Brave conversationsConflict & negotiation
10 practices · 6 case practices
Bring up a problem or explain a limit while staying clear about what happened.
A brave conversation brings up a problem or states a limit while staying clear about what happened. These scenarios cover saying no to a friend, feedback to a teammate, repairing after you reacted, and negotiating a rate, a discount or a scope.
Many are case practices, so you can check the facts in a file before deciding what to say.
Situations you can practice
Every practice is a written scenario. Case practices add a file to investigate before you decide what to say.
Saying no to a friend who wants moving help on Saturday
You need the day to rest after a hard week. Give Ben a clear answer without inventing an excuse or promising another day.
8 minFoundationsSoulful
A teammate’s late drafts leave you little time to review
Morgan asks if you’re calling them unreliable. Sort what the record shows from labels and mistakes, then ask what happened and propose a checkpoint.
13 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
Apologizing to a colleague you cut off in a meeting
You told Robin their proposal “makes no sense” before they finished. Apologize, offer to hear the rest, and ask how to repair it with the group.
9 minStretchSoulful
A nonprofit can’t afford your full workshop
Read your notes from the call, build a shorter session within their budget around what the volunteers need most, and offer it honestly.
15 minDeep practiceCase practiceSoulful
Raising the monthly fee for a client of two years
Your hours for Farid have about doubled since you set $600. Explain what changed, give the $750 price from 1 January, and offer a smaller $600 plan.
10 minStretchSoulful
A prospect asks you to lower your quote
Keep the full price and offer a real trade: a smaller version built from what the prospect needs, or 10% off for paying in full before you start.
15 minDeep practiceCase practiceSoulful
A small client wants a big wish list on a small budget
Use your discovery-call notes to choose what gets the business working first, then propose it within budget and offer the rest as a later stage.
15 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
Your cofounder wants another month of building before any demo
Respect the work, say what waiting costs you, and propose a daily routine of showing the product to customers alongside the building, with a date to review.
12 minStretchSoulful
Your parents object to you turning down a corporate job offer
Read what your parents said to find the worry behind the objection, then acknowledge it, show both paths honestly and propose a trial with a date to talk again.
15 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
A seller hoped for more than your offer on a used laptop
Sort what you found into what lowers the price, what doesn’t and what you can’t count yet, then explain your offer so the seller can decide.
14 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
Read more on conflict & negotiation
Apologize to a coworker when you still disagreeYou snapped at a colleague, but your worry about the work is still real. How to own the snap, ask what repair they want, and return to the decision.How to answer “Tell me about a conflict” in an interviewBuild a truthful conflict story for a behavioral interview: events instead of labels, your own part, what you asked, and what you would change.What to say when a client says your price is too highA worked example of answering “can you do any better?” by keeping your real price and offering a reduction that is tied to something you actually gain.The research behind these practices
Each practice cites the studies that informed its design and says where they may not apply. These are the sources cited most across the 10 practices on this page; they inform the practices and are not proof that the practices work.
- Simulation-based learning in higher education: a meta-analysis (Meta-analysis · 145 studies, 2020). Cited by 4 practices here.
Chernikova and colleagues pooled 145 studies of simulation-based learning in higher education and found a large overall effect on complex skills, with scaffolding a positive moderator. Learners with little prior knowledge gained more from worked examples and those with more gained more from reflection. Most studies came from medical and teacher education, so applying the results to adult people skills or to this product is an inference.
- A scientific approach to entrepreneurial decision making: evidence from a randomized control trial (Randomized trial · Management Science, 2020). Cited by 2 practices here.
Camuffo and colleagues followed 116 Italian startups for about a year. All received general training, but those taught to state testable hypotheses and test them rigorously performed better and were more likely to change course, without dropping out more. The startups were new ventures, not established firms adding a system.
- First offers as anchors: the role of perspective-taking and negotiator focus (Experiments · negotiation, 2001). Cited by 2 practices here.
Galinsky and Mussweiler ran three experiments, in face-to-face and email negotiations, in which the party that made the first offer reached the better result. The advantage faded when the negotiator receiving the offer focused on information that cut against it, such as alternatives to the deal, the other side’s reservation price or their own target. It shows why the first figure matters; it does not test freelance quotes or say how any price should be set.
- IMBUE: interpersonal practice and just-in-time feedback (Randomized study · interpersonal effectiveness, 2024). Cited by 2 practices here.
A study of 86 participants examined simulated interpersonal practice. Transfer differed across skill and emotional outcomes, supporting varied rehearsal while cautioning against broad transformation claims.
- Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes (Meta-analysis · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2006). Cited by 2 practices here.
Gollwitzer and Sheeran combined 94 tests and found that plans of the form “when this happens, I will do that” helped people reach their goals, with a medium-to-large effect, including getting started. The tests concerned individual goals, not a startup team’s customer work.
- Information exchange in negotiation (Experiments · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1991). Cited by 2 practices here.
Thompson found that negotiators who shared and asked about priorities reached better joint outcomes than those who did not. The studies were classroom negotiations between students over invented issues.
15 more sources are listed on the research page.
Limits
No wording guarantees trust, forgiveness or agreement. Findings about apologies and negotiation come from particular studies, and a person can still respond badly to a careful message.
Leetsoul has not shown that these practices improve skill in real life, and the original scenarios have not been independently tested. The sources inform the design of the exercises.
Begin conflict & negotiation with a free starter
Write your response to a fictional conversation, read the guidance, then decide what you would change. Three starter practices are free; Soulful opens the full library.
Written by Leetsoul. Updated . Scenarios are fictional.