There are two places to look when trying to understand and improve your own encounters with negativity:

External Issues
NOs can result from a number of factors: competing priorities, others’ desire to avoid change, group norms and culture, red tape and bureaucracy, financial contingencies, difficult personalites, and politics, among others. All these are problems in your environment and with other people.

Internal Issues
NOs can also result from your own negative thinking, as well as your failure to prepare, present, and persist in pursuit of what’s important to you. These are self-inflicted problems within you.

DO YOU WORK IN THE LAND OF NO?
Read each of the statements below and decide whether or not it describes your working environment. [Keep track of how many times you answer Yes or No.]

  1. New ideas are welcomed and appreciated where I work.


  2. Taking initiative to improve things is an important part of our organization’s culture.