You Are The Smartest Person in the Room…and probably, in your company in your area of specialization. With that, comes responsibility.

This week, I had the opportunity to put together a speaking proposal to a group of subject matter experts about how best to work with them. Which leads me to this week’s blog, how a SME can make easier the process of working with writers and corporate trainers to transfer their knowledge for organizational continuity.

“If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room.” – Unknown

I’ve long held the belief that this saying is true. Fortunately, for me, this has never been a problem! But for PhD neurobiologists, it can occasionally present a challenge. It is to you, that really smart person who studies quarks or polymerase chain reactions, that I address the following.

As a subject matter expert, your contribution to the sales, marketing and training efforts of your company are irreplaceable. You are the smartest person in the room and they need you.

That means there comes a time in the life of every astrophysicist that they must communicate with other humans, humans who just aren’t on your rung of the intellectual food chain. Sometimes those humans are writers who need to communicate your message for marketing or sales purposes. Sometimes those people are in the training department of your corporation who are structuring your expertise to transfer it to other employees. Whomever they are, rest assured they are working to transfer your knowledge intact.

You can help them in their endeavor.

Writers and training designers are educated to know how to collect, organize and relate information in a logical and comprehensible way, but they are not PhD neurobiologists. Who is your writer or trainer? He is a master learner and organizer. He is a student of human behavior and good communicator. If you are lucky, he majored in microbiology as an undergrad in college. But when it comes to your area of expertise, he is not the smartest person in the room.

For someone who is intellectually curious and loves to learn, working with you is very interesting. Your writer or training designer is going to learn a lot from you so he can teach it to others. But he doesn’t know your subject yet, and he may or may not have a good base of knowledge in your area of expertise to ask good foundational questions.

So, if your writer or training designer needs some background, provide him with resources so he can study on his own time. It is not a wise use of either of your time for you to teach him the basics of chemistry, for example. It is in his job description to learn some simple terminology and concepts on his own before diving in. Don’t be afraid to give him homework; in fact, it is a good idea to do so.

Here are a few basic rules for getting started with your writer or training designer. Before meeting:

1. Give him any articles, books, slide presentations or speeches you’ve made on the topic before you meet. If you don’t have your own materials, point him to basic materials on the topic.
2. Ask for a list of questions before your first meeting. Try to answer some of them in writing. If any questions are irrelevant, say so and suggest a better question.
3. Set aside an hour or two of uninterrupted time in your schedule for your meeting.

***************************************************************************************

As a subject matter expert in your corporation, your time is very valuable. If you do these simple things, you will set a baseline of understanding and have a productive use of your limited time with the writers and training designers who are working with you.

Are you a subject matter expert? What are some of the challenges you’ve faced when working with writing and training colleagues?