Every job needs three approvals. Two of them have never said no.

An approval gate that has never rejected anything is either a very good deterrent or a very expensive signature, and the two look identical on paper.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for Every job needs three approvals. Two of them have never said no.

Somewhere in most businesses past about thirty people, there is a form that needs three signatures. Ask how often each signature has been withheld and the answers diverge sharply. One approver rejects or amends regularly and everyone knows it. The other two have, in living memory, never sent anything back. The obvious conclusion is that two of the three gates are waste and should go. That conclusion is right often enough to be tempting and wrong often enough to be expensive. A control that never fires can mean two entirely…

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