Programs

People and HR · Facilitator-led

HR Business Partner

Influencing leaders and evidencing people advice

Three simulations and three guided documents. Each room is built around the participant: their role and seniority for the simulations, their own situation for the documents. Unlimited attempts.

6 rooms · about 3 hours 15 min

Start program

Who it's for: HR business partners, HR generalists and advisers moving into partnering, and managers with people responsibility, new or experienced, who advise leaders on people issues.
Format: Facilitator-led
Program sessions: 5

Who it's for

HR business partners, HR generalists and advisers moving into partnering, and managers with people responsibility, new or experienced, who advise leaders on people issues.

Output

A scored report after every simulation, with the moment that earned each score and one recommended focus
Three documents built from the partner's own business unit: a problem analysis with a recommended path, a people-metrics audit with the counter-metric named, and an operating model review with the single structural change and its trade-off
A trajectory across every attempt, and for the HR director a Ren summary of each partner and a team report once three have finished a room
Scored against published frameworks: stakeholder salience (Mitchell, Agle and Wood), interest-based negotiation (Fisher and Ury), influence without authority (Cohen and Bradford), care and challenge, the 5 Whys, the weighted decision matrix, vanity against actionable metrics, Goodhart's Law, north-star and counter-metric pairing, value-delivery process mapping, handoff failure diagnosis, capability gap classification, the Minto pyramid principle and Aristotelian rhetoric after Heinrichs

Program contents

Influencing the line leader · Pushing back with evidence · Stakeholder Influence · Managing Up
Diagnosing the people problem · Problem Analysis
Reading the people numbers · Metrics audit
Advising on structure · Operating Model Review
Presenting to the executive · Presentation Under Pressure

How the program works

A five-week program for HR business partners, assigned by an HR director or head of people, built on Renatus. Three simulation rooms and three document rooms · Five weeks, two rooms in week one then one a week · Unlimited attempts · Ongoing thereafter.

The rooms

Stakeholder Influence

Simulation

Calibration: role title, stakeholder type and history (peer, senior or partner; friendly, neutral or sceptical), industry or sector, a brief description of working context, and the organisation website as an option.

Managing Up

Simulation

Calibration: role title, the power gap (peer-level senior, one-up, two-up or C-suite), industry or sector, a brief description of working context, and the organisation website as an option.

Problem Analysis

Framework

The partner brings the people problem from set-up, in the leader's words.

Metrics audit

Framework

Set-up: what is currently tracked, the headline metric, whose metrics these are, what behaviour the metrics are driving, what is prompting the audit, and who the audit is for.

Operating Model Review

Framework

Set-up: company stage and headcount, the core value-delivery processes, current functional or team structure, where execution is currently breaking, and who the review is for.

Presentation Under Pressure

Simulation

Calibration: role title, the audience (a single senior stakeholder, the board, the executive committee or a hostile external audience), industry or sector, a brief description of working context, and the organisation website as an option.

Why this program exists

HR business partners are asked for a hire approved, a bonus signed off and a grievance taken away, and are measured on how quickly they say yes. The leader who most needs their advice has usually already decided, and the executive committee that hears a people topic asks what it costs and why HR did not raise it sooner. This program prepares them through simulation and three documents. Ren builds each scene from the partner's real role, the leader they partner and their sector, plays every person in it from the first decision to the close, and builds each document from what the partner states about the business, so every room is new and moves with each decision.

What you'll achieve

Rehearsal of the leader who has decided, the boss discounting a risk and the executive committee with a sceptic, with unlimited attempts, each a new scene, charted against every attempt before it
A scored report after every simulation: each dimension with the moment that earned its score, and one recommended focus with a first step
Three documents about their own business unit: a problem analysis with a recommended path, a metrics audit with the counter-metric named, and an operating model review with the single structural change and its trade-off, each ready to put in front of the leader

At a glance

Who it's for: HR business partners in their first years in the role, HR generalists and senior HR advisers moving into a partnering title, and people managers who have been given people responsibility for a division. It is assigned by the HR director, the head of people or a senior partner. Every room calibrates to role, seniority and sector. It assumes each participant partners at least one named leader and holds one people problem they are stuck on this quarter. It rehearses the judgement the role asks of them, and scores it the same way every time.
Cadence: 5 weeks
1: Influencing the line leader · Pushing back with evidence · Stakeholder Influence · Managing Up · Read Reading the Room and Durability; read Grounding
2: Diagnosing the people problem · Problem Analysis · Read Why It's Happening and the Recommended Path; check the cause is one the leader would recognise
3: Reading the people numbers · Metrics audit · Read Behaviour Rewarded and the Counter-Metric; read the Ren summary across four rooms
4: Advising on structure · Operating Model Review · Read Structural Change and the trade-off named; read Handoffs
5: Presenting to the executive · Presentation Under Pressure · Read Lead Argument and Question Response; read the Managing Up trajectory; read the team report; set the ongoing plan

Session by session

Week 1: Influencing the line leader · Pushing back with evidence

Establish how the partner wins a leader they have no authority over, and how they push back on a decision already made, before they have the evidence the later weeks will give them.

Stakeholder Influence Managing Up

Week 2: Diagnosing the people problem

Turn the people problem the partner is stuck on into a problem statement a leader can act on, with a recommended path.

Problem Analysis

Week 3: Reading the people numbers

Know which of the people metrics the function reports reward the behaviour intended, and which counter-metric the headline needs.

