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Tap Into Your Facilitation Strengths and Elevate Learning
What makes a facilitator truly effective? More than just expertise, it’s your presence, awareness, and ability to adapt in the moment. The Five Personas of Facilitation is for trainers and facilitators who want to go beyond basic technique and uncover the deeper drivers of their success. It’s a practical, structured guide to understanding your unique approach and using that insight to grow.
Through his distinctive Five Personas framework—the Sensei, the Drill Sergeant, the Superhero, the Confidant, and the Jester—facilitation expert Moe Poirier explores the mindsets and behaviors that shape how you deliver training. You’ll learn how to identify your strengths, recognize your default tendencies, and pinpoint areas for development. More important, you’ll discover how to turn those insights into action, building confidence, expanding your impact, and elevating the learning experience for every participant.
Inside, you’ll find:
- A clear process for self-assessment and reflection
- Real-world examples that bring facilitator personas to life
- Practice drills for each persona
- Strategies for goal setting, feedback, and continuous improvement
Like StrengthsFinder 2.0 for trainers and facilitators, this book transforms self-awareness into actionable growth. Whether you’re new to facilitation or a seasoned professional, you’ll move beyond what you do and focus on how you do it—so you can deliver with greater purpose and presence.
“Part field guide, part mirror, The Five Personas of Facilitation answers the question every facilitator secretly asks: ‘How do I not suck?’ Consider it a facilitator’s dream guide.”
—Dan Pontefract, Thinkers50 Radar Appointee and Award-Winning Author of Six Books, Including The Future of Work Is Grey
“Facilitation skills have never been more essential than in today’s technology-saturated, digital-first workplace, and Moe Poirier delivers the blueprint every facilitator needs. This book is practical, well-crafted, and immediately applicable—the kind of resource you’ll return to again and again. It belongs on every facilitator’s bookshelf!”
—Cindy Huggett, CPTD, Author, The Facilitator’s Guide to Immersive, Blended, and Hybrid Learning
“Moe Poirier has given facilitators a powerful language for understanding the magic they bring to the room. The Five Personas of Facilitation helps trainers grow their presence, expand their range, and create learning experiences that truly connect.”
—Kassy LaBorie, Author, Interact and Engage! 75+ Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars
“In The Five Personas of Facilitation, Moe Poirier offers a deeply human, reflective, and practical guide for anyone who facilitates learning, dialogue, or change. The book helps you discover your gifts as a facilitator and grow your impact from the inside out with the clarity, authenticity, and joy that make Moe such a trusted facilitator.”
—Lisa Wallace, Senior Manager, Learning Solutions, TD Bank
“This is a must-read if you are a facilitator or want to be a facilitator. The Five Personas of Facilitation will enable you to understand and become more grounded in your facilitation practice. It might even help you flex your style.”
—Vinay Kumar, Director, C2C Organizational Development; Former Chair, IAF (2020–2021)
“Moe Poirier brings an infectious passion for facilitation and for helping facilitators grow. Anyone who facilitates regularly knows that great sessions are about far more than mastering the content. They’re about the presence, energy, and perspective the facilitator brings into the room. Moe offers a practical lens to help facilitators understand their natural strengths and expand their range, and the book’s Reflection Time-Outs invite readers to pause and think deeply about their craft and their impact. The Five Personas of Facilitation is a thoughtful, practical guide for facilitators who want to elevate the experience they create for learners.”
—Megan Torrance, CEO, TorranceLearning; Author; Agile for Instructional Designers, Data and Analytics for Instructional Designers, and The AI Implementation Guide for L&D
“What sets The Five Personas of Facilitation apart is the way it offers facilitators clear personas they can recognize, imagine, and step into as their work unfolds. Moe Poirier invites facilitators to explore these five personas, experiment with new ways of showing up, and intentionally choose the presence that will help their learning experiences truly land.”
—Janey Piroli, Vice President, Global Talent Management, McCain Foods Limited
“Most facilitation books teach you what to do. Moe Poirier teaches you who to be, and that’s where the real magic (and impact) happens. If you train, manage, or coach people in any capacity, this book will change how you lead and show up, and your participants will feel the difference right away.”
—Britney Cole, Chief Innovation Officer, Blanchard
“The Five Personas of Facilitation is a skill-building toolkit disguised as an easy read: It helps facilitators spot their strengths, close real gaps, and stretch into new approaches with confidence. Any organization that cares about learning, change, and high performance will feel the impact in better sessions—and better results.” —Geoff Brockway, Global Head of Learning and Development, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca
Moe Poirier is the founding partner of Shift Facilitation. Together with his team, he’s on a mission to have corporate trainers and facilitators reinvent themselves as change agents and value creators for the organizations they serve. For 20-plus years, Poirier has honed his craft as a facilitator and an award-winning training designer. He has a gift for bringing learning to life and fostering collaboration. Poirer’s client adventures have led him to some interesting places across North America, the UK, and Saudi Arabia. At home in Canada, Poirier has been a champion for L&D professional standards, leading the Paper to Practice and Virtual Facilitation Excellence programs as an I4PL partner. At heart, Poirier is an engineer, entrepreneur, and educator. The engineer is purposeful. The entrepreneur is creative. The educator is open. Poirier lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Introduction
1. Facilitating on Purpose
2. Personas as a Tool
3. The Sensei
4. The Drill Sergeant
5. The Superhero
6. The Confidant
7. The Jester
8. Converting Insights to Action
9. Coaching Facilitators
Conclusion. Facilitation, a Love Story
Appendix. Competencies and Professional Standards
Acknowledgments
References