Should you part ways to pathways?

The simple answer is... it depends.

Depends on what?

Before I start to bore you, for those reading, please note that this post is a followup to a speech project from the Technical Presentations Advanced Manual delivered on Thursday March 1st 2018 at the Talk Tsu Toastmasters (#00788773) club in Trinidad and Tobago.

I'll upload my slide deck sometime soon, however, you don't necessarily need to see the presentation but it may help.

In any case, let's get back to the matter at hand which is deciding when to part ways from the traditional Toastmasters Educational program to the Pathways Learning Experience.
(I know that you love the play on words with the "part ways") The answer really depends on a number of factors mainly:

1. Has the Pathways reached your region?
2. How long again does your Region have before the transition period ends?
3. How far along are you in the Traditional program?
4. How far do you intend to reach in the Traditional program?
5. How fast do you intend to reach to your goal in the Traditional program and how possibly is it?

As leaders, we need to set SMART goals and have an adaptive, realistic plan. By adaptive, I mean you need to have some elements of AGILE and be able to respond to changes over stubbornly sticking to a plan which may not be relevant given new circumstances.


Personally, at this time Pathways has not reached my region however it will be here within 2 months. I however personally aim to achieve DTM before the transition period is over and at the time of writing and I am two speeches away from ACB. I usually do two speeches a month and if I push can extend that to 4 so I believe that I can attain it.

Also, as a Pathway Guide, I aim to get District Officer credit and I'm actively looking at club coaching and/or mentoring opportunities. So for me, I will start Pathways but I won't push it until I am closer to my DTM.

I will however aim to complete some levels so that my club can get its DCP points especially during the transition period where clubs can aim for points using either the traditional or pathways program as shown below.

Finally, my advice is, if you're new to Toastmasters, haven't progressed so far in the traditional program and you want more avenues to develop, then get going immediately on Pathways (as soon as it's possible of course!).

If however, you are like me and have goals in the traditional program that you can achieve with the transition period, then why not continue. Worst case scenario, you achieve some and when Pathways comes on stream you would start it. However, do try to help out the club DCP by at least doing some Pathways projects when you can. ☺

Thanks again for visiting. If you were at the presentation or have something to say about this post feel free to leave comments, questions and suggestions.


More Pathways information can be found using these links:

Toastmasters Magazine article
https://www.toastmasters.org/~/media/D68AD58C08A4439F9D55A2ABD6CBE5EE.ashx


District 57 Pathways material
https://d57tm.org/pathways/

My "part ways" online quiz (More on this in another post)
https://goo.gl/forms/afcvs8AWPAa311Ip1

What exactly is this Pathways?

Hey everyone,

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to check out my blog. It's just like me, a work in progress, and I have taken an "AGILE" approach towards developing it #ProgressiveElaboration.

Anyways, you din't come here to rad my rambles (or did you?). You cam here to find out the answer to the question "What is Pathways?" and more importantly "How does it affect me?".

Well...

" Pathways is a modernized learning experience suited to our changing global society. It offers you more benefits and more opportunities to learn, grow and meet personal and professional goals. You now have the opportunity to develop additional skills you can use not just in your club, but at your job or in your community as well." (Toastmasters International)

Wow, that's a lot of text and it's taken from the Pathways FAQ. 

Simply put, Pathways is an upgrade to the Traditional Toastmasters Educational program. I use the term upgrade because it really expands the current program by offering so much more information, knowledge and opportunities for growth through application of the knowledge.

Whereas the traditional program had two main tracks, Pathways has ten (10) paths.

So, the main reason why it's important to you is that very soon (and I mean soon) Pathways will be the only Educational program within the Toastmasters system.

In case I wasn't clear

Don't worry, Toastmasters International understands that change takes time, so there is a transition period where clubs and members may choose to finish off some designations before moving over to Pathways.

No, you can't carry progress across, so if you're on your fifth (5th) CC speech when Pathways fully takes over, you can't carry that across.

Fear not, Toastmasters, as usual (round of applause for TI) has pulled together a super dream team to help clubs and members with the transition.

Fortunately for you, I am one of those guides.

So be sure to check in regularly, leave questions and comments and I'll try as best as I could to respond.

That's all for now folks.

Elgyasi has spoken!