The Flow Forward Playbook is your guide to understanding and applying the Flow Forward methodology. It explains the mindset, framework, and core principles behind the approach and helps you understand how to navigate.

You do not need to read the playbook from start to finish. Simply explore the sections that are most relevant to your challenge and use it as a guide throughout your innovation journey.

Building Blocks are the core of the Flow Forward methodology. To ensure they are practical and easy to use, every building block is organized into two layers that provide step-by-step guidance on specific tasks, such as ‘Agenda Setting’ or ‘Launching an Experiment’. 

1. Activities (what to do): each building block consists of two to three activities. These are the essential, structured actions required to perform the building block. 
2. Tools (how to do it): Every activity is supported by one or two practical tools. These are practical helpers such as templates, canvases, checklists, or workshop formats, that facilitate the work and structure your results. 

Example: For agenda setting the activities are ‘Identifying stakeholders’, ‘Defining the common challenge’ and ‘Engaging the coalition of the willing’. The activity ‘Identifying stakeholders’, consists of the tool ‘Stakeholder Radar’. 

The combination of activities + tools makes each building block both actionable and repeatable, so everyone can apply them confidently in different contexts and stages of their process.

The Flow Forward offers a rich library of building blocks, which can be found below. They are organized into a logical 3x3 matrix based on two dimensions: the three key innovation aspects (Ecosystem, Experimentation, and Governance) and the three maturity stages (stage 1, 2, 3).