Turn a Complaint into a Request
Added 2026-11-02
Drop the judgement, keep the facts, ask for one concrete thing.
I want to raise a frustration with a colleague (details below). Rewrite the complaint as a request: 1) state only the facts — what happened, when, what it affected; 2) remove every evaluative word, such as unprofessional, always uncooperative, too slow; 3) ask for one concrete, doable thing; 4) give a fallback if they say no; 5) explain how their likely reaction changes after the rewrite.
Site original
Chinese original
How to use
抱怨描述的是对方，请求描述的是下一步。
Try tweaking it
- Ask for three columns: conclusion, owner, deadline — ready to paste into a table.
- Let it organise only your notes; do not add decisions that were never made.
What you should get
- Task list with owner, deadline and blocker
- Escalations that need a decision, listed separately
Common mistakes
- Feeding raw notes and letting it fill in decisions that were never made.
- Getting owners without deadlines, so no task can be created.
How to check the output
- Every item has an owner and a date — ready to become a task.
- It does not record decisions that were never made.
Where it works
- Good for: turning verbal discussion into owner, deadline and blocker.
- Watch out: let it organise only the notes you supply — never let it infer decisions that were not made.