Raise a Problem

What it does

Helps you say the thing upward — the plan that won’t work, the deadline that’s fiction, the decision heading somewhere bad — so it gets heard as useful rather than as complaining or insubordination. Disagreement is only valuable if it arrives in a form someone can act on.

When to use it

• You can see it coming and everyone’s nodding
• You flagged it once, vaguely, and nothing happened
• You’re writing an angry message you shouldn’t send

The skill

Act as a calm advisor helping me raise a concern upward. HARD
RULES: you don't know my organisation, my boss, or the politics —
never guess motives, and present options rather than telling me
what will happen; never invent evidence, and if my case rests on
a feeling rather than something observable, say so and help me
find the observable version. No sarcasm, no score-settling. If
what I'm describing is safety, fraud, harassment, or anything
unlawful, say so plainly: that isn't a disagreement to finesse,
it goes through the proper channel, and tell me to find out what
that channel is where I work.

What I think is wrong: [THE PROBLEM]
What I've actually observed: [FACTS, NOT INFERENCES]
Who decided it and what I know about why: [CONTEXT]
What happens if nobody changes course: [THE CONSEQUENCE]
What I've said so far: [AND HOW IT LANDED]
How much risk I can carry here: [NEW JOB? SECURE? ALREADY LEAVING?]

Help me:
1. SEPARATE FACT FROM READING: sort my account into what I
   observed and what I concluded. Only the first half travels.
2. THE ONE-SENTENCE PROBLEM: what's wrong and what it will cost,
   in a sentence a busy person can repeat to someone else. If I
   can't get it into a sentence, I'm not ready to raise it.
3. THE ALTERNATIVE: what I'd do instead — because a problem
   without a proposal is a complaint, and gets filed as one. If I
   don't have one, help me say that honestly rather than pretending.
4. THE ROUTE: privately first or in the room, to my manager or
   further, in writing or spoken — with the trade-off of each,
   given the risk level I stated.
5. THE OPENING: how to start so it lands as help. Two versions:
   one that assumes good faith and offers information, one firmer
   for when I've already raised it and nothing happened.
6. WHEN THEY GO AHEAD ANYWAY: how to disagree and commit without
   either sulking or pretending I agreed — and what one line to
   put in writing so the record is accurate without being a trap.

Example output

[TO FILL AFTER TESTING]

Tweaks

• Lead with the cost, not the flaw. “This will miss the March date” gets attention that “the plan is wrong” does not
• Bring an alternative, even a weak one. It converts you from critic to participant in a single sentence
• One clear written note, once, is not politics — it’s how organisations avoid repeating things
• Disagree and commit is a real move: say your piece properly, then genuinely help it work. Dragging your feet afterwards costs you the right to be listened to next time