SME (Subject Matter Expert)

We were at a friend's house the last weekend and there was a discussion on Knowledge. What is knowledge and when does on get "enough knowledge"?

Interesting thoughts. When you apply this philosophical discussion to real life business you have the same questions. When do you classify someone from your work-team as a Subject Matter Expert (SME)? I see this happening all across the world - corporations looking to hire SME's, grooming someone to become a SME and lastly having an official designation as SME !! Sure we have people who have "enough knowledge" to be an "authority in their own field" however what makes a "commoner" a SME?

Here is something to consider - Can you do something repeatedly, over and over again in order to gain mastery? Yes, you will gain mastery over that task however will you be a SME over that task or will you be a Master over that task. There is this fine line that people often overlook and state that because I have done a task repeatedly I am a SME where as if you were to perform a analysis of the tasks then you would find that there are a lot of masters.

So, the next time around, you meet someone in your business world and they say that he / she is a SME then you might consider asking them what are they the master's of. Can you guess what would be their answer? Think about it?