What- So What- Now What-… version 2.0 for Creative Leaders
In the 1970s, Terry Borton introduced a simple but effective reflective model. Borton was an English educational theorist, group facilitator, and performer – he gave ‘magic lantern’ shows. His simple approach involved three familiar questions to carefully consider events and experiences:
What? What happened? What did I do or feel? What did others do or feel?
So What? So what do I or others think or feel about what happened? So what do I or others do now? So what does it mean?
Now What? Now what is the conclusion or takeaway? Now what should I or others do or feel? Now what should I do – or change?
Borton’s questions have often been used to clarify the past, present, and future significance of an event or experience. Among their most notable applications has been in healthcare, where the approach has been mapped onto the stages of experiential learning about events or experiences in clinical practice. But moving beyond that temporal frame allows us both to produce a richer understanding of experiences and potential responses and to address our ideas and identities, our motivations and beliefs.
In my coaching and teaching with creative leaders, I often add two further questions – in sequence, they become the third and fifth questions, respectively:
What else? Having answered the So what? question, ask: What else do I or others think or feel about an event or experience, an idea or identity?
What if…? Having answered the Now what…? question, ask: What if the conclusion or takeaway could be different? What if I do something different?
These additional questions encourage deeper, potentially more creative responses to experiences or ideas.
For this week, start with your core ideas about creative leadership. This may be your individual definition or idea or model of creative leadership. Or what you’ve come to understand as the predominant practice of creative leadership. Or even how being a creative leader is an important part of your own personal or professional identity.
Practically, your sequence of reflection can be as follows:
Rather than an event or experience, use that idea of creative leadership as the answer to the initial ‘What?’ question.
Then ask yourself, ‘So what?’ – why does my idea or identity as a creative leader matter this week? What does being a creative leader as I’ve defined it mean for the decisions and actions I will take this week.
You can also push yourself further here by asking, ‘What else?’ can I think or do this week as a creative leader? What else may others think of my ideas or actions?
‘Now what’ should I commit to doing? Which decisions or actions will I take on specific tasks or interactions with others? What can I change this week, based on my reflections, from what I’ve done in the past?
You can again push further here by asking, ‘What if…?’ What if I pivot or reverse course on a task? What if I shift my priorities on a project or my position in a relationship? What if I think or do something differently?
Many of us already reflect on our work and experiences by asking questions like these. Extending the reflections and questions to our ideas about and identities as creative leaders – and committing to acting differently based on the answers – can provide fresh and constructive ways forward in our lives and leadership.