Programs

Communication · Self-serve

Assertiveness at Work

Five simulations of the sentence you avoid, run weekly, measured over time.

A self-serve program for anyone who avoids the hard sentence at work, built on Renatus. Five simulation rooms · Five weeks, one room a week · Unlimited attempts · Ongoing thereafter.

5 weeks · 5 rooms · Total time 2 hours 55 min

Who it's for: Anyone who avoids the hard sentence at work: the no they don't say, the conversation they put off, the pushback they hold back, the conflict they step around, or the ask they never make.
Cadence: 5 weeks
Format: Self-serve
Program sessions: 5

Who it's for

Anyone who avoids the hard sentence at work: the no they don't say, the conversation they put off, the pushback they hold back, the conflict they step around, or the ask they never make.

Output

A scored report after every room, with the moment that earned each score and one recommended focus
A trajectory across every attempt
Five real conversations, said or booked, across the five weeks
Scored against published frameworks: Disciplined Prioritisation, Conversation Layers, High-Stakes Dialogue, Care and Challenge, Clear Communication, Influence Without Authority, Conflict-Mode Flexibility, Principled Negotiation and Anchoring and Concession Theory

Program contents

The clean no — Saying No Simulation
The hard conversation — Difficult Conversation
Pushing back upward — Managing Up
Stepping into conflict — Team Conflict
The direct ask — Negotiation

How the program works

A self-serve program for anyone who avoids the hard sentence at work, built on Renatus. Five simulation rooms · Five weeks, one room a week · Unlimited attempts · Ongoing thereafter.

The rooms

Saying No Simulation

Simulation

Calibration: your role or the relationship, the power dynamic (junior upward, peer, manager, senior, or a personal relationship), and a line of context.

Difficult Conversation

Simulation

Calibration: your role and seniority, the kind of conversation, who you're having it with, and what's at stake for both of you.

Managing Up

Simulation

Calibration: the power gap between you (peer-level senior, one-up, your direct manager, two-up, your skip-level, or C-suite), your role, sector and a line of context.

Team Conflict

Simulation

Calibration: your relationship to the people in conflict (a peer with no positional authority, a new manager the team is watching, or an experienced manager).

Negotiation

Simulation

Calibration: your role and seniority (early career, mid, senior, executive or founder), your sector, and the kind of negotiation: a salary or budget discussion, a vendor or contract renewal, or a partnership on your terms.

Why this program exists

You know the sentence you should say. No, I can't take that on. I think this decision is wrong. I need something back for what I'm giving away. You rehearse it under your breath and then you don't say it, or you say a version soft enough that the other person doesn't quite hear it. This program prepares you for that sentence through simulation. Ren builds each scene from your real role and the relationship you name, and plays every person in it, so every scenario is new, adjusting to what you do.

What you'll achieve

Rehearsal of the sentence you've been avoiding: the no, the conversation, the pushback, the conflict, the ask, each built from your real situation, as many times as you want it.
A scored report after every room: each dimension with the moment that earned its score, strengths, development areas, blind spots where the evidence shows them, and one recommended focus with a first step.
Five real conversations, said or booked, across the five weeks, not five rehearsals left in the room.
Unlimited attempts at every room, each a new scene at the calibration you set, scored on the same dimensions and charted against every attempt before it.

At a glance

Who it's for: Anyone who avoids the hard sentence at work: you say yes when you mean no, you rewrite a difficult message six times and don't send it, you agree in a meeting and disagree afterwards, or you let a decision you think is wrong go unchallenged. Every room calibrates to your role and the relationship you name, so it serves an individual contributor declining a request and a manager pushing back on their own boss. It assumes you have a real relationship at work you're avoiding something in, this month.
Cadence: 5 weeks
1: The clean no · Saying No Simulation · Read Clarity and Alternative; decline the real request
2: The hard conversation · Difficult Conversation · Read Directness vs Empathy and Framing; have the real conversation
3: Pushing back upward · Managing Up · Read Grounding and Flexibility; raise the real disagreement
4: Stepping into conflict · Team Conflict · Read Directness and Fairness; name the real conflict
5: The direct ask · Negotiation · Read Concession Pattern and Anchoring & Framing; negotiate the real thing

Session by session

Week 1: The clean no

Say no in one sentence, give a reason the other person can use, and offer something instead.

Saying No Simulation

Week 2: The hard conversation

Open the conversation you've been avoiding with a frame that states the issue, hold directness and empathy together, and close with something you'll both act on.

Difficult Conversation

Week 3: Pushing back upward

Tell someone with more power than you that you disagree, back it with specifics, and hold your position when they push back.

Managing Up

Week 4: Stepping into conflict

Address a conflict between two other people directly, hear both sides, and commit to a next step.

Team Conflict

Week 5: The direct ask

Open with an anchor, trade concessions rather than give them away, and hold steady when the other side pushes.

