CURIOSITY IN ACTION.
It WORKS.
The Contexts
The Pathway Conversations™ is a hosting framework that makes it possible for groups of any size to remain optimally aligned and productive. The framework is not simply “one more thing to do” rather it is a way of reimagining and refocusing planning and gatherings.
The framework adapts strategic and scenario planning, project management, working committees, and program launches in organizations as well as town halls, task forces, roundtables, grassroots campaigns, and volunteering in communities.
The Framework
The Pathway Conversations™ framework allows groups to iterate their way into their best possible shared future. It is an affordable and high engagement approach to planning and gatherings because it is exceptionally realistic.
The hosting framework’s Learning, Assumptions, Questions, and Actions conversations move people from disconnection to connection, and from unproductive to productive work together. Because it promises to engage everyone’s gifts, it works every time.
The Story
The origins of Pathway Conversations™ began 30 years ago as “The Idea Garden” and its social architecture is inspired by Liberating Structures like Open Space, The Art of Hosting, and Flawless Planning. The current iteration of the framework is based on the new book, Engaged Curiosity: A guide to realistic planning in organizations and communities by Jack Ricchiuto (2025, Nuance Works). For an overview of the Pathway Conversations™ framework read the seminal piece: The Simple Power of Pathway Conversations™.
The Pathway Conversations™
Framework and Architecture
is licensed under
Creative Commons CC BY-ND
Do you know how engaging and productive your current planning approach is? Click here to request a complementary planning assessment guide. It’s a 20-point checklist of best realistic planning practices to identify opportunities to make planning in organizations and communities more engaging and productive.
12 Ambitions of the Pathway Conversations™ Framework
Everyone’s gifts are welcome and engaged
Everything voiced is captured and builds new choices
Groups work from new questions, not self-limiting assumptions
People work on their questions and answer them through actions, not discussions
There is no front or back of the room
Leaders are invitation-shapers and conveners
The framework is simple enough for people to learn by doing in 90 minutes
People do together what they can with what they have
The framework confronts people with their freedom and self-accountability
Each iteration of the framework deepens and expands results
Engagement and results grow through success stories
The framework applies to predictable and unpredictable contexts
Framework In Action
HOW AND WHERE DOES IT WORK?
A university wanting to transform its unremarkable strategic planning process made it realistic, more innovative, engaging, and universally embraced.
A group of community change practitioners took a realistic planning approach to empower their work as guides in global contexts.
A health care foundation wanted to develop a long-range plan that would engage stakeholders in family medicine workforce development.
An urban sustainability network that wanted to inaugurate a series of collaborations immediately launched a variety of new self-organizing projects.
A community college's program and project managers made unprecedented engagement gains in an environment of uncertainty.
A building technology consulting company in a dynamic, competitive landscape leveraged realistic planning to leapfrog innovations in their markets.
A software development company took a realistic approach to scenario planning and created the strongest alignments ever between leaders and functions.
A new primary care practice used realistic planning to exceed first-year expectations in building patient and provider portfolios.
A faith community, needing to align in choosing its next leader, used realistic planning to unite diverse perspectives to be discerning in their shared decisions.