Today, we’re going to be talking about the importance of that muscle memory when it comes to the 18 steps. We’re very well aware that each conversation is going to vary for a number of different reasons, not just the actual allegation involved, or the person sitting across from us, but also the different levels of evidence that we may encounter, which means not every time that we’re sitting down talking to someone are we necessarily going to use the W-Z method. But when we do, we should be prepared to talk through every step of the W-Z method, every single step, which means all 18. We should also be prepared to hit each component of each step. The W-Z method has very clear and defined principles behind the approach and it’s very useful when it’s used together.
That being said, there can be times when the person sitting across from us is ready to talk earlier within the process then where the actual step accounts for it. That’s absolutely fine. The problem lies in when we get out of habit of the 18 steps, or we cut a step short and we don’t hit each component. It may work once or twice, heck, it may even work five, 10, 20 times, but the 21st time could be the time that it doesn’t work. And if we haven’t had the practice, if we haven’t been following each component in each step, now it’s going to lead to a much more difficult conversation, so we have to have that muscle memory.
We get that 18 step and each component of those 18 steps down, packed, and embedded within our brain in that muscle memory form, then if we need to adjust, and we should always be flexible, we can. We can make it happen and it’ll work. But, we can also make it happen the other way if somebody isn’t quite ready to talk yet, and we may have to go through all 18 steps. That’s absolutely fine too.
This interviewing tip is presented by the International Association of Interviewers.
