Focus Magazine - Winter 2017 - 11

GUEST EDITOR
James Christie

Facilitative Training &
Mutual Learning Models
For more "on the
ground" tips for
facilitating and other
ways to nurture the
learner's experience,
and your own, check
out the LTEN class
called PrimeTime!
for Trainers, taught
by Perim Consulting.

any trainers oen find themselves in
the role of facilitator, whether they
know it or not. You could be simply
opening a session with introductions to
speakers or working the tables during
workshops; your job as a trainer turns to
facilitator quickly and likely remains that way
until you send everyone back to their hotel to
get ready for that team dinner.
e learnings of being a great facilitator are
something I share with others who are
considering a job as a trainer. It's a transferable
skill that, when honed, will be very useful in all
future roles. Whether you desire to be a district
manager or a marketer, the ability to move
dynamic groups along a process is a critical -
and sometimes overlooked - skill set.
e following definitions, tips and
considerations are adapted from e Skilled
Facilitator Fieldbook.

Facilitative Roles
* Facilitator - increases group eﬀectiveness by
diagnosing and intervening on group
process and structure.
* Facilitative Consultant - helps make
informed decisions by bringing content
expertise to the situation.
* Facilitative Coach - helps individuals
achieve their goals by learning to reflect on
behavior and thinking.
* Facilitative Trainer - develops knowledge
and skills for problems or opportunities.
* Facilitative Leader - helps groups of which
they are the formal leader by diagnosing and
intervening on group process or structure
while contributing their content expertise.

Becoming a Facilitative Trainer
1. Involve participants in the training design.
2. Be transparent about your learning
strategies. Discuss execution and see if it is
in line with participant expectations.
3. Clarify expectations of your role as a
facilitative trainer (versus other facilitative
roles). Especially when they are your
colleagues.

Five 'On the Ground' Tips:
1. Share the agenda, asking if there is anything
they'd like to add or remove.
2. Stop going into the hallway and saying, "it's
time to come back in now." Start class at the
time you asked everyone to be back.
3. Move to another topic together. Don't just
tell everyone "we're moving on."
4. If participants challenge the material, view
this as an opportunity for you to learn.
5. Don't steer the conversation with questions.
Instead, design questions so participants feel
they are in a safe place to ask their own.
Mutual learning is all about how you engage
learners to develop knowledge and skills. Oen,
trainers find themselves using a unilateral
approach, meaning they assume that they are
the teachers and the students are the learners.
is approach, while eﬀective at times, poses
unintended consequences and can reduce
learning. e facilitative trainer focuses on a
mutual learning model and has a mind-set of
teaching and learning simultaneously, allowing
the trainer and class to flex to what's important
to the learner. is is something we should all
aspire to: Focus on the audience and allow the
(mutual) learning to naturally unfold. ■

James Christie is director, commercial learning, for Celgene. Email James at jchristie@celgene.com.

FOCUS | Winter 2017 | www.L-TEN.org

http://www.L-TEN.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Focus Magazine - Winter 2017