exercise · all tools
What, So What, Now What? (W³)
Depth · what it can open●○○○1 — informational
Holding · facilitation1 — host
Trust · group readiness★any
Disclosure · what is sharedoptional
A debrief ladder in three deliberate rungs: first only facts and observations (What?), then meaning, patterns and implications (So What?), and only then action (Now What?). Small groups climb the rungs together, which stops the universal habit of leaping from a single observation straight to a conclusion and a plan.
Practical
- Time
- 20-40 min
- Group
- 4–∞ · small-group, large-group
- Settings
- in-person, online
- Materials
- Groups of 5–7; flip chart
- Mechanisms
- cognitive-reframing, dialogic-encounter
- Change scope
- state → skill · repeatable
Instructions
- Where
- liberatingstructures.com/what-so-what-now-what — Liberating Structures, open
- Availability
- Open online — published at the link, free to read
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
Source link checked 29 Aug 2026 — unchanged since we recorded it on 28 Aug 2026
This directory describes and points home; the instructions stay with the people who made them.
Origin
Henri Lipmanowicz & Keith McCandless — Liberating Structures; builds on the Ladder of Inference (Chris Argyris) and experiential-learning debriefs
In this directory via Liberating Structures
status: checked · added 2026-08-25