Programs

Communication · Self-serve

Influence Without Authority

Influence with peers, sponsors and partner teams

Five simulations, each built around your role and seniority and the person you name. Unlimited attempts.

5 rooms · about 2 hours 55 min

Who it's for: Anyone who delivers through people they don't manage, at any level: project leads, product managers, specialists, advisers and chiefs of staff.
Format: Self-serve
Program sessions: 3

Who it's for

Anyone who delivers through people they don't manage, at any level: project leads, product managers, specialists, advisers and chiefs of staff.

Output

A scored report after every room, with the moment that earned each score and one recommended focus
Every room calibrated to the real person you're influencing, from the sponsor to the meeting that has to decide
A trajectory across every attempt
Scored against published frameworks: Cohen and Bradford's Influence Without Authority, Stakeholder Salience, Interest-Based Negotiation, Principled Negotiation, Participatory Facilitation and Disciplined Prioritisation

Program contents

Upward influence · Peer influence · Managing Up · Stakeholder Influence
Trading position · Negotiation
Decision facilitation · Setting a boundary · Meeting Facilitation · Saying No Simulation

How the program works

A self-serve program for project leads, specialists and anyone who gets things done through people they don't manage, built on Renatus. Five simulation rooms · Three weeks, one or two rooms a week · Unlimited attempts · Ongoing thereafter.

The rooms

Managing Up

Simulation

Calibration: role title, the power gap (peer-level senior, one-up, two-up or C-suite), industry or sector, and a line of working context.

Stakeholder Influence

Simulation

Calibration: role title, the stakeholder type and history (peer, senior or partner; friendly, neutral or sceptical), industry or sector, and a line of working context.

Negotiation

Simulation

Calibration: role title and seniority (early career, mid, senior, executive or founder), industry or sector, and the kind of negotiation to simulate, with the option to name a real one coming up for Ren to mirror.

Meeting Facilitation

Simulation

Calibration: role title, the meeting type (stand-up, decision meeting, strategy session or difficult conversation forum), industry or sector, and a line of working context.

Saying No Simulation

Simulation

Calibration: role title or relationship, the power dynamic (junior upward, peer, manager, senior or personal relationship), and a line of context.

Why this program exists

You get things done through people who don't report to you: a sponsor with six other priorities, a peer team with its own targets, a colleague you need for something and can't order to help, a meeting that has to land a decision and won't unless you make it. They decide whether to back you, and none of them takes instruction. This program prepares you for that through simulation. Ren builds each scene from your real role, your sector and the person you name, and plays every person in it, so every scenario is new, adjusting according to your decisions.

What you'll achieve

Rehearsal of the conversations that decide whether people back you: the ask upward, the peer with other priorities, the trade, the meeting that must land a decision, and the request you need to decline
A scored report after every room: each dimension with the moment that earned its score, strengths, development areas, blind spots where the evidence shows them, and one recommended focus with a first step
Every scene calibrated to the real person you name, so the rehearsal maps onto the relationship you are navigating
Unlimited attempts at every room, each a new scene at the calibration you set, scored on the same dimensions and charted against every attempt before it

At a glance

Who it's for: Project and program leads, product managers, specialists and advisers, chiefs of staff, and anyone in a matrix who delivers through people they don't manage. Every room calibrates to your role and the person you name, so it serves someone managing a single peer relationship and someone running a program with a dozen of them. It assumes you have a live piece of work that depends on someone who doesn't report to you, and at least one of the five conversations still ahead of you.
Cadence: 3 weeks
1: Upward influence · Peer influence · Managing Up · Stakeholder Influence · Read Grounding and Outcome; read Reading the Room and Durability; write the opening line for each real conversation
2: Trading position · Negotiation · Read Concession Pattern and Pressure Response; negotiate the real trade
3: Decision facilitation · Setting a boundary · Meeting Facilitation · Saying No Simulation · Read Closure and Clarity; read the Ren summary; set the ongoing plan

Session by session

Week 1: Upward influence · Peer influence

Ask the person above you for what the work needs, with specifics, and read what a peer cares about before you ask them for anything.

Managing Up Stakeholder Influence

Week 2: Trading position

Open with a position, trade rather than concede, and stay steady when the other side pushes.

Negotiation

Week 3: Decision facilitation · Setting a boundary

Set a meeting up to reach a decision, then decline a request from someone you need without spending the relationship.

Meeting Facilitation Saying No Simulation

Five influence simulations, 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