I am fortunate to work in an environment where a variety of subject matter experts from many different disciplines interact on a daily basis.\u00a0Each of those individuals comes with significant personal and professional experiences, and their considerable training and education in a particular discipline usually include an ability to think critically.\u00a0It\u2019s also likely through that combination of experience and training that they\u2019ve become confident in their areas of expertise, in fact that\u2019s one reason we hired them.\u00a0That unique combination of skills, experience and training can also bring strong opinions and that\u2019s good!\u00a0Highly skilled associates have the experience to know when something is right or wrong, and we need to hear that.<\/p>\n
Folks who\u2019ve developed critical thinking skills will, by nature of that training, question things and that\u2019s exactly what we want!\u00a0 So, how do we make the environment ideal for all those disciplines, skills, knowledge, and opinions?<\/p>\n
The single most helpful nugget of advice I ever got was, “Seek first to understand<\/i>.”\u00a0Learning to actively listen and understand the thoughts of subject matter experts is essential.\u00a0We hire them to guide us and we should listen to what they\u2019re saying.\u00a0Encourage differences in opinion and practice\u00a0issue opposition, not personal opposition<\/i>.\u00a0We\u2019d be kidding ourselves if we didn\u2019t acknowledge that sometimes with strong skills comes strong opinions and sometimes we disagree.\u00a0Practice a willingness to agree to disagree about the issue, but not about one another.\u00a0The concept of\u00a0win\/win<\/i>\u00a0has been used so much it\u2019s in danger of being trite but it\u2019s still true.\u00a0A win can take many different forms, a nugget from an SME can make all the difference if you\u2019re able to recognize and capitalize on it.<\/p>\n
I started by saying I\u2019m fortunate to work with a variety of SMEs from different disciplines, and it\u2019s true.\u00a0Recognizing and celebrating those differences makes for great conversations, great decisions, and great outcomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am fortunate to work in an environment where a variety of subject matter experts from many different disciplines interact on a daily basis.\u00a0Each of those individuals comes with significant personal and professional experiences, and their considerable training and education in a particular discipline usually…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":69772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[117,50,118,119,120,121,122,123],"class_list":["post-369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-insights","tag-art-of-listening","tag-clinical-trials","tag-collaboration","tag-communication","tag-consultation","tag-sme","tag-subject-matter-expertise","tag-subject-matter-experts"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n