Ten Ways to Play it Forward

Play it forward (sharing ideas, experiences, and insights) to seek guidance and feedback from members of your network. Often, people broadcast successes. However, sharing work in progress is often more valuable. Sharing work in progress creates opportunities for people in your network to give you meaningful feedback. When you respond to those suggestions and try new activities because of feedback, members of your network are motivated to continue giving you feedback.

The ten ideas below are based on the notion of sharing work in progress. The first five ideas are about sharing your journey and the development of projects over time, the next four suggestions are about sharing specific, well-defined micro-projects that you are doing now, and the last suggestion is about recognizing people in your network. Together, these ten ideas will help you develop a systematic way of sharing in networks to increase the value for yourself and for others.

1. When you become aware of a problem or possibility, play it forward to seek ideas and suggestions from others in your network
2. When you explore a possibility and discover doable projects, play it forward to seek information on these projects
3. When you decide on next steps/ projects, seek feedback on your direction
4. When you figure out ways to get projects done, seek feedback on how to integrate people, resources, and activities in your project.
5. When you make progress, play it forward to seek feedback that will help you achieve the desired transformation over time.

6. When you start (intiate) a new project, play it forward to seek ideas, guidance, and feedback.

7. When you modify (adapt) existing projects because of the changing situation, play it forward to seek ideas, guidance, and feedback.

8. When you decide to continue (sustain) existing projects because of the changing situation, play it forward to seek ideas, guidance, and feedback.

9. When you see ways to build upon past projects (extend), play it forward to seek ideas, guidance, and feedback.

10. When members of your network make significant contributions to your work, play it forward to recognize their contributions.