By Sue Stoney, the Message Crafter
While working on a slight re-do of my website, I found some messages I had shared with my clients as I was coaching their writing. I thought, “This is helpful information about collaborating with subject matter experts (SMEs). I should put it in a blog article.”
Okay. So, the first thing I need to do is define a “SME”. The website Indeed tells us, “Subject matter experts, also called SMEs, are professionals who have advanced knowledge in a specific field. As an authority in a particular area or topic, they are uniquely qualified to provide guidance and strategy…”
The bolding in that second sentence of the definition is mine. What it says to me (and something I have come to know through 25+ years as a writing coach and editor both in corporate positions and as a solopreneur) is that everyone is a SME in something. Hey, look at that: By extension, that means I’m a SME and so are you, whoever you are, reading this blog article.
Now it may just be because I have made my living reading and writing, but I see “SME-ness” as intricately connected to writing. Why? Because I have worked with many SMEs throughout my career, and a number of them had similar stories about coming out of school into their first position in a company or opening their own business – and discovering that they were spending upwards of seventy percent of their time writing – and they had no preparation for doing so.
The IT guy writing a report for his boss’ boss’ boss about why the recently merged company needs a completely new end-to-end back office system.
The engineer developing a proposal to a state government for a revamp of its highway system.
The web developer pitching a design idea for a client’s business site.
The MD creating a grant proposal for her department.
These are all examples of SMEs I have worked with in my area of expertise – writing coach and editor. And, they were all thinking three things:
(1) I am not an expert.
(2) I am not a writer.
(3) How am I supposed to do this?
And before you go down the AI road (“All you have to do is plug your idea into a bot, and it will spit out the words you need.”), let me remind you that AI’s words come from, well, yours. Bots crawl the internet looking for text in a particular field, but whose text is it? SMEs’ text!
And where do human SMEs get their text from? Lived experience, that’s where. That’s why I recommend to my clients that they find ways to record what they are learning as they go throughout their days practicing their craft. The stuff of their everyday work life is the stuff they need to write from their unique place of excellence.
So, for what it’s worth, here are some things I learned about SMEs in my career as a writing coach / developmental editor:
– Subject matter experts are not born experts in their fields. They may have more training / education / experience in their field than the average bear, but when they actually begin to do the work day-to-day, they are learning as they go. Now, that does not mean I subscribe to that expression some people in business use – “Fake it ‘til you make it.”
I do believe, though, that SMEs do not know everything (who does?) and must have the humility to acknowledge what they don’t know (yet) as they work with novices in their field and / or “lay people” who know little to nothing about their expertise. It is not “Fake it ‘til you make it.” but, rather, “Learn as you go, and then turn around and teach others.”
The engineers and IT professionals I worked with through the years who were the most effective leaders were the ones with a firm understanding of what their strengths were and how the complementarity of their skills with others’ could work to the benefit of the companies they worked for as well as the individuals on their teams.
– I came to this understanding of “SME-ness” by two avenues – one being the program that the LA public school district was using when I first moved there. Called “Each One Teach One”, the LA program addressed the education of at-risk students. The second place I learned about SME-ness was in the gospel story of Jesus at the Last Supper with his apostles. He tells them that, although they address him as “Raboni” (an honorific that means “Teacher” in Aramaic), he has washed their feet before they sat down to the Passover meal. So, as he has done, they can do. Those who come down firmly on the side of Jesus being God become human (not just pretending to be human) see that, in everything Jesus did, he was learning as he went and then turning around and teaching others.
– We are not two different people – one who goes to work and one who lives a life outside of (and distinct from) work. In fact, the frenetic nature of life in this world, in this country, today, is tearing at the fabric of human-ness. As a result, mind-body-spirit pulls us in three separate directions.
I believe we are meant to live a life of meaning and direction drawn from our purpose. That purpose is integral to who we are as individuals, and we are wired to seek work that is meaningful and in which we can make progress on a regular basis.
I see that the SMEs I worked with (still work with) were (are), by virtue of their experience, officially SMEs in whatever arena they operate in. Their stories are powerful and can help (have helped) many.
I’ll get off my soapbox now. But, before I go, let me ask you: What are you a subject matter expert in? What story will you tell and to whom?