Here, There, Everywhere

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Translate specific workshop observations into personal action items and transferable operating principles.

Use it when: At the conclusion of a training session, working workshop, or retrospective when participants need to bridge session concepts into everyday workplace habits.

Skip it when: When a meeting must produce binding team decisions, hard backlog items, or resource allocations under tight deadlines.

Group arrangement: Individual reflection followed by pairs or trios, ending with optional room samples.

Timing: Matches the 13 to 15 minute range reported in Gamestorming source documentation.

Materials and tools

• 3 sticky notes per participant (or a digital canvas equivalent)
• 1 pen or marker per participant
• Timer
• Wall space, tabletop, or shared board to post notes
• Session materials already on display (slides, charts, or workshop notes)

Before participants arrive

1. Ensure previous session materials, notes, or slides remain visible to all participants.
2. Distribute three sticky notes and a pen to every seat or set up a three-column digital board titled Here, There, Everywhere.

Say this to open

Take a look around at the material we covered today. We will take a few minutes to crystallize what you learned. You will write three separate notes: Here, There, and Everywhere. 'Here' is something specific that caught your attention in this room. 'There' is how you will apply that exact insight in your work or life. 'Everywhere' is the underlying general principle behind it.

How to run it

1. Review session content 2 minutes

   Direct participants to scan the room, slides, or shared notes silently. Ask them to locate one specific moment, phrase, framework, or exercise that stood out to them.

2. Write Here, There, and Everywhere 4 minutes

   Participants write silently on three separate sticky notes. Note 1 (Here): the specific observation. Note 2 (There): a concrete action they plan to take back at work. Note 3 (Everywhere): the broad principle behind the idea.

3. Discuss in pairs or trios 6 minutes

   Form groups of two or three. Each person shares their three notes. Partners listen and offer one clarifying question or observation per person. If someone prefers not to share their notes aloud, they may listen or share just the general principle.

4. Collect samples and debrief 3 minutes

   Invite two or three volunteers from the whole room to share their 'There' commitments or 'Everywhere' principles. Collect notes on a shared wall or invite participants to keep their personal action note.

Debrief questions

• Which was harder to identify: the specific action (There) or the universal principle (Everywhere)?
• How did seeing an underlying principle change the way you might apply the initial observation?
• What is one commitment from today that you plan to test within the next week?

Finished output: A completed set of three notes per participant linking an observation, an immediate personal application, and an underlying principle.

Remote

Set up a shared digital canvas with three columns labeled Here, There, and Everywhere. Give each person their own row or cluster of three digital notes. Keep mics muted during the silent writing phase, then use breakout rooms of two or three people for the six-minute discussion. Return to the main room for brief volunteer shares.

Hybrid

Provide a shared digital board accessible to both in-room and remote participants. In-person participants can write on physical notes and type their final points into the board, or work entirely on the digital board. Pair remote attendees with each other in virtual rooms, and in-person attendees with each other in the room to avoid audio interference.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may type, write by hand, or dictate their notes to a partner.
• Sharing is voluntary; participants may choose to keep their notes private and simply state that their reflection is complete.

If the session gets stuck

Participants write broad advice for 'Here' instead of a concrete observation from the session.

Remind the room that 'Here' must refer to an exact event, slide, tool, or statement that occurred in this specific workshop.

Participants get stuck on the abstraction required for 'Everywhere'.

Prompt them with: 'If you had to turn this insight into a general rule of thumb for any team, what would that rule be?'

Terms used here

• Here: A specific element, remark, tool, or moment observed directly within the current session.
• There: A specific, tangible action planned for the participant's own work or personal context.
• Everywhere: A general, context-free principle or rule derived from the specific observation.