Practice Multiplier: Paying Forward – Creating a Compounding Effect

The Science and Power of Paying Forward—Introducing one of the great secrets to personal, organizational, and community resilience

Today we will explore a very powerful move, so powerful it can change your life and that of your community. It is all the more intriguing because it may appear so innocuous, modest, natural and unassuming. But why would we imagine that really extraordinary things in life need be otherwise? I am referring to Paying Forward.

Paying Forward is the act of passing on the goodness that comes our way without asking anything in return. In some cultures, like Japan, Paying Forward is viewed as an important means to create reciprocal obligations; and this cultural artifact has served Japanese society very well. As my close colleague, Patricia Bader-Johnston, one of Japan’s great women social entrepreneurs points out, Paying Forward and the mesh of obligations and sense of responsibility it engenders created a safety net for communities devastated by the 2011 earthquake in Fukushima.

In this course, however, I am adopting the principle of Paying Forward as derived from the Karma Yoga tradition of India (See References)—namely, a selfless act without any expectation of acknowledgment or reward.

This way of understanding Paying Forward is not solely an Indian concept. The Transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson in his famous Essay on Compensation made the following remarkable statement:

“In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody. Beware of too much good staying on your hand. It will fast corrupt and worm worms. Pay it away quickly in some sort.”

In the Yogic tradition, Paying Forward enables us eventually to become akarmic—free at last of the revolving door of birth, death, and rebirth that brings us eons of countless suffering. But how? How does Paying Forward enable us to become akarmic? Because we are no longer attached to the outcomes of our actions. Paying Forward thus holds a key to resilience, personal freedom, and as we shall shortly see, community resilience.

There is some good scientific work on the Science of Paying Forward as published by Cornell researchers Milena Tsvetkova and Michael Macy. In summarizing their study they write:

“We conclude that observing an act of kindness is likely to play an important role in setting a cascade of generosity in motion, since many people can potentially observe a single act of helping. But we found that it was receiving help that sustained the cascade as it spread through the group.”

Explaining Emerson: So why does Emerson say holding on to the bounty will “worm worms”? It is a colorful expression, but what does it, in fact, mean? His biological metaphor makes sense when we look at Paying Forward from the perspective of energy. Being attached to an idea consumes vital energy. Paying Forward without attachment allows our creative energies to flow naturally, and this generates eddies of generosity that cascade as other members of a community become motivated to do the same.

I view Paying Forward as the “Royal Move” in The Resilient Negotiation system. Why? Because every other move instantly recalibrates and moves toward integrity and resilience. Take the 5 Core Values. ( Book 1 of Explorers Mind–Chapters 1 and II). As we Pay Forward, our Need recedes, our Mission clarifies, we have fewer assumptions and expectations, accept and exercise our right to say “no,” and live more in the present. You needn’t take my word for it, although I have been tracking this phenomenon for over 30 years. I recommend that you select Paying Forward as your “practice move of the week” in your Field Notes and notice what begins to happen with every other move. Just be a scientist and observe. There is a paradox here: Why Paying Forward, which looks like it is extending a hand to someone else, is at the same time a great act of self-care.

Paying Forward needn’t be some dramatic gesture. A simple unheralded act is sufficient. There is no abacus of merit, calculating “superior” versus “lesser” Paying Forward. They are all powerful and often in unanticipated inexplicable ways.

There is another important quality of Paying Forward: It is a Royal Connector. By that I mean it begins with a simple action that builds our own personal resilience. But by its very nature it connects and benefits another person. When Paying Forward is adopted by a team, or a for-profit or non-profit organization, the multiplier is built-in, and, I conjecture, extends almost automatically to communities. But the multiplying pathways of beneficence are emergent.

This is because we are entering the realm of a new science of complexity. Here’s a living example. I checked out, as you yourself, can the Breaking News Feed on the Laughing Heart website accompanying this Module. And among the first results is: The Giving Economy: How Consumers Are Paying It Forward to Retailers October 1, 2023:

“Retailers have been giving back to their customers and communities by sending products to frontline workers or ensuring their communities remain safe at home. Now, customers can return the support to support their favorite businesses.”

“In response to some brands at risk of closing permanently, customers are choosing to directly support them, starting what we’re calling “the giving economy”. The giving economy is a movement of consumer generosity, and it appears in a couple of forms: direct tips to retailers or gift cards, ensuring cash is still going into the business, and using those cards for later.”

Resilience Multiplier Effect (RME)ME—The important point is the act of Paying Forward by itself generates cascading virtuous circles or RME for all in its beneficial wake. And because each act of Paying Forward has equal dignity, so to speak, we now have a preliminary metric to track and to gauge the continuous and compounding Resilience Multiplier Effect (RME) for a community. We simply look to the total average percentages of increase of resilience over a specific time period and then multiply this increase by the percentage increase in Paying Forward for this same time period. This is a rather rudimentary but still useful way to account for the RME which has been to date almost universally ignored in the literature on resilience.

And there is a final discovery I want to tell you about that seems to me miraculous. Once again I ask you how many people does it take to cause a shift toward happiness, kindness, generosity… toward the light? In Les Miserables, Victor Hugo answers this question by showing us that a single act by single person can do it—in Les Miserables it is the single act of the Bishop of Digne forgiving and saving his hero the convict Jean Valjean from being sent back to the galleys, where he has already spent years at hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family. The Bishop has given Jean Valjean refuge in his home when he was an outcast on the streets of Digne where no one would give him shelter. Jean Valjean steals the Bishops candelabra, and he is arrested by the Gendarme. The Bishop tells the police officers that it was a gift and that act of mercy allows Jean Valjean to go free. This single act of compassion, this little candle of light in the dark world of his life transforms Jean Valjean and inspires him to act with compassion for every other person he comes encounters, who also is transformed, in this very great novel of suffering and redemption.

Each of us is Jean Valjean, in our own way, with our own fears and concerns, our own troubles and tribulations. And each of us is also the Bishop who is in a position to lighten the burdens of others or enhance in small ways their  quotient of joy in the world.

You can keep track and understand the wonder of Paying Forward by simply recording your discoveries in your Field Notes, and sharing your discoveries with other participants in this course.

Evolutionary Conversation—Discovery Questions

Exercises

References and Resources

Here is the Paying Forward practice (with Audio) from the 5 Minutes to Resilience App