Two sides of the same coin

Having reflected on the Engage the Heart Event that I ran recently, I wondered what else I can do to support my community. I’m in awe of them to be honest – some incredible consultants, trainers and facilitators who seem to be so very skilled in their craft – what more can I possibly offer them?

Well, two things stuck out for me…

1. Just because something is well known to me, doesn’t mean it’s well known to them. It turns out that I know a fair bit about learning theory and what that means in practice, and not everyone does. This means that even successful facilitators don’t always understand WHY what they do works. When you know why, it’s easier to replicate success without having to do the exact same thing. It’s why I have very succinct online courses about learning design that put theories into everyday language and make it easy to apply.
   
2. You can never have too many facilitation tools and activity ideas! That much is obvious from our weekly Drop-In meetings, but everyone LOVED sharing their favourite tools with others and discussing how they are used.

This second point made me wonder if perhaps I ought to offer more on facilitation skills. But there are others who operate in this space and do it well. I don’t hold myself up as a brilliant facilitator (though I can facilitate perfectly well!). My track record is in design. Yet facilitation tools and techniques are central to good design and this is why…

Training design is all about planning to facilitate.

In the Training Designer’s Club, we focus on:

• selecting the right exercises and activities to bring out the right learning points for a specific audience
• deciding which tools/techniques to use to enable people to explore ideas and concepts given time limits, numbers and other practical constraints
• placing those exercises in the exact right place so they fit seamlessly into the learning event
• setting up those exercises in advance to make them as easy to run on the day as possible
• thinking through the practicalities of interactive elements, writing clear instructions and (quite often) creating a plan B so it looks effortless from the outside
• creating a brand new exercise (or adapting one) when you need something completely bespoke.

I guess that those who focus more on facilitation skills will be more interested in actually running the exercise/using the technique:

• Giving a clear briefing
• Managing different participants
• Keeping everyone involved
• Noticing body-language and reading the room
• Asking good questions and demonstrating good listening
• Reflecting back and summarising learning

So we are looking at facilitation through two different lenses, and to be successful, you need both sets of skills.

So if you think you’re not a designer because you mostly run workshops, you couldn’t be more wrong…

Training design is all about creating the right plan.

Facilitation skills are about executing that plan well.