Caroline Webb’s new book presents a “Yes, Grow, No” model for leaders: choose priorities deliberately, hand off work others can do to develop their skills, and clearly decline or end other commitments so attention stays on the work that matters most.
At a hospital where Webb worked with the CEO and executive team, leaders listed initiatives on Post-it notes and found they did not know how many projects were underway. They sorted them into priorities, efforts needing clarification and “zombie projects” to close; Webb says ending the latter freed time and energy.
Webb recommends listing calendar commitments, then deciding which fit priorities, which can be delegated as a growth opportunity and which merit a clear no. The article cites Gartner research reported by Harvard Business Review: employees experienced an average of 10 planned enterprise changes in 2022, up from two in 2016, while willingness to support change fell from 74% to 43%.
