Train the Trainer: Innovation & Design Thinking Facilitator Program
Every dimension in this assessment, across 30+ modules. Live coaching sessions and a certificate you earn by facilitating for real.
Explore Train the TrainerWhat this facilitation assessment measures
The assessment scores you across the six dimensions that separate a competent presenter from an innovative facilitator. Each dimension has four questions, and each gets its own 0–100 score so you can see exactly where your practice is strong and where the next gain is available.
1. Session Design
Whether you build agendas around what participants will do rather than what you will present, starting from the real challenge and moving through a clear arc from framing to ideas to action. This is the foundation of every design thinking workshop, and it is the dimension everything else rests on.
2. Facilitator Mindset
The shift from being the expert in the room to drawing out the group's intelligence: sitting with silence, facilitating people who know more than you do, and measuring a session by what participants produced rather than by how well you performed.
3. Group Process
Your repertoire of methods for full participation. Open discussion rewards the loudest voice; structured process gets everyone contributing. This covers silent brainstorming, small group rotations, dot voting, reading the room, and handling the dominator or the derailer without losing the group. See innovation and brainstorming workshops for how these methods work in practice.
4. Storytelling
Stories are how workshops travel. Gathering participant stories early builds empathy and surfaces insight; closing with pitch-style storytelling means the work gets retold accurately after the room empties. Related: storytelling for transformation.
5. AI-Enhanced Facilitation
The newest terrain. AI will not replace facilitators, but it changes what one facilitator can do: drafting agendas in minutes, synthesizing a wall of sticky notes or a live poll export in the room, and turning a transcript into a same-day follow-up report. Facilitators who build this muscle now are setting the standard.
6. Reflection & Action
Most sessions end the moment the last activity does, and the learning never lands. This dimension measures whether you make room for people to reflect, make meaning of the experience, connect it to their own work, and leave motivated and clear about what they will do differently. Reflection is a design element, not an afterthought.
Who this assessment is for
If you run meetings, workshops, trainings, or offsites that are supposed to produce something, this is for you.
- Trainers and L&D professionals
- Internal facilitators and innovation leads
- Managers who run working sessions
- Consultants and coaches
- Subject matter experts who present but want to facilitate
- Educators and higher education staff
Where to go after your results
Both programs below are led by Darin Eich, Ph.D., and both build the same six dimensions this assessment measures. The difference is structure: one is a full curriculum you work through, the other is personalized coaching on a session you are actually designing.
Train the Trainer: Innovation & Design Thinking Facilitator Program
The complete curriculum for becoming an innovative facilitator. 30+ modules covering design thinking, brainstorming, facilitation tools and techniques, virtual workshop facilitation, storytelling, LEGO® Serious Play®, and AI for innovation, plus two live coaching sessions and a certificate you earn by facilitating for real.
30+ modules
2 live coaching sessions
Certificate
$1,499 · $999 nonprofit
Best if you scored Presenter or Emerging Facilitator, or if you want breadth across every dimension rather than depth in one session.
Explore Train the TrainerInnovative Workshop Design & Facilitation Coaching
Personalized coaching for facilitators with a real session on the calendar. Three one-on-one coaching sessions with Darin plus a capstone project, so you design, pressure-test, and debrief an actual workshop rather than a hypothetical one.
3 personalized sessions
Capstone project
Work on your real workshop
$1,999
Best if you scored Confident or Innovative Facilitator, or if you have a specific high-stakes session and want expert eyes on your design.
Explore Facilitation CoachingTraining a whole team?
If your organization needs facilitation capability across a group rather than one person, Darin designs and delivers custom in-person and virtual workshops built around your real challenge, including design thinking training, innovation and brainstorming workshops, and offsites and retreats designed for your place and people.
Frequently asked questions
How long does the facilitator assessment take?
About five minutes. There are 24 questions, four in each of the six dimensions, and you rate how true each statement is of you on a five-point scale. Results appear instantly when you finish.
Do I have to give my email to see my results?
No. The assessment is completely free and requires no email address or sign-up. Your answers stay in your browser, and you can print or save your results as a PDF from the results page.
What is the difference between presenting and facilitating?
A presenter delivers content and carries the room. A facilitator designs the conditions where the group does the thinking, makes meaning of it, and leaves motivated to act. The presenter measures success by how well they presented; the facilitator measures it by what participants produced and took away. Making that shift is the single highest-leverage move most professionals can make.
How is my facilitator readiness score calculated?
Each of the six dimensions has four questions scored 1 to 5. Your raw score in each dimension is converted to a 0–100 scale, and your overall readiness score is the average of the six. Scores map to four levels: Presenter, Emerging Facilitator, Confident Facilitator, and Innovative Facilitator.
Which facilitator program should I take after the assessment?
If you are building the fundamentals, Train the Trainer covers all six dimensions across 30+ modules with live coaching and a certificate.
If you already facilitate and want personalized help designing a specific high-stakes session, Innovative Workshop Design & Facilitation Coaching gives you three one-on-one sessions and a capstone project.