Monthly Archives: February 2015

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Should You Handhold Your SME Through Their Review of Your Content?

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This post is one in a series that answers questions from viewers of the January 28 KnowledgeVision Google Hangout where we talked about the challenges of working with SMEs.

Question from Amy:

When having SMEs review material for content, what is your approach? Do you prefer a facilitated session to walk through the material or allow them to review the material independently to provide feedback? Or does it depend on the type of SME you are dealing with?

I think it depends more on the material than the SME. If the material is very involved, or requires many steps for example, you would want to review it with them. For example, if you are reviewing documentation for a new software program, everyone is still learning what was in each field and drop down menu, so it is good to be with your SMEs for reviews. You will want to ask questions to clarify the content of fields, review drop downs menus and steps for accessing the program such as new password protocols.

 

Sometimes the material is straightforward, especially if your SME gave you a lot of great information to work at the outset. You may have detailed slides or journal articles that they’ve authored in which case their review of the content is probably going to be rather perfunctory. In that case, you can probably write most of your training from their content with pretty much confidence. During the review, they can independently check your word choices, context, how you’ve framed things, review questions and answers if you’ve written those, and check case studies to make sure they feel authentic. But, no, in the case where you have a lot of good content to write the project, I don’t think you would need to be with them for that review. In fact, I personally would rather let them have time on their own to review it and think about it.

I cover this topic in the book in more detail including review sign off sheets and a flow chart for documenting processes.

If readers have  experience handling complex reviews with subject matter experts, I’d like to hear how you’ve handled it. Contact me at workingwithsmes@gmail.com with questions, or leave a message in the comment section.

 

 

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Dueling SMEs! Resolving Information Discrepencies

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This post is one in a series that answers questions from viewers of the January 28 KnowledgeVision Google Hangout where we talked about the challenges of working with SMEs.

Question from Sarah:

Can you talk about ways to resolve information discrepancies between SMEs. Example: the SMEs have very different methods of performing the work and have strong opinions that “their way is right”.

 

I love this question because it happens! First, I am assuming you have presented this material to both of them and they have both dug in their heels. Without the two – or more! – coming to an agreement, here are a few ways to handle it:

 

  1. If you have two subject matter experts who are at very different levels in the organization or different levels of experience, the more experienced one can trump the junior SME simply because a. there is a higher probability they are correct (although not always!) and b. 9 times out of 10 it will politically be the wiser move.

 

  1. If you have two highly regarded subject matter experts of relatively equal weight, you have a sticky wicket, for sure. In that case, the stakeholder in charge of the project who is usually also the person writing the checks or providing the resources, gets to make the call. They may choose one over the other for any number of reasons having to do with personal preference, political considerations in the organization, seniority, favoritism, or any other factors that you may not know or care about. It is just your job to make sure you satisfy your client and that the information is correct to the best of your ability. That sometimes means deferring to the project owner, not the SME. The project owner will have to deal with the SMEs. That’s outside the scope of your job, although don’t be surprised if you end up taking the heat on something like that. Consider it all in a day’s work.

 

  1. A third option is calling in an outside expert to referee the information.  If everyone respects that person, it could be a solution. I’ve actually been in that situation, although in my experience the outside SME can really muddy the waters further. Not because they aren’t knowledgeable but because now the client is faced with more alternatives!  If your client is already confused, yikes! If you can, try to get the existing SMEs and the clients to come to an agreement using 1 or 2. I actually address this option in the book Working with SMEs in more detail because this situation was going on while I was writing it, so it was on my mind.

 

If readers have any more ideas about how to handle this situation, I’d be interested to hear them.

 

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Tips for Choosing the Best Subject Matter Expert

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This post is one in a series that answers questions from viewers of the January 28 KnowledgeVision Google Hangout where we talked about the challenges of working with SMEs.

Question from Andrea:

What are tips for figuring out in advance what type of SME you will be working with i.e. before you sit down to interview them – so that we are better prepared (incl. equipment) to employ the right tactics?

 

I partially cover this in the book  but you bring in the idea about preparing to have the right equipment as well, which is a good aspect to think about.

When you are designing a training program with the stakeholders, they usually have an idea of the type of person or, even more commonly, the exact person they would like you to work with. It is a good idea to get that in writing when you are doing a project charter, project scope document or putting together your project plan. That way you and your stakeholders know in advance the resources they are committing to the training.

If the customer asks your for suggestions, I would ask them for the person most familiar with the process, knowledge, information, skill AND who has the time to spend with you. Sometimes the person who is the most knowledgeable is also the person who is in most demand and so it really isn’t helpful if you can’t get their time!

It is good to define or name your SME in your project charter for any number of reasons, one of which is that if the SME cannot fulfill their obligation you have a description of the kind of person you need and can refer back to it.

Also, yes, you really bring up a good point about knowing the person so you can be prepared with the right equipment and tactics. I recommend to almost always capture your interview with an audio recording. If you have a particularly iconic SME who you might want to capture for posterity, try to get the video.

Use whatever tools are most comfortable for you when you are note taking.  Personally, I am comfortable taking handwritten notes, but some people are more comfortable typing. I have read that handwriting actually imprints the information on your brain in a way that typing does not, which is one reason I will often have learners physically write out parts of some exercises.

In any event, in my opinion, note taking and equipment are a matter of personal preference.

 

 

 

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Incentivizing Your Subject Matter Experts

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This post is one in a series that answers questions from viewers of the January 28 KnowledgeVision Google Hangout where we talked about the challenges of Working with SMEs.

We got this question from Nicole:

Any tips for incentivizing and rewarding busy SMEs to deliver part of the training in the classroom? Internal SMEs maybe would like to teach others, but they are working on BHAGs, for which there are greater career and financial rewards?

First, I was not familiar with the term “BHAG”. Now I know! It means “big, hairy, audacious goals”.

As for the question, when you have a subject matter expert who is being reluctantly pulled away from their job, the first approach is to remind them how important their role as a SME is to the organization. They will be training people who are their colleagues and working along side them. It is an opportunity for the subject matter expert to have a lasting impact on the company.

Beyond that, when their time spent working on the training program interferes with their ability to generate commission-based income or pulls them away from some other activity they value, then the company needs to think about incentivizing the SME to offset their loss.

We recently had this come up with a sales training team. We had written a coaching and mentoring program that required a fairly significant amount of classroom time with ongoing commitments to training new hires. The mentoring program would get the new hires up to speed much faster and the organization stood to benefit. But the individual mentors? Not so much. Their perceived return was just not worth their time.

Solutions? The company can structure a bonus or incentive program for sales people or anyone who stands to lose income if they participate as mentors. SMEs need to be recognized for their efforts in a way that it puts a finger on the scale during their review process or in some other way is related to a measurement of their job performance.

The upshot is that when you invite or require a subject matter expert to be involved in taking time away from other activities that they value – such as generating sales or working on a research project – you need to reward them in some way to recognize their  contribution and offset their loss. Otherwise, you may end up with a SME that doesn’t want to spend the time working on developing or delivering the training program. That’s just lose-lose-lose. No good for the SME, no good for the training, and no good for the company.