In this week’s WZ / IAI interview and interrogation training tip, Dave Thompson, CFI, discusses the importance of having an understanding perspective.
When I say “perspective,” what I’m really trying to talk about is how I might view a situation versus how you may view a situation, versus somebody else, versus the way a situation actually occurred.
There’s no better way to look at this than going onto your favorite social media platform, click on a news headline, and read all the comments. When you look at comments and the way that people communicate, you’ll see that often people have made up their minds about how they feel regarding a certain situation. Unfortunately, we sometimes close ourselves off from understanding how other people may see the same situation.
Putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes and trying to imagine why they felt a certain way, or why they described an event a certain way, or why they did something they wouldn’t normally do–that may help you better understand their thought process and reasoning.
This step is especially beneficial for us as interviewers. First, having perspective helps you understand what somebody thinks of you when you walk into the interview room. Secondly, taking yourself out of your own perspective helps you think, “If I were this [interview subject], what would I need to be able to tell the truth today?” Lastly, having perspective helps remove bias. It helps you realize that there are multiple versions of every story. There are multiple perspectives of each story based on the context in which we see it. It’s important as an investigator that we remove bias and try to see things from each perspective of a situation in order to establish reliable information and get to the truth.
Every loss prevention investigator should strive to enhance their investigative interviewing skills as part of an ongoing commitment to best-in-class interviewing performance. This includes holding ourselves to an elite standard of interview and interrogation training that is ethical, moral and legal while demanding excellence in the pursuit of the truth. The International Association of Interviewers (IAI) and Wicklander-Zulawski (WZ) provide interview and interrogation training programs and additional guidance to investigators when dealing with dishonest employees, employee theft, sexual harassment, policy violations, building rapport, pre-employment interviewing, lying, denials and obtaining a statement.
By focusing on the latest information and research from experts in the field as well as academia, legal and psychological resources, these video tips provide interview and interrogation training techniques that can enhance the skill sets of professionals with backgrounds in law enforcement, loss prevention, security, asset protection, human resources, auditors or anyone looking to obtain the truth.
To learn more about interview and interrogation training and how you can further develop your professional skill sets, visit www.w-z.com or www.certifiedinterviewer.com.
This post was originally published in 2017 and was updated July 30, 2018.
