Saturday, July 31, 2010

Annual General Meeting Guest Speaker: Nashifa Carter

Working Effectively with Subject Matter Experts


Technical communicators usually share a common contradiction between their position in an organization’s hierarchy, and the job they have to do. For the most part, they are not in positions of authority. From this powerless position, they have to get information from co-workers (SMEs and managers) who are busy with their main duties, and convince them to adhere to the documentation schedule.

In an engaging and entertaining discussion, Nashifa guided the audience through the obstacles to working with people who have a higher status than technical communicators. We discussed some of the challenges to working relationships: people have different ways of communicating, they often misunderstand each other, they sometimes don’t respect each other, and in the case of technical communicators, we are often bearing bad news, such as “This description is unintelligible” or “I found another bug”. We also talked about the best way to present bad news, which is to state the problem in a way that does not accuse the SME of doing something wrong, but puts the emphasis on difficulty we are having. We compared “you don’t make any sense” to “I don’t understand”.

Conflict between people can be caused by generational gaps. People of different ages often have different expectations and attitudes with respect to acceptable behaviour at work, what constitutes good work ethic, and how to be compensated for productivity. Different corporate cultures, or simply different cultures, can cause conflict, too, for the same reasons as generational differences. And there are still many basic gender differences that have nothing to do with equality, but everything to do with the fact that male and female brains operate differently. (At this point, Nashifa reminded the audience that our discussion of differences and their causes are sweeping generalizations, but are still useful in a broad sense because they raise awareness about the source of interpersonal differences.)

To gain the co-operation of SMEs, technical communicators might try working on their interpersonal skills. They can look at the problem from the SME’s point of view. From there, a technical communicator and SME can try to find common ground.

To gain the respect of the SMEs, technical communicators must establish credibility by demonstrating competence in the job, good work ethic, and professional behaviour. Technical communicators should make the extra effort to say “thank you”, and be confident enough to say “I’m sorry”, showing that they take responsibility for their actions. Most of all, they must form relationships with the SMEs.

As for how to form relationships, we had two different methodologies from the audience. One person uses the “bring cookies and buy them a coffee” method. She found this inexpensive form of bribery to be effective, especially when you can get information from the SME over coffee. Another attendee deliberately avoided the cookie method and chose instead to go out for a beer with the guys, and share in their jokes. In both cases, these women formed relationships with the SMEs, and gained their co-operation.

The audience left with the encouraging message that although technical communicators are often in powerless positions, they can still wield influence. Nashifa also kindly offered her contact information in case anyone has more questions or would like to discuss a particular case. You can contact her at ncarter@wlu.ca.

----------------------------------------

Nashifa has over 10 years' experience in Human Resource Management, focusing on recruitment and selection, performance management, training and development, and organizational development. Her experience encompasses both the private and the public sectors, and she has taught at Laurier’s School of Business & Economics for the past 13 years.

Her management and consulting experience includes both a strategic focus: reviewing and recommending changes to organizational systems; and a tactical focus: implementing change. Her strengths lie in training and development, downsizing and reorganization, performance management, and recruitment. She assesses needs and develops materials for management and staff training programs that she delivers on a variety of subjects, including:

• Communication and interpersonal skills

• Conflict management

• Problem solving

• Customer service

• Human Resource Management (HRM)

In addition, Nashifa has undertaken several communication projects: creating and writing training materials, HR manuals, employee handbooks, brochures and newsletters. Currently she is the Harassment/Discrimination Coordinator at WLU.