“Subject Matter Expert” vs “Subject Matter Novice”

So many times we find our soldiers on the receiving end of some random class. We train on various topics, ranging from clearing rooms in an urban environment to field sanitation. No matter what class you are sitting in, there is always a reason for it. When classes end, it’s time to move on with training and a training plan.

Once you have your training plan, it’s time for one of the most crucial decisions for your training. Who is going to conduct the training? A trainer can potentially take the greatest training plan and turn it into a dismal failure - a factor that should be given the utmost consideration. Often, we find the infamous “Subject Matter Expert”, or SME. But what does that even mean? It is thrown around as some sort of credentialing title. I can’t say that I have seen what it really means to be a SME. Usually, they have experience in the area of which they are going to instruct, or, maybe, they have performed whatever the task being taught is while on a previous deployment. But to me, that isn’t enough to be a SME.

So what is a Subject Matter Expert? The answer goes back to a philosophy that I use for professional development. For me, there are three pillars that one must focus on for complete development. The pillars are: Operational Experience, Institutional Education, and Personal Development. With this, you may ask how this applies to your SME. If you look for the book definition, I believe the Office of Personnel Management provides a solid one. A Subject Matter Expert is a "person with bona fide expert knowledge about what it takes to do a particular job. First-level supervisors are normally good SMEs. Superior incumbents in the same or very similar positions and other individuals can also be used as SMEs if they have current and thorough knowledge of the job's requirements.”

One issue with this that comes to mind is the fact that you often do not find a person with “bona fide expert knowledge.” Just because you have been proficient in a task doesn’t mean you are a SME. What really happens in reality is that soldier is a Subject Matter *Novice*. There is nothing wrong with having your Subject Matter Novice teach a class if you don’t have a Subject Matter Expert. But, when this occurs, we can’t just brand the instructor as a SME if he/she is not. There is not really a credentialing entity that can brand you at a unit level, so let’s not pretend that we are experts if we are really novices. The worst mistake you can make when training someone else is exaggerating your qualifications. If you do, you will be hit with that one question that you have no idea how to approach, and instantly you will lose your validity as a trainer.

The Subject Matter Novice may be the best title you can accurately use. Once again, there is nothing wrong with being trained by a novice. A novice may have dealt with the subject which you are training on, but not to the point of being an expert. Being a novice would only reinforce and elevate the trainer’s responsibility to gain what institutional knowledge they can in order to provide the best training possible. Admitting that one is a SMN is great as it is an honest assessment of one’s abilities. But claiming yourself as a SME and then only using your limited, and possibly dated, knowledge would be a disservice to those you are training, as well as to your unit. As a professional army, we must approach training in a way to get the most value out of the time we spend on it. The only way to do this is to ensure you have the best possible soldier as your instructor. Just because you may have the most knowledge in one particular area doesn’t make you a SME. You might just be a SMN, and that’s okay.