Subject matter expert: Difference between revisions

From The Jolly Contrarian
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 1: Line 1:
[[File:Morlock.jpg|thumb|A [[subject matter expert]], yesterday.]]
{{a|negotiation|}}[[File:Morlock.jpg|thumb|left|A [[subject matter expert]], yesterday.]]
Known fondly by [[management consultant]]s as an “[[SME]]” — or ''less'' fondly as a [[Morlock]]—a [[subject matter expert]] is one of those benighted people without whom the organisation would not function, who are nonetheless poorly paid, forced to live in a dungeon below ground, being routinely beaten by the inhabitants of the sedimentary layers of [[middle management]] and, if said [[management consultants]] (or for that matter, [[middle management]] have anything to do with it, will shortly be made redundant.
Known fondly by [[management consultant]]s as an “[[SME]]” — or ''less'' fondly as a [[Morlock]]—a [[subject matter expert]] is one of those benighted people without whom the organisation would not function, who are nonetheless poorly paid, forced to live in a dungeon below ground, being routinely beaten by the inhabitants of the sedimentary layers of [[middle management]] and, if said [[management consultants]] (or for that matter, [[middle management]] have anything to do with it, will shortly be made redundant.



Revision as of 12:59, 28 November 2018

Negotiation Anatomy™


Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Insults? We’d love to 📧 hear from you.
Sign up for our newsletter.

A subject matter expert, yesterday.

Known fondly by management consultants as an “SME” — or less fondly as a Morlock—a subject matter expert is one of those benighted people without whom the organisation would not function, who are nonetheless poorly paid, forced to live in a dungeon below ground, being routinely beaten by the inhabitants of the sedimentary layers of middle management and, if said management consultants (or for that matter, middle management have anything to do with it, will shortly be made redundant.

There is an argument that middle management is little more than a game of chicken to see how many subject matter experts you can fire without the organisation actually imploding on itself.

Subject Matter Experts cannot safely be replaced by contractors, much less consultants from PWC, however much your dogma commends you to wish it were so.

See also