‘You’re a facilitator, what do you do?’ by Tony Mann, Training Journal, January 2011

I chose this article because of its relevance to our own business; we are often asked to carry out combinations of training and facilitation and need to be well aware of the difference and the implications for manning and design. We also have to be very open about the fact that some of our team are excellent at one rather than the other (our experience is that not all can excel at both) and that the required skills are very different.

The author is from ‘The Centre for Facilitation’ based in Leeds University and clearly has an interest in putting forward the virtues of facilitation; he emphasises the distinction between the skills of facilitation, training, consulting and coaching in a helpful way but takes a rather extreme, black and white view about the need for separation.

He starts by offering the traditional definition of facilitation as being about the process rather than the content and confirms the lower emphasis on the personality and charisma of the facilitator, compared to the training role. This helps to explain why so few good trainers excel at pure facilitation, we much prefer to be the centre of attention! But I would differ from the author in his two rather extreme and purist conclusions:

- That a facilitator should not offer content contributions even if he/she knows the subject
- That you can facilitate any discussion, no matter how technical it is and how ignorant you are

To the first conclusion I would say - why not? - if you have something to move the discussions on, as long as you do not allow it to push you into a continuing instructional role.

To the second conclusion, I would argue that you need to understand enough to know what is going on; I can recall being asked to facilitate a highly technical discussion for a senior group about market research and regretting the fact that my lack of preparation and failure to understand the language caused me to lose control of the process.

When comparing the training and facilitating roles, the author again shows his black and white tendencies by suggesting that a key difference between the two roles is the design and timing flexibility required for facilitation, which does not exist in a training context. While accepting that the facilitator has to be even more flexible, I would not agree that all trainers have to stick to a fixed agenda; as with facilitation, one of the key success factors in a tailored training event is the courage and perception to step away from the fixed agenda while still achieving the learning objectives in a way that matches the audience needs. All good trainers will know how it feels to meet a course on the first morning and find that they know far more, or far less, than you have been told; sticking to a fixed agenda in these circumstances is likely to deliver certain failure.

The article makes some interesting points about the different styles of facilitation though at times it becomes rather too theoretical. He does however make the excellent point that there must be agreed clarity beforehand about whether the facilitation should explore the personal dynamics of the group or confine itself to the business issues; he suggests that some facilitators have their own agenda and will enjoy exploring and counselling the team on behavioural problems, at the expense of arriving at the required solution. A good facilitator can get to the required solution despite the behavioural problems, rather than trying to solve them.

The author mentions many ‘tools and techniques’ that a good facilitator has available, without telling us what these are; perhaps you have to go to the ‘Centre for Facilitation’ to find out. One example tool - putting participants into parallel issue groups to make the best use of time - perhaps indicates that there is not too much rocket science involved.

Overall this is a helpful article that reminds us of the differences and the potential pitfalls. However it would have been even more helpful if it had accepted the fact that the real world of client led training means that some designs have to include a combination of training and facilitation skills. Guidance on how these two elements can be integrated within a tailored design would have been even more beneficial.

Click here to read the article in full;
http://www.trainingjournal.com/feature/2011-01-01-youre-a-facilitator-what-do-you-do/