How to Deal With an Unresponsive SME

Communication plays a vital role in many of today’s professions. The ability to gather and share information is essential and forms the basis for completing projects or achieving predefined goals. One of these professions that involves building and presenting knowledge is technical writing.

The role of a technical writer is to communicate complex concepts to technical and non-technical audiences. Think of it as solving a Rubik’s cube, where the unsolved cube represents a set of information you have gathered from subject matter experts (SMEs). Your job is to organise and design the information so that, like a solved Rubik’s cube, it makes sense to the end user. Everything is in its logical place. To do this, you need to work productively with members of different teams inside and outside the organisation. But not everyone is easy to work with. And when you encounter an unresponsive SME, you may quickly realise that your writing project is at risk. If you ever find yourself in this situation, you can think of several ways to move your work forward. However, there is one method that can be particularly useful when dealing with colleagues and business partners: personality types based on the DISC model.

The Colour of Personality

In his book Surrounded by Idiots, Thomas Erikson states that personality colour differences are responsible for most misunderstandings and conflicts. Knowing your and your colleagues’ personality types can help you communicate and work successfully. There are four personality colours:

• Red: fast thinking, fast acting, determined extroverts with strong leadership qualities. They are very pragmatic and want to see immediate benefits or results. They may ignore your approaches if they don’t see the reason or if you don’t get to the point early enough. So be specific.
• Yellow: extroverts who focus on social aspects; they are very talkative, enthusiastic, and outgoing. They may not be unresponsive, but obtaining detailed information from them can still be challenging. Their high energy and tendency to drift off into non-business topics can be challenging. With this in mind, try to moderate the discussion to get all the answers you need.
• Green: introverts and good listeners. They manage their time well and don’t like abrupt action. Green personalities carry out their tasks step by step once they have understood every aspect of the project. Introducing a sense of urgency when communicating with green types can help move things forward.
• Blue: detail-oriented perfectionists. Remember that they have high expectations and not just of themselves. They communicate in a concrete and data-driven way, but they also overthink and tend to make things personal. Always prepare thoroughly for meetings with blue types; write down your questions in advance.

Try to identify the personality types of SMEs. Of course, you can’t send everyone a personality test before you approach them. Make the most of the first contact. Get to know your colleagues. Make small talk. Ask about their interests, hobbies and opinions. You can gain valuable insights by observing their behaviour, body language and communication style. The next step is to adapt accordingly.

More Useful Tips

In a fast-paced business environment or a distributed team, you may not have the time or opportunity to get to know someone well early on. Often, your first approach will be strictly project-related. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to get answers effectively:

• Identify the SME’s preferred means of contact: some colleagues may take a long time to respond to an email. They may be too busy or favour discussing things in person. Ask your SMEs how they would like to be contacted and stick to that. You can also ask your colleagues who have worked with SMEs about the best way to contact them.
• Use the calendar: don’t catch your colleagues off guard and approach them unexpectedly. Plan and arrange meetings well in advance. Send a brief agenda with the invitation. Allow SMEs to prepare for the meeting as well as you do.
• Get involved: be proactive. Attend product meetings, even if they are not strictly related to the documentation process. Find out as much as you can about the product before you meet the SMEs. Ask them to verify what you’ve already learned. And remember to use open-ended questions.
• Get others involved: add colleagues working on the project to an email or invite them to a meeting. This can work wonders with some SMEs who need a bit of pressure. The aim is not to involve managers, but to demonstrate that a group is ready to progress.

Conclusion

As a technical writer, you can’t just focus on your writing craft. You also need to develop your interpersonal and interviewing skills. Mastering these will help you navigate professional relationships for better collaboration and results. Remember that every SME has different motivations, expectations and preferred ways of doing things. Your challenge is to find the right approach to unlock the resources you need for your documentation.