Training is not a Performance

Our approach to learning is broken.

We treat the trainer as a presenter--an actor. We say "the facilitator needs a certain energy to present a specific type of material." Content is rehearsed and performed, with slight adjustments to each iteration, but overall maintained in stasis. In other words, we tend to approach the learning event as a performance; we think of the learners as an audience, the facilitator a performer, and we prepare the environment and tasks so the whole thing proceeds smoothly.

I propose we treat the learning event as the rehearsal period. The performance is life. Our facilitators need to be directors, not actors. The script is the curriculum. The goal clear, but the means--the way of achieving the goal--cloudy. The purpose of rehearsal is to figure out the approach, collaboratively, with a guiding hand from the director. By the end, the actor is prepared to perform the role every day, albeit making adjustments as needed--in the moment--with real, live scene partners.

Then the actors rehearse for another show, running in repertory. Some become specialists, performing the same show for years (like Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain), some can seemingly do anything (Meryl Streep comes to mind). The director move on to another group of actors, another collaboration--sometimes using the same script as a starting point, sometimes working on a new challenge. Even if it's the same show, the final production shouldn't be the same--there are different people in the mix now.

And the parallels between theatre or the theatre process and learning don't stop there. Part 2 coming soon.