The Art of Saying No (and how to say Yes)

Most days, most of us are fielding requests. From all kinds of quarters — bosses, colleagues, family members, complete strangers; formal requests, informal one; big ones and little ones. And in the ever distributed, and collaborative times we're working in, with flatter hierarchies and blurred accountability, comes complication and enormous competition for the most prized commodity of all. Our time.

Our success (and sanity!) will depend on our ability to manage these requests, make meaning of them and protect our energy for where it's needed most. And that means learning when and how a purposeful, considered 'no' can best be called on, and how to deploy it in a way that will protect, and even enrich, the relationships that matter the most.

And with the added capacity more 'no's' will bring us we'll be able to offer more 'Yes's' — focussing them on the requests and opportunities that play to our strengths, align to our goals and genuinely enable us to create some value.

In this session, we'll dig into these ideas in more detail, working through proven frameworks for analysing opportunities; and sensitively deflecting those that don't do the business.

What we'll cover:

• Reframing 'no'
• The power of timing
• Assessing and ranking requests
• Good 'no's' and bad 'no's'
• Saying no to your boss
• Effective 'yes's'

How the session will be structured:

Caroline will lead the group through a mix of boiled down proven theory, turned into energising practice through facilitated conversation, shared experiences and short exercises.

Who is the session for?

Anyone keen to arm themselves with purposeful and practical approaches to enhancing their relationships, and making time.