(Say No illustration above appears on Page 152 of REWORK)
Last month I picked up a NY Times best seller called REWORK. I bought the book because at the top of the front cover is this grim warning from Seth Godin: “Ignore this book at your own peril”. The book is written by the founders of 37 signals Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson and I had not heard of them or their company before Seth’s admonition. And surprise surprise Seth really put me on to something good.
The book is made up of a series of very short POVs on things based on the experience of the authors, about “building, running and growing (or not growing) a business. ”
Fast forward to Page 153, which is how I read most books initially, just roaming the pages for something that catches my eye. Say No caught my eye. You see, like my mother, I cannot say no. And the pepper team and I pay for it. Listen to the 37SIGNALS founders: ” It’s so easy to say yes. Yes to another feature, yes to an overly optimistic deadline, yes to a mediocre design. Soon, the stack of things you’ve said yes to grows so tall you can’t even see the things you should really be doing.”
They continue: “Don’t believe the ‘customer is always right’ stuff, either. Let’s say you’re a chef. If enough of your customers say your food is too salty or too hot, you change it. But if a few persnickety patrons tell you to add bananas to your lasagna, you’re going to turn them down, and that’s OK. Making a few vocal customers happy isn’t worth it if it ruins the product for everyone else.”
In the Ad Agency business everyone wants their job now. Sometimes without even the semblance of a brief. Yet we say yes because we exist to serve our clients. Right? Well it seems that we might actually be able to serve them better by saying no more often. As unrealistic yeses invariably lead to disappointment for missed deadlines or sloppy work and team frustration as well. So from tomorrow morning I will be saying no more often. Thanks Jason, David and Seth.
