Seven Tips for SME Interviews: Overcoming the Lack-of-curiosity Blues

As the summer draws to a close, I’m coaching my daughter on languagecomprehension skills. She does great on the topics that interest her, but whenit comes to the dry, scientific topics, she is not interested and gets lowerscores.

I tell her: “If you want to do well on this test, don’tswitch off—open your mind to learning new things.”

Of course, we all need to do the same with our own work,especially when gathering information from SMEs to create targeted, customizedlearning solutions. There are times when your topic is pretty dry or basic. Thereare also times when you may be embarrassed to ask an obvious question.

Overcoming those mean old lack-of-curiosity blues

These situations may result in the lack-of-curiosity blues, whenyou are less curious and less likely to ask questions.

To overcome your lack of keen interest, take a “step back”and look at the topic from all angles. Boundless curiosity is one of the topskills every interviewer needs.

Before you start an interview, keepthese tips in mind:

• Even though you have done your homework, adopt a“know nothing” attitude so you remain open-minded.
• Adopt a child-like curiosity to open your mindto new knowledge, ideas, and different perspectives.           
• Remember everyone has his or her own perspectiveon a topic, so don’t pay attention to the “right” answers and ignore the onesyou think are “wrong.”

During the interview:

• Ask open-ended, non-judgmental questions to givethe SME a chance to explain in depth.
• Keep asking, “What else?” to cover all anglesand get to the core of the topic.
• Take notes to listen actively and be engaged inthe interview.
• Use “The Five Whys” methodology, developed byToyota, to get to the root of a problem. With this method, you ask “why?” nofewer than five times. The answer to each question then forms the basis of thenext question.

Boundless curiosity will help you get all the informationyou need to meet the goals of your interview. When you overcome the “lack of curiosity”blues, you can establish rapport with your sponsors and SMEs—they are morelikely to share deep, detailed and valuable nuggets with a passionateinterviewer than with someone who is just doing their job.