Good Article About the Difference Between a Trainer and a Facilitator

Source: http://www.guilamuir.com/blog/facilitation-skills/what-is-a-trainer-what-is-a-facilitator/


What Is a Trainer? What Is a Facilitator?

A thought­ful look at impor­tant dif­fer­ences that impact YOUR prac­tice.

Recently, I’ve noticed that some cor­po­ra­tions call their train­ers “facil­i­ta­tors.” I can only assume this is meant to be short­hand for “facil­i­ta­tor of learn­ing.” How­ever, is “facil­i­ta­tor” really an appro­pri­ate term when the “facil­i­ta­tor” exclu­sively lec­tures and uses Power Point? Are facil­i­tat­ing a strate­gic plan­ning ses­sion and teach­ing some­one how to do that really the same thing?

Even the roots of the two words inter­play. “Educe,” the root of “edu­cate,” lit­er­ally means “to bring out.” That is what the best train­ers do…but isn’t it also what facil­i­ta­tors do? The root of “facil­i­tate,” of course, is “facile,” or to make a process “easy.” The best train­ers seem to make learn­ing easy, don’t they?

It’s no won­der con­fu­sion exists. The great­est train­ers and facil­i­ta­tors do share many char­ac­ter­is­tics and behav­iors. How­ever, I believe the role of trainer and facil­i­ta­tor are ineluctably dif­fer­ent and that it’s impor­tant to dis­tin­guish between them. This will not only help reduce con­fu­sion about the terms, but (more impor­tantly, to me-) ensure they retain real meaning.

Let’s Talk Terms

Even though the term “train­ing” is broadly accepted for the field of adult edu­ca­tion, some in our field argue that “train­ing” itself is an unac­cept­able word. They argue that the word con­jures up “dog train­ing” or other poten­tially de-humanizing acts.

Oth­ers dif­fer­en­ti­ate between the terms train­ing, instruc­tion and edu­ca­tion, but con­clude that all are nec­es­sary to help peo­ple learn. (Stolovitch and Keeps, 2002.) Most adult edu­ca­tors use “train” as an umbrella term for what they do.

4 Major Dif­fer­ences Between Facil­i­ta­tor and Trainer Roles

Great Facil­i­ta­tor

Is not nec­es­sar­ily a con­tent expert.

Is an expert in many forms of group process (includ­ing inter-and-intra-group con­flict res­o­lu­tion, strate­gic plan­ning, team build­ing, etc.)

Often helps the group to define and ver­bal­ize its own out­comes (e.g. to solve a spe­cific prob­lem or develop a new procedure.)When out­comes are exter­nally pre­scribed, helps the group develop, imple­ment and “own” action steps to achieve the outcomes.

Sees facil­i­ta­tion as a process to help achieve spe­cific “bits” of broad orga­ni­za­tional goals. Often focuses on training’s impact on actual, dis­crete job per­for­mance or tasks. Trainer may eval­u­ate training’s effec­tive­ness long after the train­ing event takes place.

Great Trainer

Is a content expert.

Is not necessarily expert in many forms of group process. Instead, continually develops new methods to help participants achieve specific learning outcomes.

Most often in corporate, organizational or higher education settings, the trainer does not help each learner group establish its own learning outcomes. (That's a whole other approach called, Popular Education.) However, the trainer may be involved in implementing and/or analyzing the results of training needs assessments. These should include input from representative(potential)participants as well as other stakeholders.

Often focuses on training's impact on actual,discrete job performance or tasks. Trainer may evaluate training's effectiveness long after the training event takes place.

Ele­ments the Two Roles Share

Both great facil­i­ta­tors and the best trainers…

--Help the group achieve spe­cific out­comes through the use of
active, par­tic­i­pa­tory, participant-centered methods.

--reg­u­larly eval­u­ate the process in real time, and can mea­sure how well the par­tic­i­pants achieved the stated out­comes at the end of the process.

--have made them­selves famil­iar with the orga­ni­za­tional cul­ture and con­text in which they are work­ing, and ensure the processes “fit” that culture.

--stim­u­late dia­logue and inter­ac­tion between par­tic­i­pants, not just between them­selves and the participants.

In this arti­cle, I’ve tried to scratch the sur­face of sim­i­lar­i­ties and dif­fer­ences between facil­i­ta­tion and train­ing. I believe pas­sion­ately in the value of each. Both can help us under­stand our­selves, each other, our work, and the world bet­ter. Beyond that, they play dif­fer­ent roles in the work­place and community.

Guila Muir is the pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com

© 2007 Guila Muir. All rights reserved.
You may make copies of this arti­cle and dis­trib­ute in any media so long as you change noth­ing, credit the author, and include this copy­right notice and web address.