Learning set roles

Adviser: The Adviser’s job is to encourage and support the members to become self-facilitating. In the beginning, she or he may facilitate meetings to model this way of working (which will be unfamiliar to many members), but after a period, Facilitation skills should be learned and practised by all of the members of the learning set. The Adviser is also the first point of information on administrative matters.

Chair: The chairperson conducts the meeting, making sure that each person is heard, and has an opportunity to present. The Chair’s focus is to ensure a good learning set process. It is desirable for each member to have an opportunity to chair meetings, over the life of the learning set.

Timekeeper: The timekeeper assists the chair by keeping track of agenda items and time allocated to them. She or he may also find other ways to back the facilitator. The facilitator and timekeeper should function as a team.

Facilitator: It is the task of every participant to facilitate the learning of each other member. Over time, learning sets become self-facilitating and the degree of intervention by the Adviser should reduce as other members of the learning set become skilled in making facilitating interventions.