Adaptive Management Guidebook

This document provides practical guidance to development practitioners globally on the mindsets, behaviors, resources, and processes that underpin an effective adaptive management system. It presents an approach to managing adaptively that is rooted in complexity analysis and program theory. It draws on Pact’s global experiences and work on topics as diverse as health, livelihoods, markets, governance, capacity development, women and youth, and more.

This document begins with an introduction to adaptive management, then walks through successive steps to determine how much adaptation a project requires and how to design an appropriate system. These steps for executing adaptive management are:

1. Determineyourproject’sdegreeofcomplexity
2. Determineyourstrategytorespondtothatdegreeofcomplexity 

3. Determine leadership, staffing, and resource needs
4. Establishyouradaptivemanagementprocess
5. Implementandevaluateyourplans

The second half of this guidebook contains a toolkit of examples and templates that projects can tailor to their needs:

1. AdaptiveManagementIntensitySelf-Questionnaire
2. StaffRolesandResponsibilitiesinAdaptiveManagement 

3. ScenarioPlanningDecisionMatrixandTemplate
4. GuidetoContextIndicatorsforAdaptiveManagement
5. ReflectionMeetingTemplate
6. LearningandReflectionMeetingAgendaTemplate
7. GuidetoPreparingforLearningReviews
8. DecisionTrackerforAdaptiveManagement