A program can be coherent on paper and difficult to use in practice. The gap is not always in the content. It can sit in the preparation of the people delivering it, the resources they can access or the decisions nobody has clearly assigned.
That is why I am interested in the connection between program design and local delivery. The purpose of a program should remain clear as it moves into the hands of coaches, facilitators, staff and volunteers.
Understand the setting before prescribing the delivery.
Since 2016, I have taught PAISAC cohorts in English and French, working with coaches from Africa and the Caribbean. My role includes helping participants adapt coach-development principles to their sporting, cultural and organizational contexts.
The useful question is not simply whether a principle can travel. It is how someone will apply it with the people, time, facilities and support they actually have. Context is part of the design problem.
Build the capacity around the curriculum.
My advisory work with the Philippine Sports Commission and Philippine Sports Institute spans a national coaching certification program and Coach Developer Academy. It includes program architecture, standards, curriculum, facilitator resources, learning activities and implementation tools.
Those elements belong in the same conversation. A curriculum cannot prepare its own facilitators. A resource cannot decide who updates it. A standard needs people who understand how to interpret and apply it.
Change the arrangement. Check the evidence.
Consider a course that moves from one full day to several shorter sessions. The schedule changes, but a coach may still be able to demonstrate the same competence. Removing observed practice is a different decision if that observation is how competence is assessed.
Before agreeing to an adaptation, identify what evidence must still be produced. Who can approve a different arrangement? What support will help coaches meet the same expectation? A delivery format is a means. The judgment it allows you to make about learning is what needs protecting.
Five questions before the next rollout
- Who will deliver this, and what preparation will they need?
- What should stay consistent across settings?
- What can people adapt, and who decides?
- Where will questions and feedback go?
- Who will maintain the resources after launch?
Make responsibility visible.
These questions become more useful when they lead to named roles and manageable next steps. Use them to start a conversation with the people who will deliver the program.
A practical next step is to take one part of a program and trace its delivery with the people involved. Ask them to describe what happens, where they need support and what remains unclear. Treat that conversation as information for the design.
Before the next rollout, ask the people delivering it to show you where the plan still leaves them guessing.
Drawn from my PAISAC coach-education work and Philippine sport-system advisory experience. Professional background on LinkedIn.