Study Plan — Coach / Facilitator
A path for someone preparing to run a Launchpad cohort or module. About 5 weeks to readiness, then you run a cohort using the facilitator playbook. The goal is not to become the expert — it is to know where the answers live and to get the room doing the discipline.
The facilitator's stance. You do not need to know more than your learners about the federal market. You need to know the doctrine well enough to keep the room honest, and you need to know where the answers live so you can say "let's find it together." That is what this plan builds.
Your materials: the doctrine, the literacy, the practice bank + answer keys, the worked exemplar, the facilitator playbook, the module template, the shared core, and the Ravonics case.
Week 1 — Read the whole doctrine, fast
- Read: all ten doctrine chapters, in order. Do not linger; this is a survey pass.
- Do: the doctrine self-checks at the end of each chapter — then check them against Part A of the answer keys.
- Read: the worked exemplar cover to cover. This is your mental model of "the whole discipline done once."
- Produce: a one-page "I teach this doctrine" cheat sheet — the ten chapters, the pipeline, the gate, the ORBITAL, the score — in your own words.
Week 2 — The reference layer and the practice bank
- Read: the literacy layer — the glossary, the acronym decoder, the two how-to-read maps, the money flow, and the further reading. You do not memorize this; you learn where each fact lives.
- Do: the practice bank, Part A (D01–D08) and Part B (SC-E1–E6) yourself, checking against Part C of the answer keys. You must have done every exercise you will assign.
- Produce: a copy of the practice mapping table (shared-core session → doctrine → exercises → homework) annotated with anything you found tricky.
Week 3 — Read the teaching layer
- Read: the module template, the shared core, and the track modules (strategic initiative, mba, mpa). Read the syllabus and capstone brief so you know what the college side looks like.
- Do: practice SI-E3 (gate charter) and INT-E1 (mini-capstone) yourself — you will be coaching others through these.
- Produce: a one-page note on which sessions are hardest to facilitate and why — that is where you will spend your prep.
Week 4 — Run one session for real
- Read: the facilitator playbook — the session skeleton, the practice mapping, the facilitation craft, the pitfalls.
- Produce: a full session plan for shared-core S3 (Reading the documents) using the module template's five beats — open, teach, apply, discuss, close — with the exercises you will run and the answer-key references you will debrief with.
- Do: run it. Volunteer to lead one session of any group you have access to — a colleague, a study group, a lunch-and-learn. If you have no group, run it for the mirror and record yourself.
- Check: against the playbook's pitfalls — did you lecture past 20 minutes? Did the room do the discipline, or watch you do it?
Week 5 — Plan your cohort
- Read: the onboarding and placement guide so you can place learners on the ladder.
- Produce: your cohort plan — cadence, the shared-core spine, the practice mapping, the capstone finish, and the promotion gate. The 8-week cohort plan is a ready model you can adopt or adapt.
- Produce: your own capstone package (INT-E1) if you have not finished it — you will grade others against the rubric, and you should have done the assignment yourself once.
You are ready when: you have done every exercise you will assign, run at least one session, and can point a learner to the answer for any self-check, comprehension check, or practice-bank question without guessing.
The ongoing habit
Before each cohort session, spend 30 minutes: re-read the doctrine chapter you're teaching, re-do the exercises you'll run, and pick the discussion prompts you'll use. After each session, note what worked — that note is the seed of your own facilitation playbook. The doctrine is the constant; your craft is what grows.