Designing Flight Plans#

Tags flight plans facilitation production learning continuous improvement

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Using this pattern#

Flight plans are a structured approach to course design that ensures consistent, high-quality learning experiences. At its core, a flight plan serves as both a delivery framework and a state management tool for the delivery team, providing detailed structure while maintaining flexibility for different contexts.

We believe in transparency and shared learning and publish our flight plans openly so others can benefit from our work and see how we’re evolving our practice. This transparency also ensures that when you partner with us for Experience Courses, you know exactly what to expect – our sessions run according to these published plans.

A flight plan serves as both a delivery framework and a state management tool, helping the delivery team to:

Provide a detailed framework for session delivery
Ensure comprehensive coverage of learning objectives
Create a solid foundation for continuous improvement

This pattern specifically addresses challenges in how to:

Balance structure with flexibility in delivery
Support effective team coordination
Scale delivery while maintaining quality
Manage people’s states effectively (participants, observers, and delivery team)
Ensure learning objectives are met every time and follow the group’s attention

While flight plans require initial investment to create and maintain, they provide significant benefits over alternatives like unstructured facilitation or rigidscripts. This structured-yet-flexible approach makes delivery more reliable and helps bring new team members up to speed effectively.

Flight plans are used to deliver a consistent Better Conversations experience for all involved. They ensure:

The delivery team and any observers follow and discuss the same plan
The delivery team is well-prepared, discussing their collaboration beforehand
The learning objectives are met within an agreed timeframe
New facilitators or producers are effectively supported in their learning and development
A basis for continuous improvement through session review and identification of areas for refinement

The drawbacks are that they may be time-consuming to create and maintain. This includes delivery planning, content creation, and documentation.

Flight plans can be perceived as constraining by facilitators (who might feel they reduce spontaneity), or producers who need to adhere strictly to the plan. Our experience is that most facilitators and producers find them useful and helpful once they get used to them.

The alternative is to not use a flight plan, relying instead on the experience and intuition of the delivery team. While this can work with professionals who work frequently and well together, it is less reliable and significantly increases the difficulty of both facilitator and producer roles. It also hinders onboarding new team members effectively. These factors can significantly degrade the participant experience and make consistent, high-quality delivery challenging to achieve.

Form#

Flight plan content#

Session overview notes: Brief notes for the facilitator and producer outlining the session’s purpose, flow, and key objectives.
Preparation checklists: Checklists for individual and team preparation, including e.g., technical checks, demonstratiion preparation, handovers.
Learning objectives: Clearly defined learning objectives for the session, including potential extension activities.
Detailed time plan: A minute-by-minute timeline with planned activities for each member of the delivery team, ensuring effective session pacing.
Producer information: Specific instructions for the producer regarding breakout room setup, Zoom chat content, and technical session management.
Facilitator script (guideline): A detailed script for the facilitator to follow as a guide, ensuring consistent messaging and coverage of key points, while allowing for adaptation, personal style, and group context.

Supporting tools and processes#

Observation templates: Structured tools for the delivery team to gather feedback on session delivery.
Time management tools: Timers, visual cues, or software to aid in adhering to the time plan.
Group engagement approaches: Methods for engaging participants, learning, and session flow (e.g., using chat, flipchart, breakout rooms).
Quality assurance frameworks: Processes for reviewing and maintaining the quality of flight plans and session delivery.
Feedback collection tools: Surveys, reflection prompts, or feedback forms for gathering participant and delivery team input.

The flight plans themselves are based on further design patterns. For example each repeating component of the flight plan might be based on a pattern, such as the time plan structure, the script, the articulation of learning objectives. Within the time plan, the State Check-In activity is a recurring pattern and the way we introduce breakout rooms is based on a pattern.

This layered approach means that we can continuously improve the flight plan by refining these constituent design patterns. It is a highly modular approach and the patterns can be reused and adapted in other contexts, extending their value beyond just flight plan design. It’s a technique we have borrowed from the software development world.

We encourage you to do the same and adapt the flight plans to your needs using your own tried and tested patterns.

Design roles#

Flight plans require coordination between several key roles that may be performed by a single person, or a team of people. See the Design Team Roles for detailed descriptions of:

Sponsor/Client: Defines requirements and success criteria
Course Designer: Creates the learning journey
Content Developer: Develops and maintains materials

Each role contributes specific expertise to the flight plan development process, ensuring both quality and practicality in the final design.

