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Training vs. Facilitation
By Geoff Rip
June 2009
I have heard it said that “facilitation is about process whereas training is about content,” and that “a trainer is a content expert, while a facilitator is a process expert.” 1 In my view, these expressions are superficial, incorrect and misleading.
People who make such statements seem to fall into two groups. The first are those who think training is bad (you only train dogs) and facilitation is good (I don’t train, I facilitate learning). The second group are those who see facilitation as a non-training activity, focused on group processes/interaction with the aim of increasing group effectiveness.2 These people use the general term ‘facilitation’ as shorthand for specific forms of group work, e.g. facilitating group problem-solving or decision-making.
Consider that facilitation is “the act of assisting or making easier the progress or improvement of something” or “to help bring about.” 3 Given this meaning, facilitating is an activity that anyone can perform; hence anyone can be a facilitator, including trainers. In fact, facilitation is now so widely regarded as crucial to effective training, that the term “learning facilitator” has become generally accepted.
The idea that training is about content, not process, is based on a very limited view of training. For example, it has been said that “It [training] assumes that the trainer/instructor has some knowledge, skill or attitude to impart to the students or participants in the training event,” and that “training and content consulting are about the trainer or consultant sharing their expertise with a group.” 4
This is an out-of-date perspective that sees training as an input-oriented event, rather than a change process, and is typically characteristic of ineffective training. Those who spend all their time ‘imparting to the participants’ or ‘sharing their expertise’ are presenters, not trainers. As the saying goes, “telling ain’t training.” Training may involve being a ‘sage on the stage’, but it more often than not requires being a ‘guide by the side’.
More than 20 years ago Dugan Laird said, “The truth is that in recent years our perception of the effective instructor has changed sharply. We are less concerned with platform skills; we are more and more concerned with skills in facilitating learning in others (emphasis added).5 And 13 years ago Robert Craig said, “The term facilitator is continually being used in our profession. All but unknown a decade ago, it has become the “in” thing for trainers. To paraphrase Carl Rogers, we cannot “teach anyone anything, all we can do is facilitate their learning.”
Training is what trainers do and learning is what learners do. Competent trainers are highly concerned about process, both during design and delivery (including follow-through). In particular, they understand how to use training methods/ processes to switch on appropriate learning (cognitive and/or physical). They therefore deliberately design and implement processes to create learning and processes to leverage its application in the workplace.
In group training situations, the training processes have to address participant interaction (individuals, pairs, teams, group). By facilitating participatory processes that draw on the existing knowledge and skills of the group, it is often possible for trainers to create learning without providing any content at all. This is not dissimilar to a facilitator providing a group with a decision-making process and facilitating its implementation. The main difference is the focus on increasing individual rather than group effectiveness.
To say that training is only (or even mainly) about content is nonsense. To be effective, we have to be concerned about both process and content. And, this means that we have to be good facilitators. Whether we call ourselves trainers or learning facilitators, facilitation of learning lies at the heart of what we do.
1 The latter expression is from Jean Barbazette, The Art of Great Training Delivery, John Wiley and Sons, 2006, p.85.
2 For example, “Facilitation is the design and management of structures and processes that help a group do its work and minimize the common problems people have working together”, Thomas Justice and David Jamieson, The Facilitator’s Fieldbook, AMACOM, March 1999, p. 5.
3 Webster’s Online Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Online Collegiate Dictionary.
4 James Campbell, Defining Forms of Group Work, Professional Development Pamphlet Series: No. 1, The International Association of Facilitators (European Region), 2007, p. 5 & 14.
5 Dugan Laird, Approaches to Training and Development, Addison-Wesley, 1985, p. 25.
6 Robert Craig, The ASTD Training and Development Handbook, McGraw-Hill; 4th edition, 1996, p. 483.
Geoff Rip is Managing Director of ChangeLever International and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Professional Facilitators.
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