Negotiation

Whether a market is real, where it is growing, and where the opportunity sits

How an entire industry is structured, who controls it, and where it is heading

Who controls a market, how they compete, and where the real gaps are

Who buys in a market, what drives their decisions, and where the unmet needs are

What competitors charge in a market, how pricing is structured, and what customers will pay

Who supplies the critical inputs to a market, how concentrated it is, and what switching costs

The technology deployed in a sector, and where competitive advantage moves next

How product reaches the buyer in a market, and where channel power is shifting

Financials, leadership, strategy, and reputation on a company

Deep dive into how a company operates strategically, and where it is most exposed

Revenue, margins, cash, debt, and auditor signals on a company

How a company is perceived across customers, employees, media, and ESG

Discover a country's GDP, political environment, infrastructure, and outlook

Discover a city's GDP, economic drivers, workforce, and trajectory

Trade flows, tariffs, agreements, and friction points between two countries

Background, current state, key actors, evidence, and where an issue is heading

What a policy does, who wins and loses, and how it lands in practice

The specific risks facing a market — ranked, evidenced, and with the signals to watch

Single-source exposures, concentration, and trade-route risk for a market

Climate, governance, social, and controversy risk in a sector

Pending legislation, enforcement shifts, and where the rules are likely to change

Licensing, compliance, recent changes, and pending legislation in a jurisdiction

Government stability, policy direction, and the political risks facing a market

What a role pays — verified across named salary databases and job posting data

Whether to take a job at a company, with the evidence behind the answer

Who the credible candidates are, what they earn, and how the search will unfold

How a career in an industry works — entry, paths, pay, and prospects

The three things that will move a business forward this quarter

A 90-day plan that turns a strategy into something a team can act on Monday

Segment, positioning, channels, and pricing — tested against each other so the four hold together

A positioning the market can place — and a category claim worth defending

A pricing strategy that the market accepts and the business can defend in negotiation

Dashboard, thresholds and owners

Dashboard, thresholds and owners

Targets, thresholds and cadence

Whether an opportunity is worth pursuing — with conditions or risks named

The real problem behind the surface one, with options and a recommended next step

How a business creates, delivers, and captures value — and where it is exposed

Where work is breaking, where capability is missing, and the one structural change worth making

Build, buy, partner, or wait — with the killer assumption named

Whether a specific partnership is worth pursuing — with the asymmetries named

The right financing structure for the opportunity — tested against fit, cost, and flexibility

A fundraise structured to close on terms worth living with

Every variance classified — structural, timing, one-off or noise — with the call the pattern demands

How long the cash lasts across three scenarios, with the killer assumption named

Whether the per-unit economics hold up — with the killer assumption named

Whether the pay set serves the talent strategy, with the cost of fixing it

A board report that lands the narrative, the KPIs, the exceptions, and the decisions requested

What metrics are missing, misleading, or quietly rewarding the wrong thing

A complete business plan ready to put in front of investors, partners, or a board

A career decision weighed against criteria that matter, with a pre-mortem and a verdict

What matters most, what you would give up, and what stays true under pressure

Which option holds up under income loss, rate moves, or a downturn

A relocation decision and plan, with the trade-offs each destination forces

What the culture is like — values in practice, leadership behaviour, and where the gap sits

Strategy clarity, alignment, talent density, ways of working, and trust in leadership

What's energising people, what's draining them, and the levers that would move engagement

The patterns in how a person handles pressure, conflict, collaboration, and decisions

PENDING — product being redesigned. See Replit brief.

How a person leads — defaults, strengths, blind spots, and development areas

Real strengths backed by evidence — and the cost each one carries when overplayed

The values revealed by what a person has held the line on, refused, or regretted

What every role owns, what's silently dropped, and which handoffs are breaking

Where the team is aligned on priorities and goals, and where dangerous gaps sit

Where trust, conflict handling, and accountability are strong — and where they break

Any subject explained to a real listener, scored on accuracy, depth, audience adaptation, and handling the unknown

A presentation rehearsal scored on lead argument, evidence, question response, and poise

A stakeholder-influence rehearsal scored on reading the room, framing, negotiation, and durability

A managing-up rehearsal scored on positioning, evidence, flexibility, and outcome

A meeting rehearsal scored on structure, air-time management, progress, and closure

The conversation that's been avoided, with an assessment of how the conversation went

A saying-no rehearsal scored on clarity, rationale, alternative, and relationship

A performance-conversation rehearsal scored on clarity, ownership, empathy, and path forward

A team-conflict rehearsal scored on directness, fairness, action, and aftercare

A hiring interview rehearsal scored on question design, follow-up, bias, and assessment integrity

A leadership crisis scored on decision quality, communication, strategy, and pressure response

A negotiation rehearsal scored on preparation, anchoring, concession pattern, and pressure response

A strategic-decision rehearsal scored on framing, information use, trade-off recognition, and time horizon

An ethics rehearsal where the right path is costly, scored on recognition and response

A prioritisation rehearsal scored on triage, trade-off recognition, communication, and revisability