Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are valuable partners for instructional designers. SMEs are on the teams of many training and performance improvement efforts. At times, it is a SME who is facilitating an online or in-person training session. Other times, you must collaborate with SMEs to understand the knowledge and skills to include in your learning design.
Although they are immensely helpful, SMEs also present a variety of challenges and problems when designing learning experiences. To rattle off a few:
- SMEs may be too busy to provide the help you need (Listen to Pro Tips for Working with Subject Matter Experts or download the transcript)
- Experts often have difficulty explaining basic topics because they forget what it is like to be a novice (the curse of knowledge)
- They may have trouble verbalizing the wealth of tacit knowledge that makes up their expertise (see Strategies for Tacit Knowledge Transfer)
- They may insist on including more content than is necessary to reach the agreed upon performance goals
Fortunately, there are several books for working with SMEs. The following books can help you develop effective processes and relationships for working with SMEs.
SMEs From the Ground Up: A No-Nonsense Approach to Trainer-Expert Collaboration by Chuck Hodell
Chuck Hodell, well-known for his book, ISD From the Ground Up, achieves a similar real-world result with this book about SMEs. He manages to translate his years of experience into actionable best practices. The book starts with the SME basics, the different types of SMEs and the benefits of cultivating good relations with the SMEs on your project. Hodell then dives into criteria for selecting the best SMEs, how to work with SME committees and dealing with issues that arise.
One aspect that makes this book stand out is its attention to the human element of creating a SME-friendly workplace. Hodell points out that there may be a great difference between the reader’s design culture and that of the SME. He details the importance of integrating SMEs into your design process. This book is filled with practical advice for designers at all levels.
Effective SMEs: A Trainer’s Guide for Helping Subject Matter Experts Facilitate Learning Paperback by Dale Ludwig and Greg Owen-Boger
Effective SMEs focuses on ways that instructional designers can help subject matter experts become effective facilitators. The authors provide practical guidance for elevating SMEs to their full potential when doing virtual or in-person training. The book rests on the foundation principle that a planned and structured facilitation should be implemented as an interactive conversation.
The first part of the book covers the rationale for conversational training. The reader is then taken through practical chapters on designing for SME delivery and coaching SMEs using non-threatening techniques. The final section covers advanced techniques, such as helping SMEs deliver online training and video training. If you are responsible for helping SMEs be successful at facilitation, this book is for you.
Working with SMEs: A Guide to Gathering and Organizing Content from Subject Matter Experts by Peggy Salvatore
This book demonstrates another practical approach to optimizing the designer-SME relationship. Salvatore creates a framework of tasks you will want to accomplish with SMEs during different phases of the ADDIE model. Readers can probably make this approach work with other instructional design models too.
Although the book covers topics like the traits of different SME personalities and ways to capture their knowledge, the main focus is on a methodology for achieving successful results. An added bonus are the templates included for documenting and managing the SME collaboration.
The Guide to Working with Subject Matter Experts by Michele B. Medved
This more recent addition to the SME book collection is a guide that beginning instructional designers will find helpful. The author covers foundation topics such as: role of the SME; how to get interested in the topic; preparing for the interview; asking effective questions; and solving problems that may arise.
One feature that will be of interest is a list of questions to help elicit meaningful knowledge. Another is the differentiation of question types (strategic, descriptive, performance, data) and when to use each type. Newer instructional designers will find good value in this inexpensive guide.
Sure! Oh and thanks for letting me know about Mind Meld.
Interesting! I didn’t know these 4, only Jon Aleckson’s Mind Meld (which is also a good book about talking to SMEs). Thanks for the list!