Why having a No-Man on your team is a gamechanger

We’ve all heard the stories about how damaging it can be to surround yourself with Yes-Men. But we rarely hear the benefits of being surrounded by useful No-Men.

Years ago, when I was working in Emerging Technology, our team was constantly launching new platforms, pilots and operational procedures.

One day, I had a younger colleague ask why I always invited Mandi (not her real name) to kickoff meetings, even if she wasn’t directly assigned to the project. He complained that she was always so negative.

He explained that on every project pitch she’ll say something like:

• This won’t work!

• People won’t use this!

• We’ve already tried this!

 I looked at him and said: You’re right, but You’re also wrong.

She IS always picking holes in our project plans and being “negative”. But you’re not listening to what she’s actually saying.

What she really says is:

• This won’t work; the platform you’re trying to integrate with has a buggy API call function. If we rely on that we’re going to have constant problems.

• People won’t use this because they already have to keep three different screens open to complete this task. The “simplification” you’re suggesting would add another screen, but not take anything away.

• We’ve already tried this two years ago. The vendors we worked with weren’t able to provide the core functionality that would deliver a significant ROI.

They were only hearing the negative part of the conversation.

What my younger colleague didn’t realize, is that Mandi was never just complaining. She was providing actionable insights into potential fail-points for the project. Her feedback almost never led to a project being canceled, but it ALWAYS led to better project requirements and capability scoping. While the rest of the team was excited and focused on the shiny new toy, she was focused on where the fail-points might be. Mandi was literally a super-power when it came to making our projects a success.

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So, do you and your team have a constructive No-Man?

Here’s the problem: It’s really easy to be the yes-man, simply because it’s easy to get excited about the new project or technology. But if you don’t cultivate the right environment, it’s very hard to get people to consistently provide you constructive negative feedback. 

Another issue: It’s almost impossible to be your own No-Man. There’s a reason you’re pitching the project. Because you think it’s going to be a success. That makes it very hard to identify the fail-points and the downsides.

You know who’s very good at being No-Men? Executives… when you’re asking for money. It’s always a good idea to go into those presentations with as many possible answers prepared as you can.

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How to create a No-Man mindset on your team:

If you don’t already have someone, ask for volunteers. Or assign 1-2 people.

• On today’s pitch-call, I want John and Jane to provide counter-arguments to every benefit for the project. How could this project fail?

Never punish or argue with negative feedback.

• When someone points out a flaw. Don’t respond with: “But this project will…”

• Ask follow-up questions. How do we eliminate this risk? Why didn’t this work last time? How do we make sure that doesn’t happen again?

Regularly acknowledge failures

• When you finish a project or Sprint, ask for things that went wrong. Then ask how we could have foreseen them during the planning phase.

• Also, did someone identify the issue before it became a major problem. Thank them for identifying it.

The more comfortable your team becomes talking about potential, or realized, problems the more likely they’ll speak up about them.

I would always prefer to hear bad news that saves me time and money, then good news that blinds me to a potential catastrophe.