Train-the-Trainer by DataHomeLab

A1.2 Instruction vs Facilitation

The operational definition of facilitation against instruction, the do / avoid checklist, the three-level continuum of facilitation, and the two criteria sets (crew participation and instructor facilitation) the entire rest of the discipline is calibrated against.

Instruction versus facilitation

In a crew-centred debriefing, the objective is for the instructor to facilitate crew discussion so that the crew members do most of the talking, participate proactively, discuss issues with each other, and thoroughly analyse the situations that confronted them as well as how they managed those situations. Some of the CRM literature espouses the ideal that crews debrief themselves and use the instructor as a resource. Realistically, most crews lack sufficient experience in analysing the CRM aspects of cockpit operations to be able to conduct their own debriefings without assistance. Thus, as the instructor, you need to facilitate the crew's analysis of their LOS performance and avoid centering the debriefing on your own perceptions. Crews vary considerably in how well they analyse what happened in the LOS and how well they respond to encouragement to participate actively; you must adapt the level of facilitation to the capabilities of each crew.

The concept of facilitation was originally derived from settings outside of aviation. In some of those settings the facilitator would act only as a moderator of discussion and lacked the technical expertise held by the group members. In the LOS setting, however, you play the dual role of facilitator and instructor. Through facilitation you enable the crew to figure things out for themselves; your expertise as an instructor enhances the crew's understanding of the points they missed on their own.

Additionally, at times you may need to correct erroneous statements made by the crew and / or provide specific information the crew members lack. This is better done by direct instruction than through facilitation. You can either integrate brief instructional comments into the crew's discussion or provide instruction as needed after crew members have finished their analysis.

When guiding the crew's analysis, you should avoid creating the impression of leading the crew to predetermined answers. The crew will not be motivated to participate unless you convey that the topics, issues and perceptions they raise are important.

What you should do to facilitate the debriefing

What you should avoid doing

Avoid lecturing

Avoid lecturing and having the debriefing become an instructor-centred session. Long monologues, or giving your own analysis and evaluation before allowing the crew to work issues out for themselves, preempt the crew's own analysis and participation. Avoiding lecturing does not mean you cannot teach; you should teach through facilitation by integrating your own perspectives into the crew's discussion. Rather than telling the crew what they did wrong during the LOS and how they can improve, try to get the crew to figure it out for themselves. If they discover what they need to work on by themselves, then they are much more likely to learn from their mistakes and carry that learning over to the line.

Avoid giving your own analysis and evaluation before the crew has completed their analysis. Crews learn the most from their LOS experience when they make their own analyses. It is important that crew members learn to analyse and evaluate their own performance so that they can develop the habit of debriefing their performance following line operations. If you give your analysis before the crew does, the crew will feel less responsible for making their own analysis. When a second instructor is playing the role of a crew member, he or she should participate as a crew member but should wait and give his or her analysis after the "real" crew members have had the opportunity to analyse their performance as a crew.

Avoid giving the impression that only your perceptions are important. You need to make it clear to the crew that you are interested in what they have to say in order to encourage them to participate actively and analyse and evaluate their performance in depth.

Avoid interrupting

Avoid interrupting crew discussion. Interruptions show a lack of interest in the crew's views and may disrupt their train of thought and hinder their process of self-discovery. Interruptions also undermine the crew's sense of responsibility for making their own analysis and evaluation. Rather than interrupting a crew member, try writing a note to yourself and then bring up your issue after the crew member has completed his or her comment. (Interrupting may be necessary if a crew member makes a statement contrary to your company's SOP or to the FARs.)

Avoid interrogation

Avoid interrogation; be positive when discussing problems. In order for the crew to be able to take responsibility for initiating topics and discussing issues interactively, you must work to keep the discussion crew-centred. Asking questions in a manner that resembles interrogation, rather than guidance, can hinder crew discussion, forcing the crew into a reactive, rather than a proactive, role.

Avoid having a rigid agenda

Avoid having a rigid agenda. Have the crew help develop the agenda to encourage them to identify areas in the LOS where they did well and / or need improvement. Keep the focus of the debriefing on topics introduced by the crew, but introduce your own points as necessary to expand on crew-initiated topics and to cover important issues not initiated by the crew.

Avoid shortchanging high-performing crews

Avoid shortchanging high-performing crews by cutting their sessions short. Do not assume that because a crew did well there is nothing to talk about so a shorter session will suffice. Crews that perform well may not know why the LOS went well. Make sure that these crews recognise and discuss which CRM techniques resulted in their positive outcomes so the crew members can transfer this knowledge to other situations and when pairing with other crew members on the line. Good crews can learn from analysing what they did well and why it worked. By analysing their performance, the crew can learn what strategies were effective and how to use those strategies on the line. Crew members are more likely to transfer effective performance to the line if it [effective performance] has been reinforced by discussion.

Levels of facilitation

The instructor's role in the debriefing session varies as a function of the level of facilitation needed for each crew. Ideally, the crew will be able to analyse and evaluate their own performance and you will need to give only minimal guidance, thus utilising high-level facilitation. Unfortunately, this rarely happens in the current training environment. Most crews lack the experience to participate at this level. Thus, you must adapt to the capabilities of each crew. Currently, most debriefing sessions are conducted at an intermediate level of facilitation. These sessions are largely driven by the instructor, who leads the crew to important topics and utilises questions to evoke in-depth analysis and evaluation by the crew.

