Train the Trainer training in NeuchâtelTrain-the-trainer in the canton of Neuchâtel: how can experts make their decision criteria explicit?

In the canton of Neuchâtel, microtechnology, watchmaking and precision microelectronics depend on scarce expertise within demanding industrial cycles. For SHR’s train-the-trainer programme, this raises a management question: how can an expert’s decision criteria be made transferable without assuming they are obvious to a successor?

1. What the literature establishes: expertise does not ensure accurate anticipation of difficulties

Pamela Hinds (1999, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied) shows that, in the tasks studied, experts underestimate the time novices need to complete them. Mastering an activity therefore does not guarantee an accurate assessment of what learning it requires. For a technical trainer, a familiar sequence can obscure the intermediate decisions that need to be taught.

2. A mechanism: setting aside what we know is difficult

Colin Camerer, George Loewenstein and Martin Weber (1989, Journal of Political Economy) investigate the “curse of knowledge” in experimental economic settings. Their findings show that possessing information can interfere with estimates of the judgements made by people who lack it. By analogy, an expert may regard an adjustment cue as obvious while a participant does not yet know where to direct their attention.

3. The hasty conclusion: replace the expert with an exhaustive procedure

One might conclude that recording every action in a detailed procedure is enough. Yet describing a sequence does not necessarily make explicit the criteria for continuing, adjusting or stopping an operation. The aim is not to bypass the expert, but to help distinguish what they observe, what they infer and what warrants their decision. (our executive and employee training programmes)

4. The limits: a plausible explanation is not a validated rule

These studies do not examine knowledge transmission in Neuchâtel businesses and do not directly validate a method for interviewing experts. Moreover, an explanation given after an action may be coherent without capturing every cue actually used. The criteria collected therefore need to be checked against quality requirements, applicable documents and several work situations, rather than immediately becoming instructions.

A practical check in Neuchâtel

In a hypothetical Neuchâtel workshop producing precision components, an exercise in the train-the-trainer programme could start with a recurring decision: continue an adjustment, correct it or seek approval. Using documented cases suitable for work outside production, the trainer would record the observed cue, the decision criterion and the condition requiring referral to a designated specialist, then have another specialist review the sheet. A participant would subsequently use the sheet on a different case, identifying the cue that justifies each decision. The measure would be the proportion of decisions for which the participant identifies the previously validated criterion, with missed referrals recorded separately; this check would document the transmission of criteria without, by itself, authorising independent work. To go further: explore the Train the Trainer training in Neuchâtel in the canton of Neuchâtel, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.

In pictures: Train the Trainer in Neuchâtel

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