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Workshop participants building a Pathway, October 2025, Poland. 

Workshop participants building a Pathway, October 2025, Poland. 


Image: Mazowieckie Biuro Planowania Regionalnego w Warszawie.

Bold visions are great, but getting there is hard.

The ASM Pathways™ method (“Pathways”) is a comprehensive, participatory future-planning framework designed by the Centre for Systems Solutions to help diverse groups of stakeholders navigate the complexity of contemporary societal challenges. It has been developed to bridge the gap between science, policy, and society by transforming an understanding of complex sustainability challenges into practical strategies, and deployed as part of the Planning Land Use Strategies: Meeting biodiversity, climate and social objectives in a changing world (PLUS Change) project.

The Pathways Method helps with turning ambition into action. By working backward from a desired future, it reveals the barriers that block progress and helps your group design the interventions needed to move forward — step by step.

Is the Pathways method for you?

It is for:

Facilitators, researchers, and teams working on complex change

Use it to:

Turn your visions into concrete action plan and overcome obstacles

Whom to involve:

15–25 participants with diverse perspectives

Results:

A Pathway map with actions and responsible actors

Benefits:

Clear strategies and shared ownership of the transition

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Workshop participants building a Pathway.
Workshop participants building a Pathway.

Workshop organised in November 2025 by JINAG, South Moravia, Czech Republic.

The Pathways method was successfully implemented in stakeholder workshops across nine European countries between September 2025 and February 2026. The method guided diverse stakeholder groups’ discussions, clarified ambitions and led to concrete routes toward desired futures.

A Pathway leading to a new polyfunctional city district.
A Pathway leading to a new polyfunctional city district.

Created at a workshop organised in November 2025

by Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia.

Each workshop focused on a locally relevant land-use challenge, putting the flexibility of the method to the test. For instance, in the South Moravian region of Czechia, participants developed Pathways to use land improvements as a strategic opportunity to retain water in the landscape. In Nitra, Slovakia, stakeholders co-created Pathways toward a new city district centred on urban nature, biodiversity, and high-quality public spaces.

Participants opinion

Experts from various fields (regional officials, university professors, researchers, municipal representatives, farmers, etc.) gathered in one place, listened to one another, and worked together to find a solution to the problem.

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Marie Indráková
Project Team Leader
JINAG South Moravia, Czechia

What is the Pathways Method

Deployed within the Horizon Europe PLUS Change project, the Pathways method helped stakeholders from diverse backgrounds navigate the "messy middle" of planning for land-use change.
Deployed within the Horizon Europe PLUS Change project, the Pathways method helped stakeholders from diverse backgrounds navigate the “messy middle” of planning for land-use change.
The method utilizes backcasting logic to identify the barriers that stand between the present day and a desired future. By mapping these obstacles alongside targeted interventions, the process produces robust roadmaps, which can be immediately used in practice. The method’s effectiveness is grounded in extensive practical application, having been deployed across 9 countries, in contexts ranging from urban development and regional land-use planning to business climate change adaptation. These uses proved that the method is widely applicable, remaining effective regardless of geographic location, cultural context, or the specific topic at hand.
The method utilizes backcasting logic to identify the barriers that stand between the present day and a desired future. By mapping these obstacles alongside targeted interventions, the process produces robust roadmaps, which can be immediately used in practice. The method’s effectiveness is grounded in extensive practical application, having been deployed across 9 countries, in contexts ranging from urban development and regional land-use planning to business climate change adaptation. These uses proved that the method is widely applicable, remaining effective regardless of geographic location, cultural context, or the specific topic at hand.
The Pathways Method provides a structured, deliberative approach where scientists, elected politicians, practitioners, and citizens can plan around conflicting values and manage systemic uncertainty. The result is an organised Pathway from the present day towards the desired future. The Pathway consists of barriers, and interventions and outcomes designed to overcome them. Together, they create a strategy which can be applied in practice and initiate a process of change towards a better future. Whether addressing climate adaptation, development of a new district, or social norms shift, the Pathways Method empowers organizations to move from observation to action with clarity and confidence.
The Pathways Method provides a structured, deliberative approach where scientists, elected politicians, practitioners, and citizens can plan around conflicting values and manage systemic uncertainty. The result is an organised Pathway from the present day towards the desired future. The Pathway consists of barriers, and interventions and outcomes designed to overcome them. Together, they create a strategy which can be applied in practice and initiate a process of change towards a better future. Whether addressing climate adaptation, development of a new district, or social norms shift, the Pathways Method empowers organizations to move from observation to action with clarity and confidence.
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Objective

