Learning should ask for more than the answer

Use these ideas to design practice for higher cognitive skills. Then try a decision or plan what evidence would help someone grow and help a team judge readiness.

Try the launch decisionBrowse the frameworks

Start with the question you need to answer

These frameworks help you decide what to teach, what people need to practice, and what a learning experience makes possible.

Richness and Reach

Map cognitive demand and participation. Classify the actual experience, not its delivery format.

Explore Richness and Reach
The Richness and Reach modelA four quadrant grid. The vertical axis is Richness, the depth of thinking demanded, rising through Bloom's levels. The horizontal axis is Reach, the number of people engaged. The lower two quadrants are what-to-think: quadrant one has limited reach, quadrant two has broad reach. The upper two demand more thinking: quadrant three has limited reach and quadrant four has broad reach.Quadrant IIIHigher demand, limited reachQuadrant IVHigher demand, broad reachQuadrant ILower demand, limited reachQuadrant IILower demand, broad reachRichnessReachFewer participantsMore participantsHow-to-thinkWhat-to-think
Richness rises through Bloom's levels: remember → understand → apply → analyze → evaluate → create. Reach is the number of people a solution engages, from fewer to more participants. Placement depends on the task, not its delivery format.

The Thinking Effect

Examine an assumption, make a decision, learn from what happens, and try again.

What-to-think vs. how-to-think

Knowledge supports judgment. Practice gives people opportunities to use it when the answer is not already supplied.

Core Abilities

Three ways of working through a decision: test the explanation, consider alternatives, and trace consequences.

The knowing-doing gap

The distance between explaining an approach and using it when the task becomes difficult.

The Value Worker

How learning and adaptation contribute to useful work as responsibilities change.

Browse all framework definitions

Put the thinking to work

Try a decision before you see more information, or plan what you would observe when someone takes on a real responsibility. Both are short exercises with no sign-up.

The launch decision

Choose what to do with mixed pilot results. Explain the assumption behind your choice, then reconsider when an omitted customer group changes the picture.

It takes a few minutes, and your responses stay in your browser.

Try the decision

Build an evidence plan

Name a responsibility, the situation that would call for the skill, what you would record, and what the evidence still could not establish.

A guided worksheet you can download when you finish.

Build an evidence plan

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