What Makes an Expert - Expert?

I was listening to the “afternoon guy” on my local all news radio station one day back in October 2007.

He had a guest speaker on his show (can’t remember his name but he’s written a whole bunch of books on a whole bunch of topics) and the guest speaker was trying to encourage reading.

One thing he said during the interview was “read 5 books on a subject and you become an expert”. I thought that was quite amazing...as I’ve read WAY more than 5 books on technology and I’m no expert. I’ve read hundreds of mystery books, but I’m no mystery expert, and I’ve read tons of books on Italian cooking (and my lasagne still needs work)....but his comment really made me think.

I believe it could be possible to become a self-proclaimed expert after reading 5 books about a subject, however, I firmly believe the books have to be the “RIGHT” kind of books. Not just any book will do. And let’s not forgot the need to be able to apply what you read in a real-world environment...aka experience.

I also believe it to be important to read books that tackle the same topic but from many different viewpoints. As an example, let’s say you want to become an expert on giving presentations. Reading one book is not going to make you an expert. For that matter, reading FIVE books is not going to make you an expert.... ensuring that the five books you do read to become an expert on giving presentations tackles presentations from different avenues, the experience giving presentations, failing, learning from your mistakes, correcting those mistakes and trying again just might get you close to the expert status the speaker was discussing.

For example: read a book on PowerPoint (or any other presentation software). It won’t make you an expert with PowerPoint, but it will point you in the direction of understanding how PowerPoint or other presentation software assists a presenter or public speaker.

Another excellent book choice might be a book covering the “how to be” aspect...such as one of my personal favourites and a book I found to be very helpful in assisting me on my journey through public speaking, a book entitled “How to become a Motivational Speaker”. Do you see how different being a motivational speaker is to being a public speaker for a local charity, or giving sales presentations? No? Well then, read a book. While most presentations are designed to spur on action, such as a sales person giving a spiel about their latest and greatest product, or a local celebrity speaking about a charity near and dear to their heart, being a motivational speaker requires much more than just a name and the ability to be comfortable selling something to an audience. Give that some thought and perhaps you will understand what I mean.

Next you may want to cover the speech aspect – you’ve covered the software (tools) and background (sales/motivation) now is a great time to look at how to structure your “talk”. There are so many excellent books out there on how to write a speech or how to speak in public, that choosing one or two should not be a hard choice. That’s three...

How about reading about the design of a presentation? Not just the “this is PowerPoint and this is how you use it” but a book that actually discusses how the design of a visual presentation stimulates viewers so that you can get the best results with the least effort.

Now on to topic 5: Maybe you suffer from the fear of speaking in public because (like most people) you don’t want to look like an idiot when the wrong words come out – so you look at the library or your local Chpaters/Indigo store and while you sip on that Venti-skinny-half-calf-caramel latte, you find a few good resources for dealing with public speaking jitters and pick one.

Don’t sweat it! Take a deep breath, imagine the audience wearing polka-dot pajamas and don’t forget to apply every SINGLE tip those books you read provided for you. No Stress!

...are you feeling like an expert yet?

I didn’t think so – to be honest, neither am I, even having read ALL of those books and many more on presentations it all boils down to how well I am able to apply what I learned in the books to my real-life super secret identity as a public speaker. After years of practice writing, preparing and presenting, I am a public speaker – but do I consider myself to be an expert? Absolutely not. Why? Because I believe I still need more practice, more opportunity to learn and grow and develop skills that will allow me to be the very best presenter possible.

Look at it this way......I want to be an expert race car driver, but reading the
history of NASCAR, a bunch of bios on drivers and manuals about how a race car
works is not going to make ME an expert out on the oval.

That, my friends, requires EXPERIENCE – and I’m afraid you can’t learn that in a book.

Going back to my point about reading books from different viewpoints: reading 5 books on a topic that all focus on one viewpoint or opinion and not reading opposing books is not going to make you an expert, it is going to make you opinionated without the ability to see the big picture and argue your opinion in an educated way. What do I mean? Well if you read only books on how to create a presentation for a sales environment, and don’t read books about writing presentations, giving presentations to other audiences, or dealing with difficult public speaking situations, then all you will know how to do is create a sales presentation that someone else will give and most likely get credit for. If you want to be an expert on that, you still need to be able to argue for or against design principles, which you will learn in books and in practice using the software to design the presentations. I think it's called being well-rounded. And that aides in the professional persona we portray to those around us.

Now I'm off to attempt to apply this five book theory to Instructional Design.

I’ve started on my first two books – Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe and Mastering the Instructional Design Process by Rothwell and Kazanas. I will keep you posted on my progress toward my goal of being an “Expert”.