Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
It’s fall conference season, and I’ve noticed that people are using the terms facilitating, presenting, and training interchangeably. I’m guilty of it too. For the purposes of a conversation, it might be perfectly acceptable to use the terms in that way. But when it comes to execution, the terms are different and the word that’s used could create expectations for the audience. For example:
Facilitation is the act of helping other people to deal with a process or reach an agreement or solution without getting directly involved in the process, discussion, etc. A consultant might facilitate a focus group on customer service expectations.
Presentation is an activity in which someone shows, describes, or explains something to a group of people. A manager could present the proper way to fill out a form during a staff meeting.
Training is the action of teaching a person a specific skill or type of behavior. Human resources can conduct training on the best way to coach an employee for improved performance.
As a participant, if I attend a facilitated session, I expect the facilitator to stay out of the conversation. If I attend a presentation, I expect something like a lecture. And, if I attend a training session, I expect activities and skill practices. I believe understanding this is important, because participants make the decision to receive information a certain way and when the speaker doesn’t deliver the session in the way that was expected, it can be ineffective.
All three of these delivery methods require pre-work. Facilitation requires gathering information about the situation or issue to be discussed. Presentations are researched. Training is best when a needs analysis is completed. While it is possible to combine some of these methods, there are limitations. For example, when working on a presentation, it might be tempting to include some training type activities. But the training session will only be effective if the presenter is familiar with their audience.
That’s one of the reasons I wanted to bring this topic up, is because I’ve noticed a lot of speakers moving toward this combination of training/presenting. And I’ll be honest. I don’t think it’s as fluid as one might think. I totally understand the concept of entertaining education and that can happen in both training and presentations. What I’m talking about is the “Let’s do an activity!” during a presentation. Here are three things to keep in mind:
- The activity needs to be relevant. I understand that many people like interaction so putting an activity in the presentation can be well-received. But the activity needs to have a point or takeaway. Now, I’m going to be brutally honest here: I’ve never been a part of a three-minute breakout discussion during a conference presentation that yielded an epiphany. Yes, it can be fun, but there’s never enough time allocated to make the conversation effective or relevant. Which leads me to my next point…
- The activity always seems to take longer than expected. I’ve seen many sessions where the speaker asks the group to take 2 minutes to discuss something. Depending upon the size of the group, the two-minute activity becomes five or sometimes ten minutes. Primarily because the speaker has a hard time getting the attention of the group again. It’s easy to do this type of activity during a presentation with small groups. With large groups, it can get out of control.
- When a speaker loses control of the group, they lose control of the session. I’ve seen an increasing number of speakers do an activity then rush through a dozen PowerPoint slides because their timing is off. So, participants miss out on information . . . because of an activity . . . that wasn’t really relevant in the first place. This can be frustrating because participants were expecting a presentation that they didn’t get.
As organizations continue to tell employees they need to own their career development, employees are going to place emphasis on the methods that information is being shared. Because they have a goal to gain valued information. And the company is holding them accountable for getting that information. So, speakers need to be cognizant that facilitation is objective, presentations accomplish certain goals, and training is interactive.
Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby at the Association for Training and Development annual conference in Orlando, FL
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