Comments on: Working with SMEs https://blog.learnlets.com/2022/03/working-with-smes/ Clark Quinn's learnings about learning Sat, 19 Mar 2022 05:43:42 +0000 hourly 1 By: Dave Ferguson https://blog.learnlets.com/2022/03/working-with-smes/#comment-1220014 Sat, 19 Mar 2022 05:43:42 +0000 https://blog.learnlets.com/?p=8212#comment-1220014 On the multiple-SME front: years ago I collaborated on a series of workshops for Global Health staff at USAID. In the analysis/design stage, my colleagues John Howe and Rich Pearlstein (who were the leads on the project) would get two or three highly skilled SMEs together to discuss aspects of overseeing projects–how a newcomer can effectively join an ongoing aid project; dealing with various requests from project stakeholders; managing without micromanaging.

They’d work with the SMEs to identify and prioritize skill areas by category. The SMEs would identify real-work problems and discuss solutions they’d seen (both good and bad). One of the interesting aspects would be an SME saying “I don’t think I’d handle it that way, but I can see that’s an effective approach,” which opened the door to explore what effectiveness really meant.

For most of the topics, we developed case-based workshops that the SMEs participated in. They became a sounding board to listen to solutions proposed by groups, and once all the groups had made their proposals, discussed the pros and cons of each.

It was clear to all that the SMEs were not the source of THE answer; their role was to assess and provide feedback, as well as to suggest other approaches or at least possibilities.

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