Yes, inversion is often a useful trick. Harsh: We really like your proposal but we don’t have the resources. Soft: We don’t have the resources, but we really

Yes, inversion is often a useful trick. Harsh: We really like your proposal but we don’t have the resources. Soft: We don’t have the resources, but we really like your proposal. Another trick is to not just say, "I disagree" when you disagree. Validate first, then express disagreement. For example: "I hear you and see where you’re coming from. I have a different view." This lessens defensiveness. This might all sound very silly, but these are actually brain hacks in order to have constructive conversations. Depending on your culture, you might have a different sensitivity to direct speech. If you're sensitive, your lower brain (fight-or-flight mechanism) is activated when you perceive someone is critical toward you. The idea of rearranging language is to defuse that lower brain (fight-or-flight) tendency and move the conversation to the upper brain (executive function), so instead of fighting at a pure feelings level, ideas can be exchanged (and disagreements can be had) at a more abstract level.