Sure of your role in the L&D ecosystem?

 

We've finished designing the state of the art learning event. We need to address the execution of the design.

Sure, if we were the designer and the executor, it would be better.

But, most of the time, we find that the execution is the role of a trainer, or rather an instructor, or maybe a facilitator?? Is there a difference between them, and what type is best for our design?

Inspired by the online chat on the FB group @Training Designers Club, I've decided to write this informative article to help training designers match their designs to the right training executor.

Basic concepts regarding officials in the world of training:

Training designer

Professional L&D practitioner. Their job is to build the learning event from A to Z while understanding the organization's needs, the appropriate and most fit event time-frame for the organization, and also an understanding of budget constraints and technology.

Also, understanding the main messages to be conveyed in instruction, the learning axes around which the content and exercises should be built, planning the 'Flow' of the event, and implement lesson structure down to the level of lesson plans.

Develop learning measurement processes, setting goals and measurable objects, developing learning effectiveness assessment, and full involvement in the debriefing session that takes place after the training. This role is not necessarily a subject matter expert on the training topics and will not necessarily serve as an actual instructor during the learning event. But they will work throughout the development of the learning event closely with managers, content experts, and instructors.

Instructor

This role is the subject matter expert with a long experience and practice. Therefore, Their interaction with the learners will be mostly one-way, meaning the part of delivering the content is the main thing in this type of training. A learning event led by this instructor will usually be short and focused on a particular topic. Like for example - how to put out a fire in the office with an office fire extinguisher.

In more complex learning events, this instructor can be part of the training staff, but it would not be right to base the entire course on such a person.

Trainer

This role should know the course from end to end, understand the flow of learning, and know all the details of the development. They are not necessarily a content expert. However, this character should be able to convey much of the content after careful study and preliminary knowledge expansion of relevant information in case of advanced questions. This person has another significant role in the learning process. We expect them to enable learners to 'produce learning' and express themselves during the process. Here it is an almost balanced bilateral communication outline with the learners. This person needs to understand how to extract insights from the learners and their personal stories, as well as create opportunities for quality reflection on the content and emotions followed by learning.

Facilitator

This role does not need to master the event's learning material. The skills required of them are to produce a flow of the learning event and allow learners to express themselves. Through key phrases, smart questions, and charisma, we expect the facilitator to create a learning atmosphere and bring to the center of the stage the learners' insights, knowledge, and personal stories so that learning occurs.

The communication is usually one-sided, with an emphasis on content that comes from the learners and not from the facilitator.

So the next time you develop a learning event, you might want to take into account the identity of the actual learning leader. Define for yourself what the learning characteristics of the event are. On that basis, you will determine what type of trainer you wish to be involved in implementing the training and producing the learning.

In a complex learning event, I highly recommend building a diverse and quality training team that will cover all types of trainers.

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