Lateral leadership

The situations you'll face before you're ready for them.

Practice navigating real workplace conflicts — without formal authority and without consequences. Each scenario is a decision point. Your choices reveal your default style.

Frameworks built in

Fighter

Assert your position directly

Negotiator

Trade and find shared interest

Diplomat

Preserve the relationship first

Avoider

Delay or deflect the conflict

People Pleaser

Concede to maintain harmony

AID feedback

Action → Impact → Desired change

SBI feedback

Situation → Behavior → Impact

Radical Candor

Care personally, challenge directly

Scenario 01

The PM who wants to cut your process

Your PM messages you at 4pm. The sprint deadline moved up. Can you "just skip research" this time?

Negotiation · Scope

Scenario 02

The peer who undercuts you in critique

A colleague publicly dismisses your direction in front of five stakeholders. The room waits for your response.

Feedback · Peer conflict

Scenario 03

Engineering cuts accessibility scope

Two days before handoff, an engineer marks the ARIA and focus work as "nice to have" to hit velocity targets.

Advocacy · WCAG · Ethics

Scenario 04

The stakeholder who bypassed your team

You find out a VP went directly to your junior designer and assigned two weeks of work — without telling you.

Authority · Team dynamics