The Value of an Ending

The Value of No | Essay 1

Last year, an organization rejected a program I'd spent considerable time developing. I thanked them that same afternoon.

The idea was to help people retrain, develop practical skills, and find new professional opportunities. The organization took the proposal seriously. They conducted a market study and came back with a clear decision. The market was crowded, and the costs and time required to launch the program were difficult to justify. They suggested exploring smaller professional workshops instead.

I was disappointed. I still believed the idea had merit. But I knew where things stood. There was no need to chase an answer, revise the proposal against objections I couldn't see, or keep wondering whether something might happen.

What I appreciated was how they handled the decision. They explained their reasoning, offered an alternative, and left our working relationship intact.

Their initial YES to exploring the idea had led to a NO. They had done the work, considered the evidence, and reached a conclusion. I could disagree with their assessment and still respect the process.

Not every exploration ends with that kind of answer. We welcome YES, but a first YES can simply mean agreeing to explore an opportunity. Conversations follow, priorities change, and sometimes people quietly stop asking.

A clear NO ends the current proposal. After people have invested time in it, that answer can be difficult to give. It still gives everyone enough information to decide what comes next.

I continue collaborating with the organization on other work. The rejection didn't damage our professional relationship. The original idea changed, too. I no longer had to shape it around one organization's program, which gave me room to develop an approach better suited to my goals.

Looking back, I appreciate that the organization was willing to make a decision. They knew what they could reasonably pursue, and their answer helped me reconsider what I wanted to pursue myself.

As Michael Porter wrote in What Is Strategy?:

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”