“If a decision is easily reversible and brings a small business closer to funding faster, it belongs at the edge,” Reynolds says.

That doesn't mean removing controls. It means replacing unnecessary approval layers with clearly defined guardrails.

Previously, for example, a Swoop regional team seeking to onboard a non-standard lender or customize a workflow for a particular broker network might have needed multiple approvals from Product, Legal, and Operations. Swoop instead established parameters covering compliance, data security, risk and projected ROI.

If an opportunity meets those conditions, the regional team can move forward without seeking another executive sign-off.

The operating principle shifts from "ask permission before acting" to "operate within defined boundaries and be accountable for the outcome." 

Replace status meetings with better data access

Swoop applied the same thinking to one of its own recurring meetings.

The company previously held a weekly global deal and pipeline review involving teams across the UK, Australia, North America and South Africa. Participants went through regional pipelines line by line. 

Executives sat through granular updates, employees in Australia joined late at night and, Reynolds says, the meeting increasingly resembled an audit rather than a strategic discussion.

Instead of simply canceling it, Swoop replaced the function the meeting served.

Pipeline information moved to live dashboards accessible across the organization. Teams now review that information asynchronously and meet when exceptions require discussion. The weekly global call became a monthly strategic alignment session.

Reynolds estimates the redesign has returned hundreds of collective working hours to employees each month.

Data transparency has produced similar effects elsewhere. Regional advisors and go-to-market leaders can directly access metrics such as lender approval rates, time-to-fund and application drop-off points rather than waiting for managers to produce reports or provide updates.

The lesson is simple: Don't eliminate the meeting. Eliminate the reason you needed it. 

Employee autonomy requires clear guardrails and psychological safety

Removing approvals creates another challenge. Leaders may fear losing control, while employees accustomed to managerial sign-off may be uncomfortable suddenly owning the outcome.

Swoop introduced new decision rights gradually, using pilot periods that allowed managers to coach employees before stepping back. The company also celebrates examples of employees taking initiative within established parameters.

But Reynolds believes leaders must model that behavior themselves.

At Swoop's year-end gathering, she publicly discusses one or two decisions she made as CEO that cost the business time or money or simply failed as experiments. The message is: A wrong decision made responsibly within agreed guardrails can become a learning opportunity. Inaction because an employee is waiting for permission is another matter.

That psychological safety matters because autonomy without tolerance for reasonable mistakes isn't really autonomy.

Measure organizational efficiency by customer outcomes

Swoop says its operating-model changes have helped reduce some customer processing cycles from days to hours, or near-instant matches, while regional teams are handling higher deal volumes per advisor without corresponding increases in headcount or burnout. Reynolds also credits greater autonomy with improving ownership and execution velocity. 

But she cautions leaders against becoming so absorbed in frameworks, decision matrices, technology and operating models that they lose sight of why they're optimizing work in the first place.

For Swoop, every approval eliminated and hour returned to employees ultimately has a human destination: The small business owner waiting for funding.

That's a useful test for any organization. The goal isn't fewer meetings, faster approvals or even greater efficiency for its own sake. It's removing the organizational friction that prevents people from creating value.

When leaders give employees clear decision rights, transparent information and permission to act, they don't simply make work easier. They create an organization capable of moving at the speed its customers require.