"No" Is the New "Yes" for Changemakers

A letter from Caro to the world

By Carolina Vassallucci, Universidad de Montevideo, University Innovation Fellow

University of Montevideo Prudencio de Pena 2544, 11600 Montevideo, Uruguay To every corner of the planet

Dear world,

It is February 2021 and I cannot believe the changes our lives have gone through in the last couple of months. Our routine has become the new “normal” and our previous normality seems now so far away. So distant, but... so close at the same time. Yes. Close. So close, that I even dare to tell you a secret: we are one change of attitude away from seizing it and its possibilities.

As changemakers, as people passionate about impact, we will find more NOs than YESes in the road to our success: “it cannot happen,” “there is no money,” “it is not a priority.” But, let us think... how many times did these same people tell us “I don’t understand you”? On what occasions did any of these powerful decision-makers take a minute to deep dive into the roots of the challenges we face every day? The answer is: it doesn’t matter, because that is what change agents are for. To convince them, to show them why a “no” is worth much more than a “yes.”

A “no” allows us to dream, allows us to reimagine, and most importantly, allows us to act. It is not so simple at the beginning, since we go through a clear stage of denial, of not understanding why the other person does not comprehend us. That can lead us to anger, but here is the key: this is the moment of true transformation. This is when our creative confidence and desire for impact need to become stronger. Let me illustrate with a very concrete example.

The objective: the 2019 cohort of Fellows from the University of Montevideo had a clear purpose at the end of their program training: to create a space that promotes communication, exchange and collaboration between students and teachers from across the institution.

The “no”: there was no budget at the university to generate additional spaces (the possibility of renting a new location was initially considered), there was no space to carry out expansion work in the central buildings, and there was no team that could take over a project of this style. The answer was “no.”

The “yes”: However, this group of 4 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Business and Economics and Engineering presented a project as simple as it was revolutionary: aesthetically transforming the canteens. This initiative made it possible to improve the way space is perceived, ceasing to be a simple place where students and teachers ate separately and in a hurry because there was no added value in the space. Now, with lots of empathy and investigation, it was possible to create a true meeting space, capable of adapting to the needs of a university that lacks study space, but also communication between students of different disciplines and professors who seem to be distant.

This simple framework (objective / no -> yes) is what in short has allowed every changemaker to achieve our goals, even if we don’t know it. Despite the difficulties we face, it helps us find a way to convince and impact first the “no” of the decision-makers.

So world, from wherever you are reading this, regardless of the date, I want to tell you that if you have not lived it yet, bravo. You still have time to face as many NOs as YESes. You can always transform obstacles into real changes that can become your new normal.

Hugs,

Me

P.S.: These are more NOs that the Fellows of the University of Montevideo transformed into YESes in the last 4 years: • LOOP, the Innovation Week: the first Latin American Meetup and massive event fully co-organized by university students from all over the country • d.challenge workshops (Design Thinking training for more than 200 people from the university’s ecosystem) • Promote the installation of a recycling program in all university headquarters • Mentoring program for UIF applicants by Fellows • Facilitation of Life Design workshops for high school students across Uruguay (initiative that also involved students who were not Fellows)