A baker, a violinist, and a classroom trainer all walk into a bar…

This sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. But it isn’t.

And they aren’t going into a bar; it was just a good opening sentence for why you need to use a facilitator guide each and every time you run an instructor-led training or virtual ILT session.

These three roles strive for consistent results. The consistency of their actions determines whether they succeed or fail.

• A baker needs to ensure that their recipes are adhered to so that each time the bread or cake is made, the same delicious treat is awaiting the customer.

• The professional musician playing Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” must ensure they never miss the right note or lose their place.

• The classroom trainer who is leading the new hire training needs to ensure that the course goals and objectives are met, whether it is the first time leading the new hire orientation or the sixteenth time.

How do they get consistent results?

Through the materials they use to follow as they go through their respective roles.

The baker follows the recipe to ensure the correct ingredients are used in the correct amount and at the right time.

The musician follows the sheet music as they play to ensure they come in at the right time and play the notes in the correct order.

The facilitator or classroom trainer uses a facilitator guide to know what to say, show, and activities to run to ensure consistent experiences across multiple participants, training sessions, and even different facilitators.

 BUT… I have done this a thousand times. I don’t need a facilitator guide to run my training successfully.

I have heard that reason countless times. It is wrong each time I hear it.

Loss of Time, Money, and Knowledge

Hundreds of hours went into designing and developing the training program, and our end product is going to be stored in the heads of our facilitators?

Does that make business sense?

What if they are out sick, they get promoted, or they leave the company?

Now, all that institutional knowledge has left the organization. The time, money, and hours spent analyzing a company issue and designing and developing training to develop our employees have gone the way of the Dodo bird.

Inconsistent Results

Without the recipe, a baker may use baking soda instead of baking powder, making for a less-than-ideal final product. The violinist may mistime when they are supposed to speed up (accelerando) or play the notes shorter than usual (staccato).

Instructions for our facilitators are just as important. We are following a recipe to take our learners from wherever they currently are to the finish line or the goal of the training program through a series of learning objectives built to step them toward that goal.

We want to ensure that whether this is the first or 432nd time the training is happening, the learners are presented with the same material. Whether the training is happening in Austin or Boston or is being led by Pam or Sam, the same material needs to be covered. A well-crafted facilitator guide ensures that this can easily happen.

Remember, inconsistent training leads to inconsistent results, which means our training is ineffective.

Training is an Asset of the Organization

It is my material; I know it backward and forward.

This is one of the follow-up retorts to why someone does not need a facilitator guide. If the two points above have not swayed you yet, consider your training program as an asset.

If you are an organization, you have invested time, money, and manpower into designing and developing the training, you want to have a tangible asset to show for it and allow you to make edits and tweaks to dial in its effectiveness and overall return on investment.

Think about the off-the-shelf training available for purchase. Would you buy it if it only consisted of visuals without any instructions?

We know the answer is no, so why would you allow that for material you build in-house?

If you are a one-man band, would it not be great to build training programs that you could build up and then have others lead?

A facilitator guide will ensure that you can make that happen and that all the material is available to be covered in the same manner you would.

Punch Line

A baker, a violinist, and a classroom trainer all walk into a bar…

Don’t let your training be a joke. Use facilitator guides to ensure the best learning experiences for your participants.

This is no laughing matter.