Priya wrote the grant, and she won it. Two years later, her best volunteers are at the school instead of the pantry, Saturday hours are cut, and the food-box waiting list is the longest it’s ever been. She never asked: what will this yes push out?

In this episode: why strategy means choosing (Roger Martin and Michael Porter); a three-question filter for any yes; three kinds of no (the clear no, the not-yet and the redirect); why no is so hard (loss aversion, scarcity, relationships); and why the aim isn’t to say no more, but to say yes on purpose.

The Pause: What’s the first thing I’d stop doing to make room for this? If you can’t name it, the yes isn’t free.

Try this week, your no list: three things you’ll say no to this month, and the sentence you’d use for each. Then say it out loud, once.

Play Yes Machine: run a small plumbing business for eight weeks and see what every yes costs. Free at play.mystrategysquad.com.

Further reading:

• Roger Martin and A.G. Lafley, Playing to Win (2013)
• Michael Porter, “What Is Strategy?” Harvard Business Review (1996)
• Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference (2016)
• Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011)
• Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, Scarcity (2013)

Weekly notes at read.mystrategysquad.com.

Strategizing skills, without the suits. Everything’s free.

Play the free strategy games: play.mystrategysquad.com

Read the weekly notes: read.mystrategysquad.com

Watch Play-by-Play on Twitch: twitch.tv/mystrategysquad

Website: mystrategysquad.com

Strategizing Skills without the Suits.