Product Training for the Technical Expert

3You Know It, Can You Teach It?: Overcoming Your Own Intelligence

Knowledge is power—at least that’s what we’ve all heard from multiple sources and with different applications. Usually, people who want more power are the ones making the statement. Rarely, do you hear someone state “I have knowledge; therefore, I have power.” The statement, though not wrong, is incomplete.

Power is an energy source—the source to do something. When energy is misapplied, it can be destructive, or, at best, ineffective. As a preschooler living overseas I remember watching my father painstakingly put together a Hi‐Fi stereo system he had brought with him from the United States. After what seemed like hours of attaching the radio, amplifier, and turntable system together, he finally plugged the stereo into the wall outlet. I remember the smell. To his dismay, he had just plugged a 110‐V system into a 220‐V outlet. More power was definitely not better.

As an expert of your product, you are like the 220‐V outlet teaching 110‐V students. You need a voltage regulator or transformer to be effective. You need to slow down. You must reduce the content you would like to provide and give your students what is best for them, instead. As you teach, keep in mind that you didn’t become a product expert in a day and you aren’t going to make anyone else an expert in a day, either. This is not a question of withholding information, but of offering the right information at the right time. This is about learning how ...