How to Become an Expert (Quickly)

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How to Become an Expert (Quickly)

Experts with "deep smarts" are a rare asset for any business. They are people who sometimes have business-critical expertise that facilitates wise and quick decisions about strategy and tactics. They have typically built their knowledge and insights upon extensive experience across the industry.

Is there a shortcut to becoming a business guru without spending so much time in the industry? The answer is yes. Interviews with an expert can help to reveal vicarious experiences. However, an expert cannot tell everything he or she knows, as much of the deep smarts are unconscious. Moreover, the experts are typically also unaware of the communication style, body language, and ways of thinking they use.

Leonard, Barton and Barton (2013) propose an alternative approach called "OPPTY", which helps the would-be experts "pull" deep smarts from their role models. They believe that high potentials can gain expertise by observing how the experts work and learning from them. Their "OPPTY" approach involves four steps: Observation, Practice, Partnering and joint problem-solving, and Taking responsibilitY.

1. Observation: shadowing an expert and analysing what he or she does at job.
2. Practice: identifying and practising the expert behaviours or tasks that make them indispensible, with supervision and feedback.
3. Partnering and joint problem-solving: working with the expert to analyse and solve problems by using the gained knowledge or skills.
4. Taking responsibility: taking over a significant part of the expert's role.

Along the process, people should take notes, reflect on each experience, and internalise them as much as they can. The "OPPTY" approach can be applied across distances and compressed in time. Besides, it does not need to be one-on-one. An employee can gain deep smarts from over one expert and vice versa.

Learning from an expert can be a win-win. It not only benefits the learner, but can also benefit the experts since they will have a lighter workload, kudos from management, and the opportunity to innovate their usual practices.

Source: Leonard, D., Barton, G., & Barton, M. (2013). "Make Yourself an Expert". HBR April 2013.

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		3 Munadil Shafat Student (MBA), Bangladesh
	Shortcuts to Becoming an Expert in Any Field I think your post is mainly focused on getting the "deep smarts" from an Expert which is really important in ones domain. What I didn't understand is how it can be applied across distances and what you really meant by saying "compressed in time". I will be glad if you help me understand it. Aside from that, I want to add my own findings about becoming an Expert in any field relatively quickly. These are not research based ones but taken from two experts: - The first one is from Earl Nightingale said. He said, "One hour per day of study in your chosen field is all it takes. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years you'll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do." - The second one is from Eric Lippert, Software Engineer at Facebook. He said, "The best way to become an expert on anything is to find a pile of questions that people are asking, and try and answer every one." I hope you will find these two quotations useful and relevant for this post.

		1 Chloe Xu Director, Australia
	Applying OPPTY Across Distances and in a Compressed Timeframe @Munadil Shafat: Thank you for your reaction, Munadil. - The authors mentioned in the article that "the U.S. Army uses parts of this process to transfer knowledge from officers serving overseas to personnel about to be deployed to the same region". I believe some methods, such as partner and problem solve, and take responsibility, can be done online. - The duration of the whole process that usually lasts for over 12 months can be compressed to a couple of months if needed.

		1 Alkhaly Mohamed Tahey Conde Lecturer, Guinea
	How to Become a True Expert? Thank you for your great contribution on this important challenge. There are two series of roads to confirm that some person is an expert in a certain field. The traditional eight ways to recognize an expert are: 1. Instruction, learning, education and training received; 2. Practice, observation, delivering, diagnosis and problem-solving, advising, consulting and coaching; 3. Research and innovation; 4. Conferences, meetings, fora, symposia, seminars; 5. Associations, professional organizations; 6. Teaching, education and training offered; 7. Publications, writings, papers, communications, notes, guides, documents; and 8. Networks, platforms of discussion. The modern eight channels to confirm that somebody is an expert are: 1. Communication in social networks, international group discussions; 2. Peer feedback, assessment, qualified reviews, international analyses, critics; 3. Social or community contribution; 4. Reviewing the works of other persons, effective evaluation and expertise offered, in good conditions, security, reliability and efficiency; 5. Study and research groups, missions, commissions; 6. Certification, normalization, standardization, advanced quality, and bench-marking; 7. External evaluation, regulation; and 8. Competition, prize, distinctions, honors, inventions, discoveries, break-through. People will become a true and great expert when they will maintain full focus on participation in these 16 traditional and new methods to increase their expertise, capacity and capability development. In all cases, we must be modest, whatever the level of skill, knowledge and talent acquired. Remember the sentence of Socrates (the Greek philosopher from Athens, 470-399 BC), when he declares: "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing". We are entering in the new mind revolution. Are you ready for this challenge? Get ready!

		0 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Do you Want to Become an Expert? Before actually getting started with becoming an expert, you might ask yourself the following question: "Do I WANT to become an expert? Why (not)?"

		0 Alkhaly Mohamed Tahey Conde Lecturer, Guinea
	Do you Have the Willingness or Willpower to Become a Great Expert? @Jaap de Jonge: Dear Sir Jaap de Jonge, Thank you so much for boosting the quality of our hot and fertilizing forum, via the stimulating questions, articulated in the style of the Greek philosophers...

		1 John Henry Project Manager, United States
	No Way to Become an Expert Quickly Let's first define expert. I would identify an expert as someone who is outstanding in their specific field of study and experience. So, if you have exceptional training, successful experience, and th...

		0 Alkhaly Mohamed Tahey Conde Lecturer, Guinea
	Becoming an Expert Will Need Enough Time Dear John Henry, thank you so much for your positive contribution. You are quite right to mention that there is no way to become an Expert quickly. It is the reason why I have formulated a taxonomy in...

		2 Emad Abu Eid Consultant, United Arab Emirates
	Who is an Expert The best definition describing the expert I have ever heard is that an expert is a person who can do a month's work of an average employee in a day and do their daily work in an hour. I have experienc...