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The Power of the Strategic “No”!

In most organizations there is an expectation that you will say "yes" more often than "no" if you're a person who wants to have impact.   That’s how things get done - at least that's always been my experience.   Hard enough to say no if you’re in a corporate environment, but when you’re working in a highly mission driven organization it just isn’t done.  How can you say “no” when lives are at stake?

Good question – how could you say no in a situation like that?  I’d like to share a story that significantly changed my perspective on the power of “yes” vs “no”.

I was responsible for the strategic planning process of a large, international mission driven organization.  The work we did made a real difference in people’s lives.   Our strategic plans were always ambitious – we rarely if ever said no.   If we’d had a motto it would have been “go for it!”  So I knew the expectation for my kick off message would need to be something appropriately inspiring and motivating to rally the troops and get them psyched for the next three years.  Fair enough – I was up for it.  (Did I mention I rarely used to say no?)

As I was putting my thoughts together I couldn’t help but reflect on a story that was a very well-known part of the organization’s history.  It was deep in our roots and told the story of how the organization began.  Our founder was involved in ministry in Asia and during his travels he was exposed to a large number of displaced people, especially orphans.  One child in particular caught his attention; a little girl who was in very bad condition.  He carried her to the home of a local woman he had heard was caring for some orphans, expecting she would take her in.  The woman said "no".  If she shared her rice bowl with one more child they would all starve.  Affronted, our founder asked how she could turn away a child who was clearly in such distress. The woman asked how could he?  Why was this child more her responsibility than his?  Inspired by this woman’s challenge, he did take responsibility for this child's well being and as a result, a major international child development organization was born.

And that’s when it hit me!  She said "no" and because she did, millions of children, their families and communities have been helped over the past 50+ years by this organization, as opposed to the one child who would have been helped if she had said "yes".

Since then I try to challenge myself to consider what bigger opportunities might I be missing by saying yes to every little thing. Are all the little things you're expected to say "yes" to getting in the way of accomplishing something more meaningful?  It's not easy, but a well considered "no" can make a world of difference.

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