Years ago I heard about one of the main rules in improv which is that you can never say 'no' because it shuts down the creative potential in the performance. I took that to heart and applied it to work, whenever I wanted to scream NO at someone I offered instead to try it out and see what we could accomplish. Ninety percent of the time after further discussion it turned out they were asking for something entirely reasonable, the other 10% of the time there was either a compromise available or big money on the table.
Worth noting that as I stopped saying no I also stopped feeling treated like an assembly line worker.
Worth noting that as I stopped saying no I also stopped feeling treated like an assembly line worker.