Metrics audit

Week 4: Advising on structure

Name the handoffs that break and the capability gaps that are real in the unit the partner advises, and recommend the one structural change with its trade-off.

Operating Model Review

Week 5: Presenting to the executive

Take the case from weeks 2 to 4 into an executive committee that has already formed a view, lead with the argument, and hold it under the questions the partner least wants.

Presentation Under Pressure

Six rooms from the leader's request to the recommendation, run weekly, measured over time.

Start program

Whether a market is real, where it is growing, and where the opportunity sits

How an entire industry is structured, who controls it, and where it is heading

Who controls a market, how they compete, and where the real gaps are

Who buys in a market, what drives their decisions, and where the unmet needs are

What competitors charge in a market, how pricing is structured, and what customers will pay

Who supplies the critical inputs to a market, how concentrated it is, and what switching costs

The technology deployed in a sector, and where competitive advantage moves next

How product reaches the buyer in a market, and where channel power is shifting

Financials, leadership, strategy, and reputation on a company

Deep dive into how a company operates strategically, and where it is most exposed

Revenue, margins, cash, debt, and auditor signals on a company

How a company is perceived across customers, employees, media, and ESG

Discover a country's GDP, political environment, infrastructure, and outlook

Discover a city's GDP, economic drivers, workforce, and trajectory

Trade flows, tariffs, agreements, and friction points between two countries

Background, current state, key actors, evidence, and where an issue is heading

What a policy does, who wins and loses, and how it lands in practice

The specific risks facing a market — ranked, evidenced, and with the signals to watch

Single-source exposures, concentration, and trade-route risk for a market

Climate, governance, social, and controversy risk in a sector

Pending legislation, enforcement shifts, and where the rules are likely to change

Licensing, compliance, recent changes, and pending legislation in a jurisdiction

Government stability, policy direction, and the political risks facing a market

What a role pays — verified across named salary databases and job posting data

Whether to take a job at a company, with the evidence behind the answer

Who the credible candidates are, what they earn, and how the search will unfold

How a career in an industry works — entry, paths, pay, and prospects

The three things that will move a business forward this quarter

A 90-day plan that turns a strategy into something a team can act on Monday

Segment, positioning, channels, and pricing — tested against each other so the four hold together

A positioning the market can place — and a category claim worth defending

A pricing strategy that the market accepts and the business can defend in negotiation

Dashboard, thresholds and owners

Dashboard, thresholds and owners

Targets, thresholds and cadence

Whether an opportunity is worth pursuing — with conditions or risks named

The real problem behind the surface one, with options and a recommended next step

How a business creates, delivers, and captures value — and where it is exposed

Where work is breaking, where capability is missing, and the one structural change worth making

Build, buy, partner, or wait — with the killer assumption named

Whether a specific partnership is worth pursuing — with the asymmetries named

The right financing structure for the opportunity — tested against fit, cost, and flexibility

A fundraise structured to close on terms worth living with

Every variance classified — structural, timing, one-off or noise — with the call the pattern demands

How long the cash lasts across three scenarios, with the killer assumption named

Whether the per-unit economics hold up — with the killer assumption named

Whether the pay set serves the talent strategy, with the cost of fixing it

A board report that lands the narrative, the KPIs, the exceptions, and the decisions requested

What metrics are missing, misleading, or quietly rewarding the wrong thing

A complete business plan ready to put in front of investors, partners, or a board

A career decision weighed against criteria that matter, with a pre-mortem and a verdict

What matters most, what you would give up, and what stays true under pressure

Which option holds up under income loss, rate moves, or a downturn

A relocation decision and plan, with the trade-offs each destination forces

What the culture is like — values in practice, leadership behaviour, and where the gap sits

Strategy clarity, alignment, talent density, ways of working, and trust in leadership

What's energising people, what's draining them, and the levers that would move engagement

The patterns in how a person handles pressure, conflict, collaboration, and decisions

PENDING — product being redesigned. See Replit brief.

How a person leads — defaults, strengths, blind spots, and development areas

Real strengths backed by evidence — and the cost each one carries when overplayed

The values revealed by what a person has held the line on, refused, or regretted

What every role owns, what's silently dropped, and which handoffs are breaking

Where the team is aligned on priorities and goals, and where dangerous gaps sit

Where trust, conflict handling, and accountability are strong — and where they break

Any subject explained to a real listener, scored on accuracy, depth, audience adaptation, and handling the unknown

A presentation rehearsal scored on lead argument, evidence, question response, and poise

A stakeholder-influence rehearsal scored on reading the room, framing, negotiation, and durability

A managing-up rehearsal scored on positioning, evidence, flexibility, and outcome

A meeting rehearsal scored on structure, air-time management, progress, and closure

The conversation that's been avoided, with an assessment of how the conversation went

A saying-no rehearsal scored on clarity, rationale, alternative, and relationship

A performance-conversation rehearsal scored on clarity, ownership, empathy, and path forward

A team-conflict rehearsal scored on directness, fairness, action, and aftercare

A hiring interview rehearsal scored on question design, follow-up, bias, and assessment integrity

A leadership crisis scored on decision quality, communication, strategy, and pressure response

A negotiation rehearsal scored on preparation, anchoring, concession pattern, and pressure response

A strategic-decision rehearsal scored on framing, information use, trade-off recognition, and time horizon

An ethics rehearsal where the right path is costly, scored on recognition and response

A prioritisation rehearsal scored on triage, trade-off recognition, communication, and revisability