Chapter 1: Planning
  Chapter 1
Developing a plan to increase the quantity & quality of female coaches
Planning is essential when looking to make any improvements, changes, or develop new initiatives/ programmes in your organisation. To implement effective and sustainable plans, you should be able to answer the following questions:
Where are you now?
- Review Where You Are At – Audit your current environment in relation to female coaches including the organisational culture.
 - Raise Awareness – Communication and consultation with all stakeholders brings them on the same journey.
 - Barriers and Challenges – Understand the barriers and challenges women in coaching experience in your sport.
 - Problem Identified – What problem/s are you trying to solve?
 
Where do you want to be?
- Set Goals – Goals define the general intentions and ambitions of the organisation in relation to women in coaching.
 - Identify outcomes – What does success look like for the organisation in 5 years time?
 - Targets – Set realistic and meaningful targets for your sport.
 
How are you going to get there?
- Full Organisation and Board Support – All plans need to be fully supported by everyone in the organisation but especially the Board.
 - Take Action – What are you going to do? What programmes/initiatives will you implement?
 - Gap Analysis – Identify the gaps between what you want to achieve and what you already have.
 - Scoping and Researching – What can you learn? Who can you learn from?
 - Take Responsibility – Recognise what you need to do to make this change.
 - Work Collaboratively – Who else in the organisation needs to be involved in the planning, development and delivery of strategies and tactics? Connect
 - and integrate to maximise resources and reduce duplication. Is there an opportunity to collaborate with other sports who have the same goal?
 - Plan in Action – How are you going to do this?
 
Working through this toolkit will allow you to establish a plan for your organisation and decide on what is important and attainable for you to implement the suggested actions.