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Below are several great reasons why you can pushback, and potential scripts for how you might say that:
- That knowledge gained from that work is impossible to change the answer. “Well, if we were to explore that, I can’t conceivably imagine we’d discover a value higher than X. And even at that extreme level, we’re still completely on-track.”
- The value the endeavor creates is less than the cost of the endeavor. “My fear is that pursuit will take about 30 hours of our team’s effort…but would possibly generate about $500 in savings.”
- Nobody cares. “I’d like to see that updated, though my mail client reports that we’ve had zero clickthroughs on the report over the last four months.”
- You have no competence in this area and don’t see any value in gaining competence in this area. “This will really require me to dig for some hours in order to develop this new skillset, which I’d enjoy doing, but I’m not sure that’s optimal given how rarely this request comes up?”
Pushback requires a bit of boldness, but when you keep the best interest of the team’s resources in mind–and do it diplomatically, everybody wins. Final tip: when you pushback on a particular course of action, consider proposing an alternative one.
I like the replys, they make sense and are not exagerations. Thanks. Carol
Good stuff. I love bullet point 2 ( The value the endeavor creates is less than the cost of the endeavor) and need to apply this for sure. Thanks!