Archive for the ‘My Musings’ Category
Why Rigid, Stylized Approaches Actually Inhibit the Flow of Information
I get mad when I see training advertisements touting the latest and greatest confrontational style interviewing method. I get seriously pissed. Why? Because it’s a bunch of horse manure and the people that advertise and promote the training know it too. They make a lot of money promoting this old-fashioned interview style but it’s not nearly as effective as their exaggerated claims…and they know it!
Have you ever gone to an interview and interrogation class and heard the instructor talk about the “sure fire” method he/she was promoting? Supposedly, it was a virtual slam-dunk, right? Just follow these “steps” or guidelines in the prescribed format and the result was certain to lead to a confession. Step 1, then Step 2, then Step 3, ans so on and so on……..always leads to a confession, right? WRONG!!
Well, I’ve left those seminars too, all fired up and ready to impress the world with my newfound knowledge. The problem is, when you are working with human beings, no one approach works with everyone. That’s right, no stylized interviewing approach will work all the time or even most of the time.
Why? Every one of us is a unique individual, with a different background, different life experiences and a different personality.
Think about it, where one person confronts challenges head-on, another person turns and runs away at the first sight of a conflict, while still another person freezes, paralyzed with fear and unable to move. You’ve probably heard this referred to as a “Fight or Flight” response, right? This is accurately better described as a “Fight, Flight or Freeze” response and is a well documented physiological reaction to a threat.
How then, could we possibly have a “one size fits all” interviewing system which would work 100% of the time? It’s not possible, period.
A far better way to approach interviewing is to be an active LISTENER, a focused listener if you will. The people we are interviewing will give us the right way to proceed if we listen to them. Withing the first few minutes of starting an interview, it’s obvious what kind of person we are interviewing. From there, carefully crafted questions designed to elicit information will demonstrate the person’s belief systems, allowing us to formulate the correct approach for the interview.
I’ll tell you right now that any stylized interviewing approach where you follow a rigid set of “steps” will not work as effectively as a free-flowing narrative style. Don’t believe me, look at the literature. Every scientific study has shown that a narrative style of interviewing is far more effective than a confrontational technique.
So, don’t be fooled by a “Do This and next Do That” style of interviewing. Expand your horizons and learn as many different styles of interviewing as you possibly can. That way, you can go where the interview leads you and have all the tools you need to really move to the next level of securing confessions.
