The meaning of No

I’ve recently been working with a new client, helping them refine their workflow internally and structuring the company in an organisational sense to allow them to grow and accelerate.  Its an exciting time in a companies growth – expectations are high and there is a ‘we can run through walls’ thing going on with the management.  All this bodes well, staff morale is key to the growth of any new business and maintaining that high level of expectation and delivering on it will be the thing that makes a good company great.

Language is often misused or misunderstood.  The ‘yes’ culture as I call it plagues many small businesses without them really understanding the issues it causes.  Winning new business becomes winning new business at any cost – this is where the salesman just says yes to everything thats asked in an attempt to bring the work in and the consequences of that are for someone else to worry about.  Bathing in the glory of the recent contract won is far more attractive than the headaches delivery might cause.

What about saying no?  There is always a fear that a no somewhere in the discussion will end the conversation (and possibly the relationship) when in reality the use of the word no in client discussions can often generate the feeling of truth and reliability rather than being a barrier or rejection.

In my experience the word ‘no’ is rarely an outright statement of finality.  Typically its one of two slight variations:

‘No, not now’ – this means that the question is not the issue, its the timing.  Its likely that the person using this variation of no has no problem with the question and has more of an issue with the timing.  This should lead the person asking the question to then focus on the timing element to see what can be resolved.

‘No, not like that’ – I see this as being another example of where the reason for the question is not the issue but the method to deliver is something that should be the subject of the continuing discussion.

When dealing with a ‘no, either externally with a client or internally with the team – there is a vital business skill in being able to listen and understand what is actually being said and being able to continue the discussion along a productive and positive path event when the initial exchange of words seems to be negative to the untrained ear.