Examples and resources#

Common variations:#

Single vs dual facilitator formats: We generally use two facilitators for all our courses to provide training opportunities for new facilitators, mutual support and cover, and different voices. We also use two facilitators for larger groups to manage group dynamics and energy.
Different session lengths: Our flight plans are designed for a 1 hour session, with a week between sessions which seems to work well in allowing participants to apply what they’ve learned before the next session. We have delivered shorter sessions, e.g., 45 minutes, and longer sessions, e.g., 1.5 hours on occasion (in-person) where we have rewritten the flight plan to fit the time available and the needs of the group.
Group size adaptations: We pair participants in breakout rooms to improve their experience and the group dynamics. That’s where having a facilitator go into breakout rooms to manage uneven group sizes is useful. It is possible to scale the course from 1 person to many people.
Online vs in-person: Generally the flight plans are designed for an online course, but they can be adapted for an in-person course.
Technical setup options: We use Zoom for all our courses. Microsoft Teams is another option that we may use in the future (when we can guarantee a good participant breakout and delivery team experience).
Team vs groups: We review our flight plans for teams where the participants are all from the same organisation and managers may be supporting team members outside of the course. In these cases we will discuss the flight plan with the managers to ensure that the course is delivered in a way that is supportive of the managers’ needs.

Templates and materials:#

You can find the latest published flight plans here.

Setup and requirements#

Review and preparation time: This is especially needed when training new facilitators, or when the fligh plan has changed significantly.
Team experience: This is a factor, e.g., some teams may have facilitators who are more experienced than others. The design team should be aware of this and may need to provide additional support.
Technical setup requirements: We pay particular attention to the audio and video quality of the delivery team. We also consider the need for a delivery team chat channel, facilitaotr and producer euqipment (e.g. additional monitors)
Access to resources: These will differ between participants, observers and the delivery team members. As far as possible, we design contingencies for this (e.g. participant access on mobile devices.
Documentation and support materials: Extra materials are needed to support the delivery team, participants and observers. This includes participant handbooks/guides, flipchart examples. This website holds a lot of these resources but please ask us if you need something specific.

Additional design factors#

Design Trade-offs#

Creating effective flight plans requires balancing trade-offs between stable and flexible elements. Understanding these trade-offs helps us make informed decisions that serve sponsors, delivery teams and participants.

A good metaphor for the way the delivery team works is that of a group of musicians playing a piece of music. There are known elements of the music (e.g. the score or jazz patterns) that must be played in a certain way, but there is also space to improvise and bring out the individual voices of the musicians.

Consistency vs Flexibility: While certain elements must remain consistent across all deliveries—such as learning objectives, key concepts, and safety considerations—we also need to provide space for facilitators to respond to the unique dynamics of each group. This flexibility is particularly important in areas like timing adjustments, discussion flow, and energy management. We’ve found that clearly marking which elements are fixed and which can be adapted helps delivery teams navigate this balance effectively.
Detail Level vs Adaptability: Too much detail can overwhelm facilitators, making the plan feel rigid and mechanical. It can also make updates more cumbersome and limit the natural flow of sessions. Conversely, too little detail leaves facilitators uncertain about critical elements and can compromise consistency and quality. We strive for “just enough” detail, providing clear guidance on essential elements while trusting in facilitator expertise for implementation. This approach helps maintain quality while preserving the authentic, responsive nature of facilitation.
Structure vs Creativity: The structured elements - session flow, key discussion points, time boundaries, and learning checkpoints - create a reliable foundation for delivery. Given the interactive nature of the course, elements such as the breakout room unpacking allow facilitators to respond to the needs of the group and keep it interesting.
Standardization vs Customization: Core elements like the experiential nature of the course, fundamental concepts, and quality indicators remain standardized. However, having a master set of flight plans allow for customisation to organizational context or different languages. Whilst the essential learning experience remains reliable, it can be made more relevant and applicable to each specific audience.

Managing these trade-offs is an ongoing process rather than a one-time decision. We encourage regular review and adjustment based on delivery feedback and outcomes. By documenting our design decisions and their rationale, we create a foundation for continuous improvement while maintaining the integrity of the learning experience. This documentation also helps other course designers make informed adaptations when needed.

Pattern development#

Flight plans improve through structured feedback and testing. After each session, we gather delivery feedback, test improvements, and document variations. This learning gets incorporated into future versions.

Documentation and version management#

We maintain master versions of flight plans with controlled access. For each live session, we create a working copy that the delivery team can adapt as needed. This approach provides:

Clear documentation trails
Version control
Flexibility for session-specific needs
Quality and consistency

Improvement process#

We use a continuous improvement process, to evolve our flight plans.

References#

Participant lists, flipchart examples, breakout room configurations, chat logs and detailed observations have been moved ourside of our originalflight plans to better manage data protection requirements and support our work with external clients.

Related patterns

Design Team Roles

Further reading