The level at which facilitation is conducted is a broad continuum from high (most desirable) to low (least desirable). To illustrate, the high, intermediate and low ranges are described in detail below. Be aware that you may need to adjust the level of facilitation to whatever level is appropriate throughout the session. You should always strive to work at the highest level of facilitation (i.e., the least interference on your part) at which each crew is able to respond. If you facilitate at too low a level (i.e., more interference from you) the crew will be prevented from participating to its full capability. A sign of skillful facilitation is being able to recognise what level is appropriate for each crew, as well as being able to adapt to the varying needs of individual crew members as the debriefing discussion shifts from one topic to another. When you consistently use facilitation to generate crew-centred debriefings, crews will gain experience as they go through recurrent LOS and they will participate at increasingly higher levels each year.

High-level facilitation

High-level facilitation is possible when the crew discovers and discusses important issues on their own with little guidance. Debriefing at this level provides the deepest and most enduring learning because the crew members guide their own self-discovery. For facilitating at this level, the crew members must be able to identify important topics and issues that arose during the LOS, set an agenda for discussing these issues, and critically analyse the situation they faced and evaluate how well they performed.

At this level of facilitation, your role as the instructor is to inform the crew of the objectives for the debriefing, outline the debriefing process, and assist in guiding the discussion only when advantaged. As the instructor, from your advantaged position as an experienced observer, you serve as a resource for the crew to help reinforce crew observations and supplement their perceptions. Although you retain responsibility for ensuring that the debriefing objectives are met, you achieve this through general guidance rather than leading the discussion moment-to-moment.

Intermediate-level facilitation

When crew members are not as adept at conducting their own analysis and evaluation of the LOS, you must lead the discussion more directly. At the intermediate level of facilitation you may have to help the crew discover important issues and lessons by asking questions which lead them to specific issues and topics. You may also need to encourage the crew to analyse the situation and their performance in greater detail. At this level, crew members are able to achieve self-discovery through analysis and evaluation of their performance with your guidance. You may need to supplement crew analyses substantially, but should do so only after the crew members have completed their own analysis.

Low-level facilitation

Low-level facilitation does not imply inadequate facilitation on your part as the instructor; rather, it is the necessary and appropriate level to use when crews do not respond to higher levels. When crew members show little initiative and respond only superficially to your efforts to get them to analyse the LOS situations and evaluate their own performance, you may be forced to direct and to lead the discussion step-by-step. However, few crews are truly incapable of participating at a higher level. (Before retreating to this level of facilitation, be sure that you are not unwittingly discouraging crew participation by conveying the tone of an interrogation or by showing a lack of interest in what the crew members say.) At this level, self-discovery by the crew is limited but you should still use facilitation techniques to lead the crew to critical issues, appropriate solutions, and correct evaluation. At the end of the discussion of each topic, you may have to explicitly summarise the nature of the problem encountered in the LOS and describe how it should be handled. When low-level facilitation is necessary, continue trying to elicit crew participation at a higher level. If it becomes necessary to instruct the crew on important points, confirm that they understand and agree, and continue to encourage them to initiate further discussion on their own.

Criteria for effective crew participation

In order to determine the appropriate level of facilitation to use, you need to be aware of how capable the crew members are of participating. The following criteria can be used to determine what level is appropriate for each crew at various times during the debriefing. If the crew members meet all of these criteria, high-level facilitation is best. If not, intermediate- or low-level facilitation may need to be used.

  • Crew members analyse in depth their LOS performance, discussing the situations they confronted, what they did to manage the situations, and why they made the decisions and performed the actions they did.
  • Crew members evaluate in depth their LOS performance, discussing what went well, what did not go well, and how their performance could have been improved.
  • Crew members discuss how CRM techniques helped them manage or could have helped them manage the situations they encountered in the LOS.
  • Crew members address each other directly and interactively discuss the LOS rather than merely respond to your direction.

Criteria for effective instructor facilitation

Your effectiveness in facilitating the debriefing can be measured according to the following criteria:

  • You facilitate the crew discussion at the highest level possible, guiding the discussion only to the extent necessary to help the crew accomplish the objectives of the debriefing.
  • You modify the level of your facilitation to accommodate the crew's needs throughout the debriefing. If the crew does not need guidance, you refrain from interfering with crew discussion. If the crew needs guidance, you use intermediate-level strategies to elicit continued and / or deeper discussion and revert to low-level facilitation only if necessary to ensure important lessons are learned.
  • You ensure that the crew members analyse their performance in depth, identify CRM techniques that played or should have played a role in the LOS, and discuss the LOS with each other in an interactive way.
  • You ensure that all critical topics are covered.

These four criteria are the qualitative anchors that the Facilitation Assessment Tool in A3.1 Purpose and Directions turns into a quantitative 5-level scale; the lineage from this list to that scale is treated explicitly in A1.5 Five-Point Facilitator Rating Scale.

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