She was animated. Almost excited to be talking with me up there–where she worked. Maybe because having someone listen to her ideas on clean parts storage wasn’t something that happened every day. The small-framed, smocked, mid-fortyish lady talked quickly as she maneuvered the lift controls 20 feet in the air. We stood together on the small platform, winding our way through tall warehouse “racks.” I was impressed with her navigational skills and her obvious dedication to the details of her job. Mostly I liked that she was excited about her ideas. My assignment: learn what I could learn in a few days’ time about “clean” parts storage. Clean—because many of the thousands of boxed, bar-coded parts we were passing through—would eventually find their way onto sub-sub, then sub-assemblies, then entire go-into-space satellite assemblies—assembled in very large, six-story tall, also very clean spaces about ¼ mile down the hall. A lost, damaged, or oxygen exposed part—could seriously delay a seriously expensive project. As an instructional designer, I work with all shapes and sizes of content and all shapes and sizes of subject matter experts (SMEs)—I couldn’t do what I do without SMEs. Many of my training and curriculum development projects involve observing work […]