Another overview of Toastmasters International’s Pathways paths and projects

On June 18, 2018 Toastmasters International had a press release about its new Pathways educational program titled Toastmasters modernizes its educational program with Pathways. This is the first complete redesign. In my district (District 15) that program first was available on March 20, 2018. I’m still trying to make sense of and understand those ten different paths. There is an eleven-page.pdf file on Paths and Core Competencies which discusses each of them separately. There also is a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) web page. Most people take the online assessment, select a path, and go on. But what I wanted to know was an overall view to show me both how many projects there were, and how long the speeches in each were. So I rearranged that information, and looked elsewhere on a web page at the web site for district 73 to find the speech lengths.

The previous ‘traditional’ program had two parallel tracks for leadership and communication, as shown above. (Click on that image to see a larger, clearer view). Contrast that with Pathways where they are integrated.

As shown above, there are four explicit core competencies covered to varying extents in those different paths. I have added two-letter abbreviations for those ten paths, which are: Dynamic Leadership (DL), Effective Coaching (EC), Innovative Planning (IP), Leadership Development (LD), Motivational Strategies (MS), Persuasive Influence (PI), Presentation Mastery (PM), Strategic Relationships (SR), Team Collaboration (TC), and Visionary Communication (VC).    

There are five different levels: [1] Mastering Fundamentals, [2] Learning Your Style. [3] Increasing Knowledge, [4] Building Skills, and [5] Demonstrating Expertise.

For Level [1] Mastering Fundamentals there are three required projects common to all ten paths: Ice Breaker, Evaluation and Feedback, and Researching and Presenting.  
   

For Level [2] Learning Your Style there also are three required projects, but they are not common to all ten paths.    

There is an optional Mentoring path with three more projects. It follows the Level 2 project, Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring. So, as shown above, I will refer to it as Level 2-1/2 (in analogy to the 7-1/2th floor in the 1999 movie Being John Malkovitch. You can find descriptions for those other three projects, Prepare to Mentor, Mentoring, and Advanced Mentoring at district web sites (such as District 1). There is a Pathways infographic showing Mentoring along with the other paths.   

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For Level [3] Increasing Knowledge there also are three projects, one of which is required and is unique to each path. (The other two are electives).

Available choices of two elective projects for Level [3], Increasing Knowledge, are shown above.

For Level [4] Building Skills there is one unique required project, except for Motivate Others, which is shared by the Motivational Strategies (MS) and Team Collaboration (TC) paths. (There also is one elective).

Available choices of the elective project for Level [4], Building Skills, are shown above.

For Level [5] Demonstrating Expertise there again are three projects, two of which are required. The second one is Reflect on Your Path. (The third is an elective).

Available choices of the elective project for Level [5], Demonstrating Expertise, are shown above.

The vast majority (81%) of Pathways speeches are 5 to 7 minutes long, as is shown above in a table.

Contrast that with the old ‘traditional’ program, which as is shown above had a much larger variety of speech lengths.

For now I have left off discussing the final Distinguished Toastmaster projects.


Update July 1, 2018

Yesterday I attended the District 15 Division A Toastmasters Leadership Institute, since I will be continuing as Vice President – Public Relations for Saint Al’s Toastmasters. I attended an educational session about Pathways that revealed I’d missed something.

There is an optional Mentoring path with three more projects. It follows the Level 2 project, Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring. So, as shown above, I will refer to it as Level 2-1/2 (in analogy to the 7-1/2th floor in the 1999 movie Being John Malkovitch). You can find descriptions for those other three projects, Prepare to Mentor, Mentoring, and Advanced Mentoring at district web sites (such as District 1). There is a Pathways infographic showing Mentoring along with the other paths.    

Update July 18, 2018

I have updated this post by incorporating information from the July 1 update.

This post has been viewed over 1430 times, presumably based on my having discussed it over at The Official Toasmasters International Members Group at LinkedIn. If you are in a Toastmasters Club and wish to use it, that's fine with me as long as you say that you got it from here and provide a link to this blog post.

If you would like to translate it to another language, or otherwise want to have the PowerPoint file the images came from to edit a presentation, just email me and I will be happy to email it to you.