Create eLearning Course Content with Increased SME Collaboration
Effective collaboration to create eLearning course content is vital, but busy experts often cause a knowledge bottleneck. L&D leaders must pivot from requesting time to building strategic partnerships to unlock deep institutional knowledge.
If you are a learning and development leader in a large organization, you know what it’s like to be “stuck in the middle.”
You have a clear mandate to produce high-impact training that moves the needle on business performance, but you don’t always have the keys to the kingdom.
Those keys are held by your subject matter experts (SMEs) — the technical wizards, top-tier sales reps, and senior executives who possess the deep institutional knowledge required to make a training course actually work.
The problem is that these experts are almost always the busiest people in the company. They are focused on hitting their own revenue targets or managing critical technical infrastructure.
When you ask for three hours of their time to help build an eLearning module, you aren’t just asking for a meeting; you’re asking them to step away from the work they are actually measured on. This creates a knowledge bottleneck that can stall even the most ambitious L&D initiatives.
To succeed, aim to stop thinking like a “requester of time” and start thinking like a strategic partner. You need to secure cooperation without having direct authority. Here is how you can pivot your approach to win over your busiest experts and build training that delivers measurable ROI.
The True Cost of Generic Training
Before looking at how to fix the bottleneck, it is important to understand what is at stake. When L&D leaders can’t get the expert input they need, they might settle for “good enough” content — generic LMS modules that fail to improve time-to-proficiency. This directly and negatively affects operational KPIs.
Research shows that high-quality eLearning can boost learner retention by 25% to 60%. However, that boost only happens when the content is relevant. Without SME input, training may not improve performance in a material way. If a sales rep feels like a training module doesn’t reflect the reality of their conversations with prospects, they can tune out, stalling the development of critical workforce capability.
The stakes are even higher when it comes to organizational culture. Companies with strong learning cultures experience 24% higher employee retention rates.
If your training lacks “expert soul,” you aren’t just failing to teach a skill; you are undermining the professional development culture that keeps your best talent from walking out the door.
High-quality training is a strategic lever for growth, but it requires the technical “keys” that only your SMEs can provide.
The L&D leader also serves as a central orchestrator, unifying training needs across disparate business units. By aligning these often-competing requirements, the leader prevents siloed or conflicting modules that confuse employees and waste resources, ensuring a cohesive cognitive architecture across the entire enterprise.
Influence Without Authority
Navigating the internal political landscape can be the most challenging part of an L&D leader’s job. But take some comfort in knowing you are not alone in this struggle. More than 41.7% of Fortune 500 organizations worldwide use eLearning platforms to train their employees.
But since you likely don’t manage the SMEs you need to work with, you must rely on influence and strategic alignment. The goal is to move from “professional courtesy” to a shared mission.
The most effective way to do this is to align your training goals with the SME’s revenue or business objectives.
Instead of saying, “I need you to help me with this project,” try saying, “We want to help your division reach its quarterly goals by making sure the new hires can articulate our value proposition faster.”
The fact is, 72% of firms believe that eLearning helps them maintain a competitive edge by keeping pace with evolving technologies. Additionally, a survey of 2500 companies found that those with comprehensive training programs have a 218% higher revenue per employee and a 24% higher profit margin.
When you frame the SME’s contribution as a way to help their own team win, you change the dynamic. You are no longer taking time away from their work; you are providing a tool that makes their work more successful.
In this framework, the SME becomes the hero of the solution. You are the facilitator who helps them scale their expertise so they don’t have to repeat the same information to dozens of new employees individually. By focusing on their pain points – like the time they waste answering basic questions – you create a natural incentive for them to participate.
Professionalism as a Magnet for Respect
SMEs are often resistant to helping L&D because they have been burned in the past by disorganized processes. If an expert gives up an hour of their time only to find that the L&D team isn’t prepared, they won’t give up a second hour. To win their cooperation, details matter.
You must show your experts a polished, organized, and purposeful workflow. When your storyboards are high-quality and your questions are targeted, you respect their time.
You aren’t asking them to “teach you everything.” You are asking them to provide specific insights that only they can offer. A polished process earns expert respect. If you demonstrate that you care about the quality of the work, they are much more likely to catch that passion and contribute their best insights.
Being fearless in your design also helps.
Experts often find traditional corporate training boring. If you show them that you are willing to push boundaries and create something truly interactive and engaging, they become more invested in the outcome. They want to be associated with awesome work, not “good enough” checkboxes.
Human Narratives Instead of Technical Specs
One of the biggest hurdles in SME collaboration is the “curse of knowledge.” Experts often want to include every single detail, which can overload the learner. Your role as the L&D leader is to help them transform technical specs into human-centered narratives.
This is best achieved through organized workshops rather than endless email chains. In a live setting, you can lead the SME through scenario-based exercises.
Ask them, “What’s the most common mistake a rookie makes in this situation?” or “What is the one thing you wish every client understood?”
These questions pull out the institutional knowledge that makes training effective. This process turns a dull technical lecture into an active skill-building experience that learners will actually want to finish.
The Shift from Mandatory to Premium
When you successfully secure expert cooperation, the nature of your training shifts. It moves from being a mandatory chore to being a premium professional development experience.
This is how you prove ROI to the C-suite. You can show that your training isn’t just about completion rates but about measurable improvements in productivity and retention, backed by the company’s best technical minds.
Quick Wins for SME Collaboration
1. Share preliminary ideas to react to.
Never ask an expert to start with a blank page. Provide a project brief, outline, or storyboard first. It is far more efficient for an SME to react to and apply guidance to your work than to generate content from scratch.
2. Target rookie mistakes.
To uncover true insider knowledge, ask: “What is the most common mistake a rookie makes in this situation?” This pulls out the practical nuances that technical manuals often miss.
3. Emphasize their future time-savings.
Remind experts that a high-quality training module allows them to scale their expertise. By investing time now, they stop the cycle of repeating the same basic information to every new hire individually.
Summary & Takeaways
The knowledge bottleneck occurs when busy experts lack the incentive to step away from their primary roles.
To overcome this, L&D leaders must align training goals directly with an expert’s own business objectives. This shift transforms content from a mandatory chore into a strategic tool for scaling success.
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FAQs
How do I get SMEs to prioritize my training project?
Align the training goals directly with their division’s revenue or business objectives. Explain how the content will save their team time and solve specific productivity issues, making the project a tool for their success rather than a demand for their time.
What if my SMEs are resistant to helping?
Resistance often stems from past experiences with disorganized processes. Demonstrate respect for their expertise by coming prepared with high-quality, targeted storyboards or drafts. Show that you value their time by focusing only on insights they can uniquely provide.
How can I prove the ROI of training to the C-suite?
Connect your training outcomes to concrete metrics like reduced onboarding time, higher employee retention, or increased productivity. By working closely with SMEs to ensure the content reflects real-world business challenges, you can demonstrate tangible improvements in performance and profitability.
