The Crisis Room

Reactivate the five registers of Unit 3 (diplomatic, negotiating, mediating, crisis, bad-news) before you have to switch between them live.

Output: One instant relabel per line: which register it belongs to and one word for what it's really doing.

Teacher reads five short lines, one from each lesson (L11–L15). For each, in five seconds: name the register it's from and say in plain English what it's actually doing underneath the words.

• · 'We trust further measures will not be necessary.'
• · 'Before we trade numbers, what are you actually trying to protect?'
• · 'We're stuck on the principle, not the number.'
• · 'It happened on my watch.'
• · 'I have hard news, and I want to deliver it straight.'

Open the crisis in diplomatic register: signal without committing, and leave room for the next stage.

Output: A 90-second spoken readout that signals disagreement, keeps the relationship intact, and leaves at least one door open.

The crisis: a joint venture between two companies has broken down over a missed safety inspection. You are the spokesperson for your side. Deliver a 90-second public readout. Teacher tries to translate it back into 'what really happened' — if the translation is plausible but not certain, you've calibrated correctly.

If you're in a group: In pairs, one delivers, the other drafts the counterparty's readout in reply before hearing it.

Move from the diplomatic surface to the real interests, and find the trade that keeps the venture alive.

Output: A short negotiation that surfaces at least one interest, proposes one objective criterion, and lands on one log-roll.

Same crisis. You now sit down privately with your counterpart (teacher) to see if the venture can survive. You have 10 minutes. You must: (a) surface an interest behind your stated position, (b) propose one objective criterion for resolving the inspection dispute, (c) make one log-roll that trades across two issues, (d) know and NOT threaten with your BATNA.

If you're in a group: In groups of 3, a silent observer tracks whether the BATNA is ever used as a threat and flags it.

The negotiation has leaked internally and two of your own team members are now in open conflict about who is to blame. Hold the middle without disappearing.

Output: A mediated exchange that reframes at least once, summarises back at least once, and names the deadlock honestly.

Teacher plays both team members in alternation (signalling the switch). You chair. You MUST: (a) reframe an attack as a shared question, (b) summarise back what you're hearing from each side, (c) depersonalise the disagreement at least once, (d) name the deadlock rather than paper over it, (e) end with one explicit next step both can sign onto.

If you're in a group: In groups of 4, two play the team members, one mediates, one observer scores each mediator move against the L13 rubric.

The dispute has gone public. Deliver a statement that owns the failure in the right order, then survive follow-up questions without concern theatre.

Output: A 60-second ACK/FACTS/GAP/NEXT statement, then three hostile questions answered in ≤30 seconds each.

You are now the senior spokesperson facing the press. Deliver a 60-second statement covering ACK, FACTS, GAP and NEXT in that order. Teacher then plays a journalist with three escalating questions. You may not say 'we take this seriously'. Every answer must fit in 30 seconds.

• · 'Who knew about the missed inspection, and when?'
• · 'Why should anyone trust your account given today's earlier statement?'
• · 'What happens to the people affected if the venture collapses entirely?'

If you're in a group: In groups of 3, a second journalist asks harder follow-ups while an observer scores the four moves separately.

Close the crisis at the human scale: tell the one person who personally loses out, honestly and with the future made explicit.

Output: A 90-second delivery that names the news first, holds a genuine silence, and leaves the relationship's future explicit.

The venture is being wound down and one long-standing contractor's role ends with it. Teacher plays the contractor. You have 90 seconds: name the news in the first sentence, hold a silence of at least four seconds without filling it, give the honest why, and make explicit what you'll do next for them. No compliment sandwich.