Such requests as “Please, could you recommend a professional facilitator ...” pop up as ever more often across social networks. Dozens and sometimes hundreds of names come up. But looking at most of them you can't help thinking: “What do they have to do with facilitation?”.

The point is that today many people consider themselves to be facilitators  - trainers, consultants, psychologists, strategy experts, coaches, HRs, conference speakers… «Oh, it's really very simple: I often work with groups and I know well how to stick cards to the wall…As for the word 'facilitation',well, it's nothing but a hype and there's no challenge about it.» So, are they actually facilitators? Well, probably, some of them are, but definitely not all. None of them is a facilitator by default, let alone a professional facilitator. Sure enough many of them can use facilitation techniques in their work. However, it does not make them facilitators.