Moving Beyond Double-Speak and Rhetorical Fallacies: Tools for Feedback that is Direct and Honors Dignity
Moving Beyond Double-Speak and Rhetorical Fallacies: Tools for Feedback that is Direct and Honors Dignity
A 2-part series for workers tired of performative communication
The Reality
One of the deepest sources of burnout is the accumulation of unaddressed concerns between supervisees and supervisors—issues that feel too structural, too risky, or too easy to twist and avoid.
Rhetorical fallacies like deflection, false equivalence, and strategic vagueness are used to obscure clarity, discriminate against workers, or force some to absorb the workload of those intentionally underperforming. Over time, this silence—and the double-speak tactics we adopt to survive it—erodes trust, clarity, and our capacity to do sustainable work together.
What This Series Offers
This isn't another training on "communication skills" that ignores power. This is a 2-part series that creates space to examine our socialized relationships to feedback, perfectionism, conflict avoidance, and double-speak.
We'll explore how giving and receiving feedback intersects with power dynamics around race, class, gender, and disability—and how dominant culture shapes whose voices we're taught to view as credible, competent, or "professional." We'll also investigate the ways we've learned to use double-speak to navigate complicated relationship dynamics, and how to reorient toward more honest communication.
This workshop is for anyone tired of performative communication and ready to build feedback practices rooted in honesty, accountability, and collective care.
Who This Is For
Workers navigating feedback dynamics in high-stakes environments:
Those who've absorbed concerns because naming them felt too risky
People whose feedback is regularly dismissed, tone-policed, or twisted
Supervisors trying to give honest feedback without replicating harm
Anyone exhausted by organizational double-speak that protects comfort over clarity
Workers ready to practice more direct, dignity-affirming communication
This series particularly centers the experiences of those whose feedback is most often discredited—particularly workers marginalized by race, class, gender, and disability.
What You'll Walk Away With
Recognize Rhetorical Fallacies
Identify the specific tactics (deflection, false equivalence, strategic vagueness) that obscure clarity and avoid accountability in workplace conversations.
Decode Double-Speak
Understand how double-speak functions to protect organizational comfort while harming workers—particularly those most marginalized—and learn to recognize it in real time.
Identify Manipulation Tactics
Name common manipulation strategies used by both supervisors and supervisees to avoid honest engagement.
Practice Direct, Dignity-Affirming Feedback
Develop concrete tools for giving and receiving feedback that is both honest and respectful—without sacrificing clarity for politeness.
Navigate Power Dynamics
Build capacity to name structural concerns without sacrificing relationships or safety, while understanding how race, class, gender, and disability shape whose feedback is heard.
Build Honest Communication Practices
Move beyond performative professionalism toward communication rooted in accountability and collective care.
Series Format
2 sessions, 90 minutes each
Virtual delivery via Zoom
Sessions include presentation, small group practice, scenario analysis, and guided reflection. Participants receive a comprehensive toolkit and maintain access to an ongoing practice community after the series concludes.
Investment — Sliding Scale Pricing
We use sliding scale pricing because we believe transformative training shouldn't only be accessible to well-funded institutions. When larger organizations pay more, they directly subsidize access for grassroots groups doing essential work with minimal resources.
Under $100K budget: $700
$100K–$1M budget: $1,500
$1M–$5M budget: $2,500
$5M+ budget: $3,500
Choose honestly based on your organization's total operating budget. All rates cover up to 30 participants.
Moving Beyond Double-Speak and Rhetorical Fallacies: Tools for Feedback that is Direct and Honors Dignity
A 2-part series for workers tired of performative communication
The Reality
One of the deepest sources of burnout is the accumulation of unaddressed concerns between supervisees and supervisors—issues that feel too structural, too risky, or too easy to twist and avoid.
Rhetorical fallacies like deflection, false equivalence, and strategic vagueness are used to obscure clarity, discriminate against workers, or force some to absorb the workload of those intentionally underperforming. Over time, this silence—and the double-speak tactics we adopt to survive it—erodes trust, clarity, and our capacity to do sustainable work together.
What This Series Offers
This isn't another training on "communication skills" that ignores power. This is a 2-part series that creates space to examine our socialized relationships to feedback, perfectionism, conflict avoidance, and double-speak.
We'll explore how giving and receiving feedback intersects with power dynamics around race, class, gender, and disability—and how dominant culture shapes whose voices we're taught to view as credible, competent, or "professional." We'll also investigate the ways we've learned to use double-speak to navigate complicated relationship dynamics, and how to reorient toward more honest communication.
This workshop is for anyone tired of performative communication and ready to build feedback practices rooted in honesty, accountability, and collective care.
Who This Is For
Workers navigating feedback dynamics in high-stakes environments:
Those who've absorbed concerns because naming them felt too risky
People whose feedback is regularly dismissed, tone-policed, or twisted
Supervisors trying to give honest feedback without replicating harm
Anyone exhausted by organizational double-speak that protects comfort over clarity
Workers ready to practice more direct, dignity-affirming communication
This series particularly centers the experiences of those whose feedback is most often discredited—particularly workers marginalized by race, class, gender, and disability.
What You'll Walk Away With
Recognize Rhetorical Fallacies
Identify the specific tactics (deflection, false equivalence, strategic vagueness) that obscure clarity and avoid accountability in workplace conversations.
Decode Double-Speak
Understand how double-speak functions to protect organizational comfort while harming workers—particularly those most marginalized—and learn to recognize it in real time.
Identify Manipulation Tactics
Name common manipulation strategies used by both supervisors and supervisees to avoid honest engagement.
Practice Direct, Dignity-Affirming Feedback
Develop concrete tools for giving and receiving feedback that is both honest and respectful—without sacrificing clarity for politeness.
Navigate Power Dynamics
Build capacity to name structural concerns without sacrificing relationships or safety, while understanding how race, class, gender, and disability shape whose feedback is heard.
Build Honest Communication Practices
Move beyond performative professionalism toward communication rooted in accountability and collective care.
Series Format
2 sessions, 90 minutes each
Virtual delivery via Zoom
Sessions include presentation, small group practice, scenario analysis, and guided reflection. Participants receive a comprehensive toolkit and maintain access to an ongoing practice community after the series concludes.
Investment — Sliding Scale Pricing
We use sliding scale pricing because we believe transformative training shouldn't only be accessible to well-funded institutions. When larger organizations pay more, they directly subsidize access for grassroots groups doing essential work with minimal resources.
Under $100K budget: $700
$100K–$1M budget: $1,500
$1M–$5M budget: $2,500
$5M+ budget: $3,500
Choose honestly based on your organization's total operating budget. All rates cover up to 30 participants.