Starting an Effective Coaching Program: An Educational Blueprint for Foundational Decisions.

There is growing interest in coaching as a strategy to support competency-based medical education (CBME), individualized learning, development of Master Adaptive Learners, and precision education. Despite high enthusiasm, educators often struggle with how to begin developing an effective program. This educational blueprint describes two foundational decisions for launching a coaching program: defining program goals and selecting a theory of change with an aligned coaching model. We then examine contextual considerations, implementation challenges, and tradeoffs that influence these decisions. Grounding a program in explicit goals, educational theory and intentional model selection create a coherent foundation for subsequent design, implementation, and evaluation.