Free tool
Feedforward Planning Sheet
Most reflection tools help you look back. This one is seven questions that turn what you noticed into something you will actually do next week.
The difference between feedback and feedforward is the direction. Feedback tells you what went wrong, and there is a limit to how useful that is once you already know. Feedforward asks what you will do differently, and by when, and who will notice.
That sounds obvious until you watch how evaluations usually end. Someone says a thoughtful thing about what could have gone better, everyone nods, and nothing changes, because nobody wrote down a first step with a date on it.
Seven questions. Ten minutes. One page.
1. What do I want to improve?
Name the specific thing, not the category. Not "communication", but "I lose the room in the first two minutes".
2. What actions will I take?
The concrete steps. If you cannot picture yourself doing it on a Tuesday, it is not a step yet.
3. Who or what can support me?
A person, a tool, a moment in the week. Most plans fail on this one because nobody else knows about them.
4. What is my first step, and when?
One action, with a date. This is the line that decides whether the rest happens.
5. What kind of feedback do I want?
Ask for something specific and people can give it. Ask "any feedback?" and you get "it was good".
6. How will I know I am making progress?
Something you could notice from the outside, not a feeling.
7. How do I keep this going?
What in your existing week does this attach to?
Where it works best
After a project or a performance review, when the evaluation is done and the plan is missing. In coaching or mentoring, as the last ten minutes of a session. In teams, filled in individually and then shared, which is usually where the interesting differences show up.
Get the sheet
A fillable PDF you can type into or print. Free, no payment. Leave your email and it lands in your inbox.
One email with the PDF, and the occasional note when there is something worth reading. Unsubscribe whenever.
Related
The Reflection Starters are the step before this one: twenty-five questions to work out what actually happened. This sheet is what you do with the answer.