All blog posts ……..Start each work week with the latest issue. Scroll down to subscribe!

Friends, Memorial Day is Monday so I’m publishing this post a couple days early.

7 Tips for SMEs-turned-IDs

One common path to instructional design—especially in the corporate training sector—is through subject matter expertise.  People who know the ins and outs of a company, its systems, and its processes can be a natural fit for training others.  In fact, often SMEs are already delivering presentations and providing one-on-one or small-group training sessions.  Rather than a solid starting point, moving into an ID role can feel to some SMEs like sticking a label on something they thought they were already doing.

But this path isn’t without its pitfalls, and doesn’t always lead to the assumed destination.

Below you’ll find a list of the most common (fixable!) issues some SMEs encounter when they move into a design role without formal design training or experience. If you’re new to the ID role and any of these resonate, filling the gaps in your skillset will help make you more successful.

1. SMEs may assume that knowing how to do something automatically confers the ability to communicate that knowledge effectively.  This is emphatically not the case. (If it were, we’d all be able to write compelling autobiographies!)  SMEs who make this erroneous assumption may not seek out the training, feedback, and support they need to gain the bedrock skills necessary to design and develop effective instructional materials, which are gathering, prioritizing, sequencing, and communicating information.
   
2. SMEs may assume that tools do all the work, so designing effective instruction doesn’t require much experience or training. This is a common erroneous assumption driven (surprise!) by tool vendors. Imagine a piano. A virtuoso player sits down, and music wafts into the air. Now imagine someone who has never studied music a day in his or her life sitting down to that same piano and pressing the keys. The result will differ dramatically! That’s because it‘s never the tool that does the work—it’s always the human being using the tool who does the work.
   
3. SMEs may assume that knowing is the same as doing.  This common assumption can lead SMEs to develop info dumps that produce poor outcomes. (“I told them exactly how it’s done, but nobody’s doing it and I can’t figure out why!”)
4. SMEs may assume that what works to train one-on-one also works to train large or differentiated groups.  For example, SMEs who have been tapped to show newly on-boarded colleagues “the ropes” may assume that the ad hoc presentations, fun clip art, just-in-time explanations, informal notes, and heavy phone/chat/in-person support that’s appropriate for tutoring will work for materials that need to scale up to multiple cohorts or be delivered a different way (such as a classroom setting or asynchronous.  This erroneous assumption is similar to assuming that the same approach to making a batch a cookies for a few guests can be applied to a cookie manufacturing process.
5. SMEs may have difficulty separating what’s in their head from what’s on the page. SMEs with no background in technical writing (a discipline in which several rounds of drafts and reviews s are considered normal and necessary) often assume that the notes they use to give presentations or explain processes in a one-on-one synchronous environment are adequate for asynchronous delivery (via text document, video, or e-learning).  This is not the case.  When we move from synchronous presentation (where a person is there to fill in gaps in real time) to asynchronous (where all learners have is what’s on the page, in the video, or on the e-learning interface) content and presentation must level up dramatically. Unless asynchronous instruction is clear, concise, and complete, it won’t be effective.
6. SMEs may have trouble believing the value of repetition.  Because they’re already familiar with the content, SMEs may be tempted to believe that learners (including novice learners) can recall information they’ve only heard once or twice, or that has been buried in a mountain of nice-to-have information.  In fact, emphasis and repetition are necessary both for short-term and long-term recall.
7. SMEs may want, and expect, learners to struggle to learn skills “like they (the SMEs) did.”  The characterization of high-quality instruction as “spoon feeding” and remarks such as “skill x is so difficult people just have to figure it out on their own” are unmistakable signs that SMEs: a)  Haven’t yet achieved the skills to develop instruction and are not actively seeking to do so; and b)  Believe in a subtle form of hazing that’s likely not healthy for learners or for the organization as a whole.

The bottom line (TLDR)

Subject matter expertise can be of enormous value in designing effective instruction, but it’s not sufficient all by itself. 

In addition to subject matter expertise, a good ID also needs to be able to:

• Present information in such a way that it can easily be understood, applied, and recalled;
• Anticipate and proactively address common misunderstandings; and
• Scaffold skills acquisition efficiently.

What’s YOUR take?

Do you have a different point of view? Something to add? A request for an article on a different topic? Please considering sharing your thoughts, questions, or suggestions for future blog articles in the comment box below.

• LinkedIn