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Spark & Whetstonethe grown-up commons

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The Rehearsal Table

Practise a hard conversation before you have it for real. Two people, two private briefs. Each of you knows only your own side. Talk it through, then swap seats and say back what the other person needed. The point is not to win. It is to hear the other side well enough to say it for them.

How it works

  1. Sit across from each other. Each player reads only their own brief, then hands the device back.
  2. Talk it through for about seven minutes. Use a kitchen timer if you like; this page keeps no clock.
  3. Swap seats. Now each of you says, in your own words, what the other person needed.
  4. The other person says "yes, that's it" or "not quite" and adds one thing.
  5. Then turn the device over and read both needs out loud together.

Choose a scene

The scene

A kitchen, a school night.

Seat A

The parent

Seat B

The teenager

Want more on listening? The Two-Chair Library and the course How to Argue Well.