Principles

Align - Unify - Engage

Align

Participation planning should strongly align with your whole-of-sport national strategic plan. Make sure you have a good understanding of your sport’s participation related strategic priorities before you start the participation planning process. Regularly revisit your strategic priorities to ensure plans continue to align.

A participation plan should:

• cascade from a national strategic plan
• be consistent in its ambition, focus, look and feel
• be co-designed by key stakeholders then tailored for local adoption
• be fully supported and resourced by boards, management, participation teams and the community
• anchor key decision making for the duration of the plan.

Unify

Unified behaviours are an enabling driver of participation and should be implemented to create a whole-of-sport approach to participation. Collaboration around a planning process and consensus on where a sport is heading and what it is trying to achieve has many benefits and builds mutual trust.

Tips

• Establish a nationally agreed team of individuals from different levels of your organisation and stakeholder representatives that have a complementary skill set who will be responsible for driving the planning process. An identified lead, timelines and governance should also be established.
• This team, or similar, should continue past the development of a plan and assist to implement, monitor and evaluate your sports progress on an ongoing basis.

Engage

Successful participation planning and implementation is impacted by a wide range of stakeholders. Don't underestimate the importance of meaningful, early and ongoing engagement to ensure your participation plan has the best chance of sustainable success.

Tips

• Consider the impact of both internal and external stakeholders.
• Create a 35819_Participation-planning-templates_Stakeholder-map.docx to understand relationships and the impact stakeholders can have on the success of your plan.
• Involve your stakeholders through the decision-making process to create buy-in. Use the 35819_Participation-planning-templates_Stakeholder-engagement-plan.docx to plan and track engagement.
• Value the unique insights into issues, challenges and opportunities that your stakeholders bring. Understand that at times stakeholder consultation can be challenging but is extremely beneficial for effective planning.
• Get creative with your engagement. Use online surveys, file-sharing platforms, workshopping activities etc. You can find cost-effective methods for collecting stakeholder views and engaging them in the process.
• Commit to genuine engagement and co-design. Don't circulate draft plans before commencing the engagement process as it undermines the process and trust.