Wayfinder
  • The wayfinder guide
  • Resource library
  • About us
Wayfinder
  • The wayfinder guide
    • Introduction
      • Sustainable development in the 21st century
      • Wayfinder’s approach to the sustainability challenge
      • Getting to know the Wayfinder framework
      • What to expect from a Wayfinder process
    • Coalition
      • Getting people onboard
      • Designing the process
      • Initial system exploration
      • Evaluation, reflection and sense-making
    • System identity
      • Understanding aspirations and sustainability challenges
      • System components and organization
      • Towards a systems model and a change narrative
      • Evaluation, reflection and sense-making
    • System dynamics
      • Understanding social-ecological interactions across scales
      • Exploring option space
      • Looking at alternative future trajectories
      • Evaluation, reflection and sense making
    • Strategies
      • Preparing the ground for innovative solutions
      • Developing specific actions to address dilemmas and option space
      • Turning actions into strategies for change
      • Evaluation, reflection and sense making
    • Learning
      • Preparing for learning-by-doing implementation
      • Developing a framework for learning, monitoring and evaluation
      • Designing implementation
      • Evaluation, reflection and sense making
  • Resource library
  • About us
  • Introduction
  • 1. Coalition
  • 2. System identity
  • 3. System dynamics
  • 4. Strategies
  • 5. Learning

The Wayfinder Guide

 

The Wayfinder process consists of five phases, which you work through iteratively. Starting by building a Coalition for change that can lead the process forward, you move on to create a shared understanding of the identity of your system, explore system dynamics, develop strategies for change, and implement these through a learning-by-doing approach that will enable you to collectively ‘learn your way forward’ towards a more sustainable future.

This platform will guide you on your Wayfinder journey. It provides you with an accessible summary of the frontier in resilience and sustainability science, together with set of illustrative cases, activity sheets and discussion guides that will be useful along the way. Below you will find an overview of the 5 phases, 15 modules and 40 work cards that forms the Wayfinder process.

Overview of the process phases

Phase 1 Building a coalition for change

  • Module A: Getting people onboard
    1. 1: Assembling the team
    2. 2: Agreeing on principles for good practice
    3. 3: Developing system literacy and reflexive practice
  • Module B: Designing the process
    1. 4: Tailoring the process
    2. 5: Deciding on principles for stakeholder participation
    3. 6: Setting up a system for information management and learning
  • Module C: Initial system exploration
    1. 7: Mapping available data and information
    2. 8: Articulating assumptions about how to achieve systemic change
  • Evaluation, reflection and sense-making

    Phase 2 Creating a shared understanding of system identity

    • Module A: Understanding aspirations and sustainability challenges
      1. 9: Broad aspirations
      2. 10: System benefits
      3. 11: Social-ecological dilemmas
      4. 12: Historical development of the system
    • Module B: System components and organization
      1. 13: Key system components
      2. 14: Connections and networks
      3. 15: Cross-scale interactions
    • Module C: Towards a systems model and a change narrative
      1. 16: Building a conceptual model
      2. 17: Developing your initial Change Narrative
    • Evaluation, reflection and sense-making

      Phase 3 Exploring system dynamics

      • Module A: Understanding social-ecological interactions across scales
        1. 18: Developing simple models of key interactions
        2. 19: Identifying thresholds and traps
        3. 20: Cycles of change linked across scales
      • Module B: Exploring option space
        1. 21: Developing locally relevant option space indicators
        2. 22: Analyzing trends in option space over time
      • Module C: Looking at alternative future trajectories
        1. 23: Horizon scanning
        2. 24: Developing plausible scenarios
      • Evaluation, reflection and sense making

        Phase 4 Developing innovative strategies for change

        • Module A: Preparing the ground for innovative solutions
          1. 25: Establishing an open and innovative mind-set
          2. 26: Articulating a high-level goal for the Wayfinder process
        • Module B: Developing specific actions to address dilemmas and option space
          1. 27: Identify actions that target leverage points
          2. 28: Analyzing agency and opportunity context
          3. 29: Filtering your actions: feasibility & effectiveness
          4. 30: Considering unintended consequences, uncertainty, and option space
        • Module C: Turning actions into strategies for change
          1. 31: Strategizing
          2. 32: Packaging and communicating the Action Plan
          3. 33: Reflecting on the new change narrative
        • Evaluation, reflection and sense making

          Phase 5 Learning your way forward

          • Module A: Preparing for learning-by-doing implementation
            1. 34: Establishing a learning culture
            2. 35: Assembling a skilled implementation team
          • Module B: Developing a framework for learning, monitoring and evaluation
            1. 36: Creating a framework that enables deep learning
            2. 37: Setting up monitoring and evaluation in a deep learning context
          • Module C: Designing implementation
            1. 38: Introducing small-scale pilots
            2. 39: Enabling change at broader scales
            3. 40: Formulating an Implementation Plan
          • Evaluation, reflection and sense making
            The wayfinder guide
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            Introduction to the Wayfinder guide
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