Facilitation takes a unique attentive skill. Though I market myself as a Facilitator, I find it necessary to imbue those skills in the people I come in contact with. I will always be thankful to the professionals and friends who were patient as I learned how to process discussion and negotiate conversation all while listening intently! Facilitation truly is an art form! With every art form there are different interpretations and styles! Hopefully, I will be able to occasionally share some of those here!
Distinctions Between Trainers and Facilitators
Trainers
- Give Information and skill
- Direct learning
- Operate from specified outcomes
- Have an established timeframe
- Plan the sequence to achieve the outcomes
- Are cognitive
- Use an a priori design
- Move from known to known
Facilitators
- Provide nurturance
- Guide interaction
- Operate from an overarching goal and a vision of possibilities
- Have an undetermined timeframe
- Have a repertoire to draw from, but no predetermined plan
- Are intuitive
- Use an in media res design
- Move from unknown to known
Increasing Participation
There are a number of ways trainers, facilitators, and consultants can increase training participation. Below are just a few ideas to help you get started. (Click on the + to expand each idea)
Adapted from: Scott B. Parry and Edward J. Robinson, Participative Techniques of Group Instruction.
When participants ask you a question, ask another member of the group to answer it.
When you feel the need to reach consensus or to move the group along, call on someone to summarize.
Give participants enough time to think out their answer to a question before calling on someone to answer. Then, call on others to add to what was said.
Don’t wait for volunteers to answer questions; call on people by name. This will avoid having the same people answering every time.
When someone answers, do not say, “I don’t agree.” Let the group make their own decisions to ask participants to “weigh-in” on what was said.
As leaders emerge within the group, ask these people to summarize your discussions on a flip chart.
Encourage participants to sit in different places at each meeting to get to know others in the group and to provide a diverse learning experience.
The belief system of a facilitator its presented to clarify the distinction between trainers and facilitators.