What if questions that can yield powerful options for handling a request? And the first of them is what if I don't do it? Now, if the answer to that is satisfactory, the consequences are acceptable. Then your response to the question is very simple. You make a noble objection, and say no, respectfully and courteously, and move on. But if not doing it is not an appropriate option.
And you can't say no. The next question is to ask, What if I only do part of it? This is an interesting question, because we usually assume that the response you give to a request is binary. It's either a yes or no But that need not be the case, you may be able to split the task down into parts and only do some of those parts. And this gives you a range of different options. Some of those parts you can say yes to some you can say no to.
If you can't split it into parts. The next question is to ask is, what if I do it later? We feel that the assumption is that if I'm asked to do something, I'm asked to do it now. And it may be more convenient to you that I do do it now, but it may not be necessary. If I can't do it now, my only choice is No. But as soon as we open up the option to do it later, I've got more choices around scheduling.
And therefore I've got the option to say yes, without picking up the consequences of saying yes now. So yes, I will do it. If I can do it later becomes a very powerful option. The fourth question to ask is, what if somebody else does it? The request has come to me. And therefore, I might assume that I need to do it.
But actually the request is sometimes that it gets done. And I'm the person that's asked if I asked Who else could do it? Or give the answer? Yes, it can get done. If somebody else does it, then I've opened up not just a powerful alternative to yes or know. If you're one of the people who is watching this lecture program, focusing on saying, oh, in an organizational setting, then you'll be aware that delegation is a powerful organizational tool.
It not only gives you the ability to say yes to things, but not the inconvenience of having to do them yourself. But that could be more effective and efficient in an organization, whilst also building resilience within the organization by training more people to do things, it also helps build skills and therefore builds careers. Yes, if somebody else can do it is a very powerful answer. So we've got four questions. If the ancestor, what if I don't do it is not acceptable? And the answer to what if I only do part of it is not possible?
And what if I could do it later, is not acceptable. And finally, what if somebody else does it doesn't give you the answer you want. Then there's only one choice left, which is to say yes, and to do it now. So we've got four questions that yield five strategies to be effective in getting things