Working lifeOffice & workplace
10 practices · 5 case practices
Discuss workload and feedback, and find a way to contribute in meetings.
Working well with people comes down to specific moments: a manager adds a task, a colleague talks over you, feedback is vague, a number will be late. These scenarios rehearse what to say in each.
Many are case practices, where you work from notes or records before you write.
Situations you can practice
Every practice is a written scenario. Case practices add a file to investigate before you decide what to say.
Your manager adds another task due tomorrow
Work out what fits in your hours from who is waiting for each task, then show your manager the plan and ask them to confirm which piece moves to Friday.
12 minFoundationsCase practiceSoulful
A colleague talks over you while you explain a risk
It’s the second time. Ask for thirty seconds to finish your point, then give them a clear turn to explain what happened last quarter.
9 minStretchSoulful
Your manager says your work should be “more strategic”
They gave no example. Read their comments on your recent work for what they most likely mean, then check that reading and try it in your next brief.
13 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
A project update credits your colleague for joint work
You did the customer research; they made the presentation. Ask for a correction that names both, and agree how to check credit next time.
12 minDeep practiceSoulful
A client adds a third task with the same Friday deadline
Offer Amir two choices: a $300 rush fee to deliver all three on time, or one task moving to next Wednesday.
9 minStretchSoulful
As an intern, you think your manager’s test plan will fail
Tell Mr Lee about the logout problem from the pilot, propose a smaller test on Monday and a full one on Thursday, and leave the decision with him.
10 minStretchSoulful
Your numbers for Thursday’s client review will be a day late
Tell the team now that your numbers will be a day late, say what that means for Mei and Daniel, and say when you will update them next.
10 minStretchSoulful
Asking an owner who counts every dollar to pay for safer releases
Sort what you could tell the owner into what the records show, what is an estimate and what you can’t claim, then make the case in money they recognize.
13 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
Two weeks after handover, the team barely uses the tool you built
Read the usage records, the team’s messages and your visit notes for what is keeping them away, then tell the manager what you found and what you’ll do.
13 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
Your cofounder asks whether the business needs another hire
Read the workload records for what is behind the strain, then recommend what to do now and when you will look at the records again.
14 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
Read more on office & workplace
Ask your manager which deadline should moveTwo people need your work by the same time. How to show the clash, offer options you can deliver, and get a decision in writing.Before you propose a solution, ask about the last timeQuestions to ask before proposing a client solution, using a fictional dashboard request to examine the problem, the constraints and the first piece of work.How to disagree with your boss and bring a better planA worked example of challenging a manager’s plan in a meeting or message: name what you saw, offer a workable alternative and leave the decision with them.Give feedback someone can do something withHow to give feedback about a colleague talking over others in meetings: describe what happened, name its effect, ask what you are missing and agree one change.How to tell your boss a deadline will slipA worked example of telling your manager early that work will be late: what changed, what it affects, what you will do, and when you will update them.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.
- A meta-analysis of the team learning pathway (Meta-analysis · organizational teams, 2025). Cited by 3 practices here.
This synthesis examines relationships among team learning orientation, psychological safety, learning, and team outcomes. Associations do not prove that any single leadership script causes improved performance.
- Facilitating diagnostic competences in higher education: a meta-analysis in medical and teacher education (Meta-analysis · Educational Psychology Review, 2020). Cited by 2 practices here.
Chernikova and colleagues pooled studies of learning to diagnose, in medicine and teaching, and found that problem-solving with scaffolds such as examples, prompts and feedback improved diagnostic competence. The outcomes were measured in different ways and the settings were medical and teacher education, not adults reading a colleague or a student at work.
- 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.
- Simulation-based learning in higher education: a meta-analysis (Meta-analysis · 145 studies, 2020). Cited by 2 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 proof for the queuing formula: L = λW (Mathematical result · Operations Research, 1961). Cited by 1 practice here.
Little proved that, in a stable queuing system, the average number of units waiting or in progress equals their average arrival rate multiplied by the average time each spends in the system. It is a result about averages in stable systems: it shows why a slow step makes work pile up, but it does not tell a small business what to change.
- Calling and texting (too much): mobile maintenance expectations, (over)dependence, entrapment, and friendship satisfaction (Survey · New Media & Society, 2012). Cited by 1 practice here.
Hall and Baym surveyed students about keeping in touch with a close friend by phone. More contact raised expectations of contact; some of that dependence went with more satisfaction, but over-dependence and feeling trapped by the pressure to respond went with less. It is a survey of friendships, not of work.
17 more sources are listed on the research page.
Limits
Workplace research is mostly observational. No script guarantees that a manager or colleague responds well, and the scenarios are fictional.
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 office & workplace 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.