PATH, MAPS and Circles

PATH, MAPS, and CIRCLES were developed to assist individuals, families and their support networks to plan positive and positive futures. Circles came first (with Judith Snow), to discover who was in her life, to work to build an exciting and robust future. MAPS had its origins in schools, to replace the medicalized files with stories that children and adults could use to discover the potential and direction for inclusion and friendship for all. PATH followed by reversing the planning process, beginning with a North Star imagination of dreams and highest purpose, and then a Vision of possibility, working backwards in steps into an action plan to implement a better life.

PATH is person-centered, meaning that the person with whom we are planning is present and holds center stage. There are two facilitators – one for graphics and the other for process. The other core element is that the PATH finder has gathered a group of family, friends and supporters to join in the co-creation of this life plan.

PATH is a creative planning process which starts in the future and works backwards to an outcome of first (beginning) steps that are possible and positive.
It is excellent for team building. It has been used to mediate conflicts, to negotiate land claims, prison release, family reconciliation, and strategic plans for individuals and organizations. It is loved by people who actually want to change the ways we currently work.

PATH draws on people’s capacities to imagine different futures, & to think backwards from a future possibility & tell fruitful stories about how that possibility might come to be.

The template puts present time on the left & future time to the right. The process moves the planning circle from the purpose that calls the focus person to join in its creation to a definite future time a year or more away.

Then it shifts to a description of the present before moving back to a future point halfway to the desired future & works back to potential accomplishments in the month following the meeting & the day after the meeting.

It is much harder to explain this to planning circle members before they have experienced it than it is to guide them through it, so just jump in & do it together.

IF you are working /teaching these processes, each person should have a copy of the book – and some time to review the supportive videos and articles. Ideally each participant will have a copy of the book. PATH is not for the faint of heart. It is very results-oriented.

Our friend Dave Wetherow wrote an excellent letter to someone who was asking about becoming a ‘trainer’ in PATH or MAPS. It is an excellent explanation of how we think about this issue…. (On Becoming a PATH Trainer – Dave Wetherow)