The first step is to determine where we want to get. What is our destination? What change do we want to see become a reality? It reflects the desired future we want to achieve. Once it is identified, it is written on a coloured sticky note and placed on the right-hand end of the prepared paper canvas.

2

Barriers

The next step seeks to identify the reasons why reaching the desired future is difficult. What is it that prevents us from achieving the objective? The answers to these questions are written on sticky notes, representing the barriers that stand in the way of our desired future. At this point, the barrier sticky notes are placed to the left side of the objective, creating a visual series of obstacles that need to be overcome.

3

Interventions and outcomes

Once the barriers are identified, the process moves forward to identifying plausible solutions. What can be done about these barriers? What needs to change or happen to overcome them and reach the objective? The Pathways method employs two concepts at this point: interventions and outcomes.

Interventions-mark

Interventions and outcomes

An intervention means a deliberate action, strategy, or set of activities implemented to bring about desired changes within a system. If an intervention triggers a change, we use the outcome element to describe it.

Interventions-mark (1)

Interventions and outcomes

An outcome is a specific, observable, change that results from one or more interventions, reflecting progress toward achieving the objective. The outcome element describes the change the Pathway authors deem necessary to reach the objective.

4

Completing the Pathway

By identifying outcomes and interventions we address the barriers by finding a way to overcome them. We construct a series of barriers, and solutions to those barriers. We repeat this process as many times as needed to create a link between the present day (on the far left side of the paper canvas) and the objective (on the far right). Once we connect the present with the objective, a Pathway takes shape.

5

Enhancing the Pathway

Connecting a desired future with the present is the primary goal of creating a Pathway, as it provides a clear strategy for moving forward. However, a complete Pathway can still be improved by incorporating elements which facilitate an immediate use in practice. These include: co-benefits and undesired consequences, contextual assumptions, indicators, and responsibility. You can learn more about these elements and Pathway development in the Guidebook.

Guidebook

Download the Pathway method guidebook

Ready to bring the Pathways method to your organisation? This comprehensive guide provides everything you need to design and execute a successful workshop. From identifying the right stakeholders to the sticky note strategy, it provides the step-by-step instructions required to develop your own Pathways.

Inside the Guidebook:

  • A Step-by-Step Workshop Agenda: A detailed breakdown of the process.
  • Pathway elements toolkit: Clear definitions for barriers, interventions, outcomes, and more.
  • Facilitation tips: Tips for running a workshop and managing diverse groups.
  • Practical examples: Good practices from the method’s use in PLUS Change
Download

Designers

ASM Pathways™ adaptation to PLUS Change:

Piotr Magnuszewski
Michal Plšek
Paolo Campo

Graphics:

Bartosz Naprawa

Video editing:

Anna Koch

Support:

Vincent O’Connell
Michalina Kułakowska

Contact

Have a project or an idea in mind? Contact us to discuss the possibilities of collaboration. Or simply drop a line for suggestions and opinions. We normally reply within 24 hours.

Call Us

+48 71 718 85 36

Drop Us Mail

contact@socialsimulations.org

Location

Jaracza 80b/10
50-305 Wrocław, Poland

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PLUS Change is an EU-funded Horizon project that aims to create strategies and decision-making processes for land use, addressing issues related to climate change, biodiversity, and human well-being. The project’s goal is to generate knowledge and drive transformative change towards a sustainable world. This is done through intensive collaboration with 12 case study areas, while producing a range of tools to shape how land use decisions are made by citizens, planners and policy makers.

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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The PLUS Change project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101081464.

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This work has been funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee [grant number 10067940]

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