A small practice for the respectful refusal

Original practice · Optional exercise · Useful disagreement

Choose a low-stakes example you can change without affecting another person’s private information or commitments.

1. Describe the current situation in one sentence. The example here is: A collaborator cannot take on another piece of work.
2. Agree a clear refusal or a smaller commitment they can actually keep.
3. Compare the result with the difficulty you named. Write one concrete observation.
4. Keep, adapt, or stop the experiment. A note about why you stopped is a valid result.