Looking back on committed action successes and failures, I find that I'm being much more consistent about obtaining solid, specific commitments and deadlines in internal discussions.  Where I see I've been less successful is with external asks and in the nonprofit world, we do a ton of external asks.  Frequently, no answer is worse than saying no because the lack of response leaves me in limbo.  I ran into that issue when asking an individual to be honorary chair of an event.  While assigning a "due date" to hear back from someone who is a volunteer might not feel comfortable, I am doing a better job of asking for permission to reach back out if I have not heard back by a specified date.  I've taken that approach lately and it feels pretty comfortable.

Kathleen