ABCD-Training-of-Trainers-Tools-July-2013

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Planning should ideally be done well in advance and responsibilities should be clearly delegated. Ideally,
community groups and other partners should be involved from the onset of the planning process for
meaningful collaboration. Circumstances constantly change, which means that plans need to be
continuously adjusted and updated. The coordinator of the training should immediately negotiate and
communicate any changes with key stakeholders.
Step 2: Action
The training takes place. It is never exactly according to plan but hopefully it runs smoothly and
successfully. There is constant co-ordination throughout the action and the coordinator may need to be
flexible and innovative, particularly in community development processes which are often
unpredictable. The action should be well documented ideally with one person facilitating and another
scribing/ documenting the proceedings.
Step 3: Reflection
Partners gather to reflect on what happened and how it was received.
Step 4: Learning
Most importantly, lessons are learned and improvements discussed as part of a Way Forward.
It is really Steps 3 and 4 that define a developmental process and embed a reflective learning
component. Each step informs the one to follow setting in motion a learning rhythm which begins to
guide itself with an increasingly logical flow. The process facilitator ‘holds the threads’ of these steps
together, reminding the group of what was said and agreed upon before. Hence the process provides a
framework in which everyone works and keeps the group on track. The facilitator does not need to
stress much and feel pressure to bring all the ideas, but simply holds together a good framework
designed to harness the knowledge embedded within the group (of which the facilitator is also part).
The facilitator may need to bring or organize specialist input from time to time, but is really tasked with
keeping the action learning process in motion rather than filling it with any particular content. S(he) just
needs to ‘trust in the process’, or in other words, trust that the group will find a positive and beneficial
methodology – one that is naturally unlocked through a learning process.
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