Seven Subject Matter Experts You Might Not Meet in Heaven, and How to Work with Each

Subject matter experts (SMEs) used tofeature heavily in my world. For many years, I created health care eLearningcontent; when it came to extracting knowledge from health care professionals, Ihad it down to a fine art.

The big jump in learning for me was when Iunderstood the difference between explicit and tacit knowledge. It is usuallyeasy to understand explicit knowledge, as it encompasses the overt rules,steps, policies, and procedures that we can all document and understand.

Tacit knowledge is a little different. Whenyou talk to experts, much of what they know is so ingrained and automatic thatthey have forgotten how they learned it. For example, the complex skillsinvolved in being a good leader or salesperson are difficult to teach—many talkabout having “natural talent.” Asking precise questions and staying focused ona particular topic can help. Even if this tacit knowledge is natural talent, findinga way of extracting it means that we can share the knowledge with others. LouisaWah (see the References at the end of this article) highlighted the importanceof organizational tacit knowledge—she argued that 90 percent of the knowledgein any organization is embedded in people’s minds. Research that is more recent(see Venkitachalamand Busch in the References) has looked at what “tacit” knowledge really meansand how we can make some tacit knowledge explicit.

Getting to tacit knowledge

When working with health careprofessionals, I asked for anecdotes about overcoming challenges or achievingsuccess, and then I drilled down into the story to help uncover how they madetheir decisions. Getting to this tacit or insider knowledge often revealed rich content that wasmore likely to lead to “sticky” learning. SMEs leaving a meeting with me,usually after a few hours, needed to lie down in a darkened room.

It is why I have so much empathy for anyonewho is an SME—and especially because I’ve been an SME myself. Being on theother side teaches you a lot. And we do expect so much of SMEs! If you talk toanyone who has worked in eLearning and mention those three letters (SME), youwill see eyes rolling and hear tut-tuts breaking out and sighs deepening.

I have had this same conversation with two eLearningfriends from Wisconsin and Minnesota. It seems that SMEs are an internationalchallenge. But—it doesn’t have to be that way.

Seven SME archetypes or personas

Andrea May, Dawn Mahoney, and I came upwith seven typical SME personas. These personas were designed to help us workbetter with our SMEs. Andrea May is vice president of instructional design atDashe & Thomson. Dawn Mahoney runs Learning in the White Space, a modernlearning consultancy that brings fresh ideas to outdated training methods.

Although the persona names might seem alittle harsh, sharing these with our clients has helped to open up communicationchannels and reduce project bottlenecks. Dawn and Andrea presented thesearchetypes at DevLearn 2015 and Learning Solutions 2016, and we have beenrefining them ever since. We have also developed a series of scenarios to helpgenerate further discussion and insights. When we crafted the sessions, wechose to focus on the following SMEs:

1. The AWOL SME

Impact on project

This SME goes missing, won’t answer emails,and doesn’t turn up at meetings.

Working together

• Show that you are prepared, incharge, and reliable in meetings and deadlines.
• Feed content for review insmall chunks with tight turnarounds to avoid the SME’s forgetting to review orbeing overwhelmed by a large amount of work.
  
  

2. The Busy-bee SME

Impact on project

This SME just can’t commit to what youasked for, as he or she is the “go-to” person in the organization for everything.

Working together

• Set expectations for the projectup front, and schedule the time you need with the SME as far in advance aspossible.
  
  

3. The Clueless SME

Impact on project

This SME has been “nominated” for youreLearning project but doesn’t know why and is very unsure about how they cangive input.

Working together

• Continually reinforce thattheir expertise is needed for the project.
• Instead of asking them to makedecisions, make choices on their behalf and allow them to react to the choices.
  
  

4. The Control-freak SME

Impact on project

Extremely confident with strong opinions onevery aspect of the project, but isn’t always right and doesn’t like to bechallenged.

Working together

• Encourage this SME to voicewhat is top of mind for them at the beginning of each meeting to prime them forlistening when it is your turn.
• Validate their opinions asoften as possible, and be flexible enough to incorporate their ideas as yourdesign and standards allow.
  
  

5. The Include-it-all SME

Impact on project

Insists that every detail of the 200-pagemanual or 150-slide PowerPoint deck is included.

Working together

• Encourage this SME tocommunicate all of their knowledge to you. You will understand the topic morefully, but be judicious about the content you choose to include in materials.
• Keep lists of content the SMEwants to add for future advanced sessions, and show the SME that you haveconsidered them carefully.
  
  

6. The Unfocused SME

Impact on project

Well-intentioned but often provides “interesting”information that has no bearing on what needs to be learned.

Working together

• When the SME strays off topic,allow a brief one- or two-minute discussion and then table the topic forfurther discussion later.
• Provide avenues for their ideasto come to fruition whenever you can—think creatively. For example, it doesn’thave to be in the main content. You could add additional material such as jobaids, checklists, etc.
  
  

7. The Unreliable SME

Impact on project

Really smart and capable but terrible attime management and deadlines.

Working together

• Sympathize with this SME’s timechallenges and allow them as much flexibility as your timeline allows.
• Include this SME in yourproject-planning process and allow them to provide input regarding theirworkload and deadlines.
  
  

How would you react to this SME?

If you are interested in more depth about how best towork with different types of SMEs, you can look at one of these three animatedscenarios.

This is how our AWOL SME might work in your project:

This is how the Clueless SME might work in yourproject:

This is how the Control-freak SME might work in yourproject:

Strive to bring out the best in people

Building good relationships and clear communicationlies at the heart of working in any eLearning project. SMEs are just human,like all of us, and sometimes they need a bit of help or encouragement toperform at their best due to other demands in their jobs or personal lives.Although we have categorized the SMEs into seven types, there are a fewoverlapping traits shared between some types. Keep in mind also that SMEs canshift, without warning, from one type to another—sometimes in the span of asingle meeting.

The seven SME archetypes are a reminder tous all not to take anything for granted and to acknowledge that we, as learningprofessionals, have an important role in bringing out the best in the people wework with. Maybe it is time to stop the sighing and eye-rolling at the meremention of those three letters.

References

1. Wah, Louisa. “Making KnowledgeStick.” Management Review, Vol. 88, No.6. May 1999.
2. Venkitachalam,Krishna, and Peter Busch.“Tacit knowledge: review and possible research directions.” Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 16,No. 2. 2012. https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/13673271211218915