Combine personality traits, values, preferred channels, and stress responses to construct believable counterparts. When personas adapt to tone, timing, and evidence quality, learners must notice subtle cues, flex style choices, and negotiate needs without scripts, strengthening empathy and strategic communication.
Adjust levers like urgency, resource scarcity, competing priorities, and misunderstandings to produce tension that matters. Micro-stakes, such as trust erosion or minor policy risks, keep conversations consequential without paralyzing intimidation, helping learners practice recovery, boundary clarity, and collaborative problem-solving.
Rather than rigid scripts, design a grammar of intents, evidence, and emotions. Branches respond to how something is said, not only what is said, rewarding curiosity, summarizing, and reframing, while discouraging defensiveness, premature solutions, and performative empathy that misses actual needs.