Saying "No" - the other end of the bargain
Summary
It’s OK to say “No” to incoming work if you deliver high-quality outputs, communicate proactively, and meet your deadlines. The bargain is as simple as that.
Last week, I wrote about the importance of saying “No” more often than “Yes.” This week, I want to share a clarifying note. A great “No” comes with great responsibility.
Remember, we say “No”, so we can protect our focus and work at a sustainable pace. Most people are OK to hear a “No”, as long as we deliver high-quality work and honour our commitments. If people can’t trust you to deliver, you’ll lose the option to say “No” and the autonomy it brings you. So, follow a few practices to protect your independence.
Give your work a good, hard crack.
If you have some autonomy at work, people will likely trust you when you provide an estimated ETA for work. Most people will also understand if you tactfully decline or postpone work. How long you retain such autonomy hinges on the quality of your work. If you decline new tasks and provide a distant ETA only to ship mediocre outputs, you’ll erode your autonomy one shipment at a time. Don’t risk it. Set yourself up to produce outputs whose quality matches the time you sought to deliver.
Commit to “due-by dates”
Our work shrinks and expands to the time we have available. It’s best to commit to a due-by date and ship the most feasible outputs by that time, instead of gold-plating your work until it seems perfect. If you keep shipping quality outputs, your colleagues and stakeholders will take your “No” in their stride. Oh, and don’t be afraid of aggressive deadlines. The sooner you ship, the shorter your feedback loop. It’s OK to reduce scope, but do your best to deliver within the timeline you commit to.
Share your progress
For long-running projects or initiatives, keep stakeholders aware of your progress. If your boss feels confident that work’s moving along as they’d expected, they’re less likely to fill up what they consider “free time” in your work week. Regular updates, whether through videos, documents or task boards, also allow your collaborators or stakeholders to suggest necessary pivots to your approach, before it’s too late to change.
Recalibrate expectations
Sometimes, even the best plans are wrong. And that’s OK. If you proactively let people know about a change in plan, they’ll admire you for being transparent. Especially if you know that you’re falling behind on a commitment, don’t wait for people to follow up before you let them know the new due-by date.
Slow productivity seeks to achieve a craftsman-like relationship to work, where a few high-quality outputs trump the busywork that’s all too common in the workplace. For a cynical, for-profit corporation, the bargain works out if you deliver often and at a high quality. As Steve Jobs famously said, “Real artists ship.” Never lose sight of that truism, or you risk losing your autonomy and ability to say “No”.