Infinite demand, finite team? How to scale L&D by mobilising your experts

If you are operating as a one-person L&D team or even a small but mighty squad, you know the struggle. The demand for upskilling/training is infinite, but your capacity to design solutions is finite.

In the corporate setting, learning doesn’t happen strictly within the confines of an e-learning module or a scheduled workshop. It happens in the flow of work, through the everyday collaboration of colleagues. This makes your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) the most valuable, yet often underutilised, asset in your organisation.

However, being an expert doesn’t automatically make someone a teacher. Most corporate SMEs lack the instructional design background that education professionals possess. If we simply “extract” knowledge from them, we get dense, un-engaging content.

We need to stop simply extracting information and start building capability. Your goal is to give your SMEs the skills they need to teach their own topics. Here are four concrete steps to transform them from contributors into capable educators.

1. Build trust through curiosity

The relationship between L&D and SMEs is often transactional: “I need this content by Friday.” To change this, you must demonstrate learning agility.

2. Combat the “curse of knowledge”

Experts often struggle to explain concepts simply because they have forgotten what it feels like not to know. This is the “Curse of Knowledge.” To fix this, put your SMEs in situations that simulate the beginner’s mindset.

3. Frictionless tooling over “flashy” tech

Meet your SMEs where they are. If they live in PowerPoint or MS Teams, do not force them into a complex authoring tool on day one.

4. Create a community of practice

Finally, don’t let your SMEs operate in silos. Hold dedicated sessions where they can be exposed to good learning experiences.

The struggle of the one-person L&D team often comes from trying to play every instrument in the orchestra yourself. To meet that infinite demand, you must put down the instruments and pick up the baton. Your SMEs are the musicians holding the knowledge; your new role is to provide the cues, tempo, and confidence they need. By conducting rather than creating, you turn the noise of overwhelming demand into a symphony of expertise.