The SME – Can’t Live With Them / Don’t Live Without Them

In any training assessment and resulting instructional design I’ve always found myself working with a subject matter expert,(SME).  Working with SMEs is both a enjoyable and difficult.  SMEs have, usually through extensive experience, a tremendous amount of information on a topic that you need.  So what’s wrong with that?  Well, traditionally SMEs see all information as flat, linear, and equally important.  You need to design four hours of training and they insist that you really need 12 hours to do the job properly.  So what can you do?

Suggestion:  During my first meeting with a Subject Matter Expert I ask them to describe the job that we are creating training for.  In the process the SME, with my feedback and questioning, builds a priority pyramid by the end of our session.  With the pyramid I have a way to introduce them to the 80/20 rule.  Once they have explained the function of job and tasks associated with the job, I ask them to  use their job description and identify approximately 20% of the tasks that would be required to succeed at the job roughly 80% of the time, (top of the pyramid).  I also acknowledge that the job requires much more than just the tasks &  knowledge represented by the 20% but we’re just looking at those tasks &  knowledge that are required for the employee to perform well on a normal day.

In short order the SME has identified those tasks & knowledge that a new employee would need to be successful on the job on a typical day.  It has also made it much easier to chunk down the instructional design into critical performance points that  allow the learner to internalize and apply new skills easily and quickly.