How to Make Learning Stick as a Facilitator: Tips for Boosting Retention

June 9, 2025 | Barbara Ann Sharon

As a facilitator, your role is to help participants absorb and retain information. But how do you ensure that the learning doesn’t just go in one ear and out the other? Making learning stick is about engaging participants, reinforcing key concepts, and creating a learning environment that fosters retention long after the session is over.

Too often we get so jazzed up about the agenda and making sure that we cover everything that we forget why we, as facilitators, are there.  The role of a facilitator is to present, guide, solidify, and adjust the topic at hand.  While we do our best to apply a pre-established agenda, great facilitators know when to pivot and turn.  Here’s how you can use specific strategies to help your participants not only learn but remember and apply  what they’ve learned.

Work Hard to Engage Your Participants

Engagement is key to making learning stick. Don’t just “lecture.”  Create opportunities for your participants to interact with the material. This could mean encouraging them to ask questions, share their thoughts, or participate in group activities. The more actively they engage with the content, the more likely they are to retain it.  This is an essential adult learning. 

How to do it:

• Ask open-ended questions to get participants thinking.

• Use activities like group discussions, polls, or quick brainstorming sessions.

• Encourage participants to teach or explain concepts to each other, which helps solidify their understanding.

• Allow time for retention.  Incorporate intentional checkpoints and reflection time for participants to regroup and identify lessons learned.

Use Repetition to Reinforce Key Concepts

One session isn’t enough to make information stick long-term. As a facilitator, you can help reinforce learning by revisiting key points throughout the session and encouraging participants to review concepts over time. This is where spaced repetition comes in.  Review material at varying intervals to strengthen memory retention.

How to do it:

• Start your session with a quick review of key takeaways from previous lessons or discussions. This gets the session lined up for success.

• Ask participants to recap the main points at different intervals during the session. This provides participants with on-going reinforcement.

• Recommend post-session activities like quizzes or group discussions to reinforce what was covered. This takes the learning forward to application.

Make the Learning Meaningful and Relevant

When learning is connected to real-life experiences, it’s more likely to stick. As a facilitator, it’s your job or role  to help participants see the relevance of what they are learning. Show them how the content connects to their daily work or personal lives to make it more meaningful.

How to do it:

• Use real-world examples and case studies that are relevant to the participants’ industries or roles.

• Encourage participants to share how they might apply what they’ve learned in their own contexts.

• Relate new information to participants’ existing knowledge or experiences, helping them see the connections.

Mix It Up: Incorporate Interleaving into Your Sessions

Never heard of interleaving before? Interleaving, or mixing up different topics or skills during a learning session, has been shown to improve retention. As a facilitator, you can keep your sessions dynamic by not focusing on one topic for too long. This helps participants make connections between different ideas and keeps their minds engaged.  Let’s face it.  People are complex.  What resonates with one person may not resonate with another.  People learn differently and as a result, good adult learning and teaching needs to honor that. 

How to do it:

• Alternate between different topics or learning activities during the session.

• Break up a long presentation with group discussions, case studies, or hands-on exercises. An adult’s ability to stay focused is not as long as we think, so therefore, we need to give people time to reflect and regroup.

• Encourage participants to switch between different skills or techniques to enhance their ability to apply knowledge with elasticity.

Encourage Hands-On Learning and Application

Theory is great, and even necessary, but practice is what makes learning stick. As a facilitator, you should always strive to provide opportunities for participants to apply what they’ve learned in real-world scenarios. The more they use the skills or knowledge immediately, the more likely it is to stick.

How to do it:

• Include practical exercises where participants can apply the concepts you’re teaching.

• Set up role-playing activities, case studies, or simulations that mimic real-life situations.

• Invite audience members to identify a situation that is relevant to them and then ask them to use the lessons learned

• Ask participants to set action plans for how they’ll use the material after the session.

Break for Reflection and Downtime

As much as learning is about engagement and activity, downtime and reflection are just as important. Your participants need moments to process the information and consolidate what they’ve learned. Yes, consolidation is key.  This is true no matter how long the session is.  It is about breaking the lesson down into manageable chunks.

How to do it:

• Build in short breaks throughout your session to allow participants to absorb the information.

• Encourage reflective moments where participants can think about how they’ll apply what they’ve learned.

• Invite participants to share what they’ve learned with others, so that each participant can gain a fresh perspective. 

• Use quick “check-ins” or “stop-and-think” activities, allowing participants to reflect on the material so far.  Remember, there are different learning styles.  The best facilitators recognize this and let the learning grow in ways that work best for the audience. 

Use Recap and Review Techniques

Repetition is one of the best ways to reinforce learning. At the end of the session, take the time to review the key points and encourage participants to reflect on what they’ve learned. You can also provide additional materials for review after the session, helping to solidify their learning.

How to do it:

• End each session with a summary of the key takeaways.

• Ask participants to share one thing they’ll take away from the session.

• Provide post-session resources, such as summaries, reading materials, or quizzes, to encourage continued learning.

As a facilitator, your role goes beyond simply delivering content—it’s about creating an environment where learning can stick. By engaging participants, making the material relevant, and providing opportunities for active practice and reflection, you’ll help ensure that the learning sticks long after the session ends. Whether you’re running a training session, workshop, or meeting, these strategies can help turn knowledge into long-lasting skills.

Call Us Today at 610.454.1557 - Barbara Ann Sharon, Chief Learning Officer at the Training Edge is ready to lend an ear.