussion. Questionable responsibilities and unclear expectations or competencies can also be formulated as a Delegation Poker story here. The best way to visualize your collected stories is on a Delegation Board. The board serves to document your results. Also prepare the 7 Delegation Poker cards for each participant.

Tip: Set up a situation backlog that every team member can access. This way, you can immediately write down situations that arise in everyday work at any time, and run a Delegation Poker session based on the collected backlog items at regular intervals.

Choose a Delegation Poker story. Make sure every participant understands the content and context. Take a maximum of 15 minutes per story. Each participant reflects individually on how the decision in the described scenario should be made from their point of view. They choose the matching card and place it face-down in front of them. On cue, all participants reveal their cards. One after another, all participants explain their decision. It's best to start with the two team members whose delegation levels are furthest apart. Repeat these steps until you reach a shared understanding and everyone is comfortable with the decision. To avoid misunderstandings, record your result in the prepared Delegation Board. Then move on to the next story.

Playing for decision-making authority using real or fictional examples is only a small step toward self-organized work. Simply discussing and defining areas of responsibility, competencies, and decision-making authority is not enough on its own. Here, we shouldn't be fooled by the classic gap between theory and practice. The real challenge is how to handle situations as they arise in everyday work that resemble the stories discussed in the Delegation Poker round. In other words: How do you actually handle decision-making situations when they occur? Do you stick to the delegation level you agreed on together, or do you fall back into old patterns? Or is the situation perhaps not comparable to the stories from Delegation Poker, so that you still face the question: Who makes the decision now?

What matters here is an open and transparent approach with each other. For example, admit it if you're not sure whether you're currently overstepping your area of responsibility, or point out to someone else that they are operating in a decision area outside the agreement reached in Delegation Poker — even if it's your leader. Through open conversations, reflection, and regular Delegation Poker sessions, your new decision-making paths become increasingly clear and therefore easier to put into practice.

– a playful way to define decision-making authority

– a decisive step on the path to self-organized work and agile leadership

– leaders and team members leave their comfort zones – once they feel ready

– dissolves cumbersome and time-consuming decision-making processes

– fosters a sense of responsibility and confidence in decision-making situations

Source: Management 3.0, Delegation Poker