Product Training for the Technical Expert

14 The Smartest Engineer: And Other Difficult Students

One reason training is so enjoyable is the variety of students and personalities one has the opportunity to encounter. Most students are eager to learn, respectful, and professional toward the instructor and other classmates. Technical experts, however, can have very set opinions. They may have spent years becoming more and more proficient in their technology, specific application, or solution. If you are teaching something that challenges their experiences and expertise, you may face some challenging students.

Following are some thoughts on how to handle these situations. But remember, this is a soft skill. These are opinions and opinions are not facts. If these solutions don’t work for you, try someone else’s opinions! I have grounded these solutions in common sense and adult learning principles. They have proven helpful to many and I hope you will find them helpful as well.

Set the Expectations at the Beginning

Years ago, I was working with a children’s group and decided to let them set the rules for engagement. They loved making rules. They were much stricter on themselves than I would have been. They were somewhat disappointed when I narrowed the list of rules from their 20 or 30 items to about 3.

As it turns out, adults are not much different from kids in that regard. If one even hints at turning them loose to make the rules at the beginning of a class, they will likely end up with a fair number of good but trivial ...