Your yes means nothing if you can't say no — Meshell Ndegeocello
When I visit your team I am comfortable making suggestions because you have said "can we circle back to that" to suggestions that I have made — Sharon
From the ACC2 Features Team working agreement
Kind & honest debate is encouraged. Kind without honest is manipulative honest without kind is cruel
Kind & honest debate is encouraged. It's safe to say crazy things because our teammates will let us know if we're saying crazy things. We look out for each other by giving good feedback. Keep each other safe by giving timely feedback
To say "no" when someone is giving you too low level navigation
Could I get some higher level navigation please?
To say "no" when someone is about to give you an answer when you want to explore
Do you mind if I struggle with this a bit before you give the answer?
To say "no" when someone suggests skipping a break
I'd like to take a break. Do you want to break together, or shall we do rolling breaks?
To say "no" when our PO asks that we start something new
We haven't finished [work in progress] yet; We're going to finish that first
We're not satisfied with the quality/test coverage for [thing we've just done], we're going to wrap that up first
To say "no" to building a very large batch of functionality at once. "We can't release unless we have A, B, and C."
Even if it's not suitable to release, we're going to finish A first and go from there
To say "no" to a direct instruction
I think if we do that, we'll have the following consequence. Do you have advice to avoid the consequence? Or is that consequence acceptable?
To say "no" to an idea of something new to try
We'd like to use our existing process/tools this time around
We have more inventory than we're comfortable with, and we want to ship that before we do something experimental
Saying "no"...
Pay attention to times you want to say "no" but you think you ought to say "yes"
Comfort with saying "no" is a safety concern.
Let's make it safe and normal to politely decline!