Why Many Instructional Designers Unintentionally Give Away Their Seat at the Table

Here's why many instructional designers unintentionally give away their seat at the table...

Because they never establish the value of their own expertise.

Mark Nilles was describing conversations he often had with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

Many of them had spent 16, 18, or even 20 years in education.

After decades of teaching, it's only natural to believe you already know what makes a great learning experience(I mean, even with over 12 + years alone i felt unstoppable)

Anyways

Mark Nilles then shared something that really stuck with me.

He tells them:

"You've spent years becoming an expert in your field, and I respect that. But I also have expertise to bring to the table, expertise in how people learn. And it's built on the same kind of evidence that you rely on to do your work well."

Clark Quinn agreed and referenced research by Jon Aleckson , PhD, who studied conversations between instructional designers and SMEs in university settings.

His takeaway was simple but straightpoint...

If you want to work effectively with Subject Matter Experts, you need to do two things:

1.Acknowledge the SME's expertise in the content and

2.Establish your own expertise in learning design.

We're not competing for expertise.

We're bringing a different kind of expertise to the same table.

The SME knows what to teach.

We as instructional designers, know how people learn it best.

Clark Quinn also then said something that really resonated with me:

"When it comes to learning design, your intuitions aren't good."

At first, that sounded harsh.

But it's really a reminder that our intuitions about learning often don't match what learning science has consistently shown.

That's why instructional design isn't built on intuition.

It's built on evidence.

Respect the SME's expertise.

But don't forget to establish yours.

Because a lot of us instructional designers, myself included, don't lose our seat at the table because we lack expertise.

We lose it because we never communicate the value of the expertise we already have.

This is just one of many takeaways I've had from listening to these conversations.

What surprised me most was discovering that people who've spent decades researching and advancing our field sometimes have a YouTube video uploaded three years ago with only 14 views.

Hmmm...

Surprisingly amazing...

Maybe they were simply too busy pursuing evidence and improving performance to spend much time marketing themselves.

For many of them, it was never about building a personal brand.

It was about building better learning.

It wasn't about their pockets.

It was about people and performance.

I only hope more of us discover their work.

Grateful to stand on the shoulders of giants. 🙏

Day 22 of Instructional Design

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