Curious Minds at Work CM 313: Sunita Sah on the Power of No – Rebroadcast
13 snips
Mar 7, 2026 
Sunita Sah, organizational psychologist and author of Defy, studies when and why people say yes instead of no. She reframes defiance as value-aligned action. She explains why compliance is our default and maps a five-stage defiance process. Practical tools include pausing, scripts, and role-play to practice saying no and distinguishing true values from performative defiance.
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Defiance Is A Values Driven Practice
- Defiance is acting on your true values when under pressure to do otherwise.
- Sunita Sah reframes defiance as a positive, everyday practice available to everyone, not just heroic acts.
Defiance Follows Five Predictable Stages
- Defiance and compliance lie on a spectrum and unfold as stages from tension to vocalizing to final act.
- Sah outlines five stages: feel tension, acknowledge it, vocalize, threaten noncompliance, then act, which relieves tension.
Rosa Parks Showed Defiance Can Build Over Time
- Rosa Parks' refusal to move on the bus followed many prior moments of compliance and long-standing tension.
- Parks had acknowledged the injustice, communicated with activist circles, then chose stage four and refused despite likely arrest.
