The Learning Everywhere Framework
A simple, five-stage way to turn the stories you love into learning you can use at work.
Experience creates the opportunity to learn, but reflection and application turn experience into lasting knowledge.
Explore the five stages
What is actually happening?
Notice specific moments, words and behaviors before deciding what they mean.
You notice a physician interrupting a patient before she finishes describing her symptoms.
Jumping from what you saw to a judgment about the person.
For facilitators
Purpose
Observation is the starting point of learning. It asks learners to slow down, pay attention, and notice before rushing to judgment.
In everyday life, people often consume experiences passively. They watch a show, attend a meeting, hear a story, or encounter a problem without consciously examining what is happening. The Observe stage turns passive exposure into active attention.
Observation includes more than seeing or hearing. It involves noticing behaviors, language, emotions, relationships, decisions, patterns, contradictions, unanswered questions, physical and social environments, and personal reactions. The goal is not yet to explain or evaluate — the first task is to gather evidence and become curious.
Supporting questions
- What happened?
- Who was involved?
- What words, actions, or decisions stood out?
- What emotions were visible or implied?
- What details seemed important?
- What changed during the experience?
- What surprised or confused me?
- What appears to be missing?
- What assumptions am I already making?
- What questions does this experience raise?
Facilitator prompt
Describe what happened as though you were explaining it to someone who did not witness it. What evidence supports your description?
Expected output
- A clear description of the experience
- Specific evidence or examples
- Initial questions
- Greater awareness of personal reactions and assumptions
See it in action
BELIEVE (Ted Lasso), stage by stage
- Observe — Curiosity over judgment
Learners examine what a leader assumes before asking a single question.
- Connect — Psychological safety
Learners bring in a real team where people did, or didn't, speak up.
- Analyze — Radical candor
With Roy Kent as coach, learners test when directness helps and when it becomes harshness.
- Apply — Team rituals
Learners design a Team Culture Experiment, one small ritual for a real team.
- Reflect — The leader's wellbeing
Learners consider what sustainable leadership asks of them and leave with a Leadership Commitment.
Design principles
Curiosity Before Certainty
Ask before you conclude.
Evidence Before Judgment
Start with what you can observe.
Connection Creates Meaning
New ideas stick when they link to what you know.
Perspective Deepens Understanding
Other viewpoints reveal what you missed.
Application Makes Learning Useful
Learning counts when it changes what you do.
Reflection Makes Learning Visible
Naming what changed helps it last.
Learning Continues Beyond the Lesson
Every experience can teach.
How campuses use it
Learning begins individually. Wisdom is often built together.
Individual learning
Learners work through an experience on their own, with Potato as their coach, at their own pace. Ideal for new supervisors and busy staff.
Cohorts and teams
Leadership cohorts, departments and teams work through the same experience, then compare insights, building shared language and stronger working relationships.
Assessment
Every experience builds the same five capabilities: observing, connecting, analyzing, applying and reflecting. Behind the scenes, Potato uses a four-level rubric to coach each learner toward deeper thinking. Institutional reporting stays aggregate; private reflections stay private.
- Level 1Emerging
- Level 2Developing
- Level 3Proficient
- Level 4Transformative
The world is already teaching us. The Learning Everywhere Framework helps us notice the lesson, understand its meaning, and carry it into our lives.