Learning & Education
Ask, Follow Up, Decline: Ready-Made Lines That Get People Moving
Beginner | 1 whiteboard page · Task board: 5 columns (5 parent tasks, 13 subtasks)
Beginner: No technical terms. Just answer the whiteboard's questions, following the examples, and it takes shape.
A template for junior staff who freeze up when they need to ask a colleague for help or turn work down, holding ready-made phrases for asking, following up, and declining politely at work. The whiteboard carries a take-it-or-decline matrix scored on your own capacity against the impact on others, three frames of lines for asking, chasing and saying no, a 5W1H diagram for building each request, and a weekly KPT review. The kanban board runs five columns, from stuck moments to go-to phrases, and arrives with 5 parent tasks and 13 subtasks. Swap “as soon as possible” for a real date and time, and keep four ways to decline ready (full no, partial yes, later, refer), and within a few weeks you stop carrying work you never agreed to.
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Ask and Decline Scripts
How to use: 1. Decide take or decline 2. Pick the closest line from 2 to 4 3. Build the request with 5W1H 4. Review weekly with KPT
1. Take It or Decline It (your capacity × the impact on others)
Vertical axis: Your own capacity (more room higher up) / Horizontal axis: Impact on the person and the work (larger to the right)
- Say yes on the spot If it is done in under 30 minutes, say yes straight away. Goodwill banked now is what gets your own requests moved later.
- Say yes with terms Take it, but you set the deadline and the scope. Agree on something like Monday morning, analysis not included, before you start.
- Decline on the spot When your hands are full and the impact is small, decline right away. Give the reason and the date you free up and nobody takes offense (use frame 4).
- Take it to your manager Do not carry it alone. Ask your manager the same day to re-order the priorities or add a second person.
2. Lines for Asking (a senior or another team)
- “Do you have five minutes on the Q2 report? I need a decision on the format.”
- “Which would you go with, option A or option B? I will follow your call.”
- “Can you get it to me by Friday 5 p.m.? Monday morning works too if that is tight.”
- “I will do the work — all I need from you is the final sign-off.”
3. Follow-Up Lines (three steps, each one firmer)
- Step 1, day before the deadline — “This is due tomorrow at 5 p.m. How is it looking?”
- Step 2, day after — “I have not received the file yet. Let me know if it crossed with my message.”
- Step 3, two business days later — “Without it today the launch slips, so I will start on a workaround.”
- When to hand it up — share it with your manager as soon as step 3 gets no reply, or the deadline is at risk.
4. Lines for Declining (four types to choose from)
- Full no — “I am at capacity with the launch this week, so I cannot take this on.”
- Partial yes — “I can get you the numbers today. The slides would have to wait until Thursday.”
- Later — “I can pick this up from Tuesday next week. Does that still work for you?”
- Refer — “Maya owns that area, so let me check with her and come back to you today.”
5. Build the Request (5W1H)
- Q2 sales roll-up request
- What Q2 sales by department, on one page
- Why Input for next week’s review deck
- Who I compile it, my manager checks once
- When Thursday noon, or Friday a.m. at a push
- Where Shared drive, in the Reviews folder
- How Three-line chat first, detail by email
6. This Week in Review (KPT)
Keep (what to keep doing)
- Named a hard deadline, Friday 5 p.m. → the reply came back Thursday morning
- Answered with a partial yes → the other side was fine with it
Problem (what got in the way)
- The ask that said as soon as possible sat for 3 days neither the reason nor the urgency landed
- Pushed for an answer on the spot and said yes anyway (twice this week)
Try (what to try next)
- When pushed for an instant answer, buy time with I will come back to you by tomorrow morning
- Move any line that worked twice into the go-to phrases column before Friday close
Task board contents
Stuck moments 18 items
List stuck moments
Raw material for the scripts. Without real moments you only write polished lines you will never use.
Review last week
Write out every ask you swallowed and every no you failed to say, one per line, with who, what, and how it ended.
Post 3 as cards
Put the three worst ones in the stuck moments column and record in the description what you actually wanted to say.
Make an ask template
The base you stop rebuilding every time. Drop one request into the 5W1H diagram in frame 5 and keep it as your pattern.
Add a one-line why
State in one line why you are asking. A bare task gives the other person nothing to prioritize against.
Set a date and size
Never write “as soon as possible”. Your template names a date, a time, and how much work is involved.
Offer one fallback
Build in an exit, such as if the full set is too much, just the summary would help, so a no stays easy.
Plan your follow-ups
Decide the whole ladder now, from the first nudge to escalating, so you are not re-deciding under pressure.
Write nudge one
Draft a day-before message that asks only about progress, then read it aloud to check it does not sound like blame.
Set a hand-off line
Decide in one line of your own words when this stops being yours to chase. Sample wording sits in frame 3.
Build 4 kinds of no
Full no, partial yes, later, and refer. People end up carrying everything because they only ever see one option.
Write a full no
Pair a concrete reason with a clear decline, and have it ready to say out loud before the next request arrives.
Draft a partial yes
Build a reply that names the slice you can finish today and the part you cannot.
Add delay and refer
The other two of the four. Offer a later date or the right colleague, so a no always comes with a next move.
Log what you used
Keep only the lines that worked. With no record, the wording that landed is gone by next week.
Save what worked
Log the date, the person, and how fast the reply came, and promote the quickest ones to your go-to list.
Keep the misses too
Keep the requests that got no reply exactly as sent, and compare how the deadline and the reason were written.
Run a weekly KPT
Before Friday close, work through the KPT in frame 6 and write one line each for keep, problem, and try.
