How is this different from GROW?

GROW starts with a goal and finds a path forward. This method starts with an experience and asks what it can teach you. Use it when you need to understand first.

What belongs in the What stage?

Include the context, events, people involved, your role, and the outcome. Thoughts and feelings are your response—not facts about another person’s intent.

How do I keep So What from becoming rumination?

Test assumptions, other perspectives, consequences, and patterns instead of replaying the event. Stop when another pass adds no useful learning.

What makes a useful Now What?

Name the behavior, where you will try it, and what others can observe. “Ask each function for one constraint before proposing a timeline” can be reviewed; “communicate better” cannot.

What? So What? Now What?

Three questions help you understand an experience and act more deliberately next time.

Separate events from interpretation
Extract one learning
Choose what to do next

Learn from experience in 3 steps

This method turns an experience into a next step: describe it, interpret it, then act. Reflacto keeps these three stages intact.

What?
Record what happened, how it ended, and how you responded. Keep observations, thoughts, and feelings distinct.
So What?
Test assumptions, consequences, patterns, and other perspectives. State one specific learning.
Now What?
Choose one concrete behavior or small experiment for a similar situation.

How the method works

Example: risks surface too late in a planning meeting.

What?
In Monday’s planning meeting, I presented the timeline before asking about constraints. Two risks surfaced only after we agreed on the plan. Under time pressure, I read silence as agreement.
So What?
My urgency narrowed the discussion. Silence did not mean agreement. My learning: surface constraints before proposing a plan.
Now What?
On Thursday, I will ask each area for one important constraint before proposing a timeline. Everyone will then review it silently for two minutes.

Other interpretations and next steps may be just as useful.

When this method helps

Use it after an event that surprised you or stayed with you—especially when you want to act differently next time.

Limits and when to pause

The simple structure can lead to shallow reflection. In So What, use evidence and other perspectives. Where harm, safety, discrimination, or serious conflict is involved, solo reflection cannot replace feedback, investigation, or qualified support.

Where Reflacto uses this method

Choose the situation you want to reflect on:

Key benefits

Separates the event from its interpretation
Surfaces assumptions and other perspectives
Turns one learning into a testable experiment

Questions Reflacto asks

Reflacto turns the method into these concrete reflection questions:

1What happened? Describe the situation and its outcome as concretely as possible.
2What were you thinking and feeling, and how did you respond?
3So what? Why does this experience matter, and how do you now make sense of it?
4What is the most important thing you learned from this experience?
5Now what? What will you do differently in a similar situation?

Common questions about What? So What? Now What?

How is this different from GROW?: GROW starts with a goal and finds a path forward. This method starts with an experience and asks what it can teach you. Use it when you need to understand first.
What belongs in the What stage?: Include the context, events, people involved, your role, and the outcome. Thoughts and feelings are your response—not facts about another person’s intent.
How do I keep So What from becoming rumination?: Test assumptions, other perspectives, consequences, and patterns instead of replaying the event. Stop when another pass adds no useful learning.
What makes a useful Now What?: Name the behavior, where you will try it, and what others can observe. “Ask each function for one constraint before proposing a timeline” can be reviewed; “communicate better” cannot.

Origin and Reflacto's adaptation

Terry Borton introduced the three questions in his 1970 book Reach, Touch, and Teach. John Driscoll later developed them into a reflective-practice model; other authors published further adaptations.

Also known as: Borton reflective model, Driscoll model of reflection, The three Ws

What Reflacto changed

Reflacto turns the three stages into five prompts: observable experience, personal response, meaning, one learning, and a concrete future action. The separate response and learning prompts are Reflacto additions.

Primary sources and further reading

Editorially reviewed by Daniel Schmeiß

Last substantive review: August 30, 2026

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