A direction to steer by – not a destination to predict.

An Alternative Heading is the nearer, revisable bearing an intervention uses to influence a landscape’s present trajectory in a more integrated social-ecological direction.

DirectionalIt says which way the system should move, not what the finished landscape will look like.

PlausibleIt is grounded in the current system read and what the intervention can realistically influence.

RevisableEvidence can show that the bearing, route or even the original framing was wrong.

NESW

Heading is movement, not arrival.Use current evidence to steer, then correct the bearing as the landscape changes.

Grasp · Horizon and bearing

A vision and an Alternative Heading can do different jobs.

The Playbook’s practical concern is not with aspiration itself, but with treating a distant imagined future as if it were a predictable programme destination.

Explore · Correct the course

New evidence should be able to move the arrow.

Click through common moments that may require the team to revise its route, sequence or bearing.

Draft an Alternative Heading

Make the direction clear enough to guide the next decision.

1 · Present heading

What patterns, power relations and practices are currently dominating the landscape’s trajectory?

2 · Directional change

What should become more or less possible, rewarded, connected or mutually regulated?

3 · Integration test

How would the direction improve social-ecological integration rather than benefit one strand alone?

4 · Plausibility

What evidence suggests movement is possible, and where does the system currently have give?

5 · Movement signals

What early changes in practices, relationships, power or feedback would suggest the heading is shifting?

6 · Revision trigger

What evidence, harm or system response would make the team reconsider the bearing?

A useful formulation: “Given what we currently understand, we seek movement towards … because … . We will review this bearing when … .”

Deep dive · Review the heading

Evidence-based course correction is part of adaptive delivery.

Schedule explicit review moments within the programme’s governance arrangements, and use accumulated learning from foments, monitoring and landscape conversations to assess whether the bearing should be refined.

After deep sensing

Does the initial heading still match the regulatory architecture the team has mapped?

After early foments

Are responses revealing a more plausible or less harmful route?

When power shifts

Have new actors, crises or decisions changed what is possible or legitimate?

Before amplification

Is the promising effect genuinely aligned, or are costs and exclusions being hidden?

Heading complements defined objectives by providing a revisable operational bearing as conditions change.