Gatekeeper

Ask whether the entity decides what gets through and what does not. A gatekeeper holds discretion over access: it can approve, delay, or quietly veto. That differs from a bottleneck, which slows everything by capacity rather than by choice.

Ask whether the entity decides what gets through and what does not. A gatekeeper holds discretion over access: it can approve, delay, or quietly veto. That differs from a bottleneck, which slows everything by capacity rather than by choice.

Example

The project coordinator decides which requests reach the VP's calendar and which die in her inbox. Two vendor proposals sat for five weeks, not because the VP declined them, but because she never passed them up. Name that, and you stop blaming the VP.