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Just Say Yes

The other day I read about a Hollywood set designer. He was listing off impossible tasks directors had asked him to pull off in his career.
Recreating entire buildings, to the millimeter, for example.
Oh-and-by-the-way-we-need-that-by-tomorrow sorts of things.

But the designer said, no matter how ridiculous the task, his hard and fast industry rule was to never say no.
“Because if I say no,” He pointed out, “they’ll just find someone else to say yes.”


And then, he explained, he’d be sitting on the sidelines while giving someone else the chance to be part of an amazing film project.


So instead of saying no, the designer would begin reading books, surveying experts and pulling together every creative he knew to try to figure out how to make a seemingly impossible task possible. Instead of declining, he worked hard to turn a potential no into a yes.



I immediately resonated with the designer’s approach. In fact, his rule about “never saying no” could be the theme of my ecclectic resumé.

I haven’t always been a big team “collaboration” person.

The year I turned 21, a respected leader offered me my first job. It required recruiting, scheduling, training and supervising 120 adult volunteers over one year blocks. While these were all tasks I’d dabbled in, I’d never spearheaded teams of that scale or with that longevity before. It was a big enough undertaking and enough of a leap from my level of experience, that a more cautious (or more sensible) person might’ve bowed out.


But having the same kind of stirring in my gut as this set designer, I decided to throw in.


My first year was rough. As many of you know, the down side of  volunteers is there is no paycheck to withhold if volunteers underperform or stop showing up. So what holds them there and challenges them to deliver quality week after week has to come from inspiration not compensation. I had to strike failure and go back to the drawing board, I had to beg, more than once.


But I knew in my gut–like the set designer–that the task wasn’t truly impossible. That if I said no, even months in, someone else would say yes. And they’d nail it.
And I got that this meant there were people out there who had learned the skills for leading big volunteer teams well.
Which meant there were skills to be had.

So I started reading every book on the market about building and maintaining ongoing volunteer teams. I went to several of the leading seminars on the topic. And I started experimenting with creative ways to build camaraderie that did not involve stuffing twenties in their pockets.


I quickly discovered that leading teams of volunteers was an art with its own principles and proven ideas that could be learned.

Studies show, for example, that 90% of volunteers give their time for their own development. It’s not you. It’s not your cause. It’s that you and your cause bring out something in them that they like.


And sure enough, the more insights like this I gleaned and the more experience I got, the more intentional and directed I became. In the end, an impossible task not only became possible but almost easy.


By the time I left that organization, I had moved to another position but the number of people working in the programs I oversaw, who reported to my team leaders, had almost tripled.  “Re-upping” became more a default, rather than an ongoing recruitment process. In fact, some beautiful, generous people were so invested in our efforts that they literally volunteered for every new project I started.


In a little over a year’s time, what started out as a should-be no officially became a yes. Not just in voice, but in execution. And that yes became a confidence builder for other “yesses” to come.


A couple summers later, for example, the coordinator of a downtown summer fest asked if I’d oversee their volunteer base, more than 500 unknown (key word unknown) volunteers who would sweep in and out in the course of a weekend. Again, this context and set-up-tear-down event wasn’t a dynamic I knew well, but I knew enough to say yes …knowing if I said no, he’d get someone else to man up.

And there’s nothing I hate more than warming the bench.

There was a learning curve involved with that arrangement too. But some of my skills transferred easily and by the end of the event, I had to bargain with a downtown restaurant owner to let us exceed his seating capacity so we could cram hoards of volunteers into his venue for an impromptu after-event celebration.

Over the years, one reference letter lead to another, and I had the chance to throw in on all kinds of events and projects. There was a lot of imperfection along the way as I chased the learning curve with each no turned yes. What made my resume in the end, though, wasn’t my formal training or experience, but just the plain honest guts to say yes and go all in.

So I agree with the set designer. I never want to be the person to step aside so someone else can do what I love in my place.

What about you? What “no” should you say “yes” to today?


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4 Comments

  • comment-avatar
    Jesse April 26, 2011 (6:07 pm)
    Reply

    Love this Sarah, thanks.

    • comment-avatar
      Sarah Cunningham April 26, 2011 (8:05 pm)
      Reply

      Thanks @Jesse

  • comment-avatar
    Ann Holt April 28, 2011 (7:42 pm)
    Reply

    I struggle with this all the time. Because I am retired, I want time to myself and yet I want to participate in all the things I love. Thanks for writing about the importance of YES. Maybe I need to consider WHEN AND TO WHAT I want to say YES.

    • comment-avatar
      Sarah Cunningham April 30, 2011 (1:43 pm)
      Reply

      @Ann I live that you are thinking about the best way to say yes in that stage of life. Passion gives life and energy at any age.;)