The team · Audience & participation
Shaunak Bhatia.
Building the conditions for progress.
Experience in sport, programme planning and working with people. A rowing programme gave Shaunak a practical view of what it takes to turn a plan into sustained participation.
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A programme beyond the training plan.
Shaunak’s account begins with strength and conditioning. Working directly with athletes brought him close to the practical issues around their training. He wanted to help resolve the conditions that affected whether they could participate and progress.
When he took on responsibility in Tata Steel’s rowing programme, he developed a three-year plan of action. The work brought athlete selection and scouting together with communication with schools and parents, and the practical arrangements needed to put the programme into motion.
Turning structure into trust.
In his recollection, transparency and communication helped build trust with the athletes. People needed to understand the programme and find a place in it. His contribution included the structure behind that relationship as well as the plans for the sporting work.
He describes a period of making strength and conditioning plans, working with athletes and seeing the work develop as especially meaningful. He also recalls athletes continuing to contact him for plans after he had moved on. Those relationships are an important part of how he understands his contribution.
The experience gives him a concrete starting point for thinking about execution. Selection, communication and the daily work of a programme have to connect. A plan acquires meaning through the people who can use it and the conditions that let them continue.
Giving people a reason to stay with the work.
Shaunak’s focus at Dwar is the relationship between an unfolding attempt and the people who follow it. Sport offers questions worth exploring. What makes the next test matter? How does someone recognise progress? What gives them a reason to return?
He is bringing that perspective to audience strategy and participation, connecting the stories with people who may offer expertise, encouragement or practical support. The aim is a public relationship that can help the work continue, with attention connected to something useful for the person making the attempt.
Selected experience
- Programme development · Three-year rowing programme plan at Tata Steel
- Participation · Athlete selection and coordination with schools and parents
- Practice · Strength and conditioning planning and programme implementation