What if the smartest move you can make in your 2026 planning isn’t adding more… but working backward from the win?
We’re building something special at PeopleForward Network, a place where work is meaningful, standards are high, and every person feels proud of what we create. To strengthen that foundation, we recently kicked off a new Lunch & Learn series with our team. It’s a space to deepen our shared understanding of how we work and why it matters.
So far, we’ve explored a few themes at the heart of our culture:
- Pay It Forward
- Each of Us Models Meaningful Work
- Belief
And recently, we dug into a topic that shapes everything we build: Working Backward. It’s a practice that ties directly to our core value of results.
Working backward helps us:
- Define the win first
- Get clear on the who before the how
- Reverse-engineer success with precision
Here’s the framework we walked through together:
- Get crystal clear on the end goal.
If we can’t name it, we can’t hit it.
This single step prevents most misalignment before it ever begins. - Know the who.
Before we build anything, whether that’s a podcast, an event, a partnership, or an email campaign, we start by understanding the person we’re designing for.
We use a five-point profile to get there:
- Role & responsibility
- Pain points & priorities
- Success drivers
- Decision style
- Communication style
When you truly understand the human, execution becomes ten times easier.
- Communicate for the person receiving the message.
We explored how different types of people (think DISC) take in information differently.
It’s not about “sending” a message. It’s about landing it. - Reverse-engineer the win.
We took real PFN projects like new podcasts, campaigns, events, prep guides, strategic partnerships, and mapped them backward from what success looks like.
What needs to happen?
In what order?
Who owns it?
By when?
Clarity → Ownership → Action.
That’s how results become inevitable.
As you think about 2026, maybe this is your moment to pause, zoom out, and define the win before moving another inch forward. Working backward may just move you farther than pushing ahead ever could.