Behavioral interviewing has stood the test of time as a popular selection tool predicting future performance. It has been utilized by interviewers in assessing employment candidates for more than two decades. Drilling down to a level of specific experiences allows us to understand behaviors (i.e. what people really did) and the consequences (i.e. results) of those behaviors in objective cause/effect terms. Click here to learn more about competency-based behavioral interviewing as a methodology used in recruitment/selection processes.
As a certified instructor and coach in behavioral interviewing, I have had the opportunity to teach, coach, and apply this methodology in a wide variety of scenarios and settings. These experiences have led me to appreciate and learn how these key inquiry principles and techniques can be leveraged in supporting other applications where managing productive and clarifying dialogue is so important.
Think of it as the bridge between the "big picture" and critical detail often lurking just below the surface. Examples include:
Client service - understanding a client's experiences helps us to determine and refine how best we can serve them. For example, none of us would want to repeat exactly what didn't work well for them before. Clarifying scope and expectations is always time well spent.
Delegation and supervision - understanding and assessing the experience/skill levels of those to whom we delegate helps us calibrate how much supervision may be required, optimizes results by minimizing "surprises," and presents the opportunity to make the most of developmental experiences. Most learning and competency development really does occur on-the-job.
Problem-solving - understanding specifically what happened is often the key to either "fixing" something and/or preventing it from recurring. Solutions often emerge from understanding specifically what others did in similar situations.
Mentoring - mentoring is often about learning from other people's experiences. What specifically did they do that I can do to achieve what they achieved? I've said it before and I'll say it again: people love to talk about themselves and their experiences - you just can't go wrong by asking about them.
Learning - sometimes the most effective and least expensive learning is that which comes from the sharing of experiences. The apprentice model, on-the-job training, and case studies are a few examples of learning strategies that draw heavily upon experiences. Behavioral inquiry/interviewing techniques can be very powerful in facilitating learning circles and other group learning forums.
Negotiation - understanding another party's priorities and experiences in some detail helps you identify and understand their key decision factors - as well as how much they want or need something. "Hot buttons" and "land mines" that surface can often become opportunities!
Quality - when quality breaks down, it is usually because something went wrong or at least not according to plan. It doesn't need to be about pinning blame - but it should always be about understanding specifically what happened in objective cause/effect terms that inform the future.
Ethics Initiatives - shades of gray often accompany an organization's objectives in launching an Ethics initiative, program/policy, or training. "Right vs. wrong" is sometimes "black vs. white" - but sometimes it isn't. Understanding specific experiences and behaviors is often helpful in painting the picture of what is expected and what is not.
Repeating success - success is a good thing and making the investment to understand specifically what people did to achieve it is time well spent.
Consensus-building - understanding multiple perspectives and experiences is an important and often under-appreciated step in identifying common ground. Consensus-building is a critical leadership competency - it's usually hard and not that many people do it all that well. "Getting everyone on the same page" is much less painful when you take the time to efficiently and collectively understand where people are coming from (i.e. their experiences).
Launching the magic of teams and their competencies - the most powerful and effective teams are those that harness the collective experiences and competencies of their members. Dysfunctional and ineffective teams are often those where individual experiences and competencies remain "hidden."
Somewhat "on the spot" and impromptu, I was asked to help launch the inaugural meeting of a team of learning professionals. I found myself conducting mini-behavioral interviews of the people around the table in the interest of learning more about them and attempting to help them learn more about each other. My facilitation approach was anything but over-engineered; it was unusually and uncharacteristically spontaneous.
I had the opportunity to sit in on several subsequent meetings with the team. I have to say the experiences shared at that inaugural session had a funny way of popping up time and time again / here and there as the group came together, finalized a meaningful charter, assigned responsibilities, and went on to achieve some pretty amazing things. My takeaway? - not a bad way to get a team going.
Drilling down to the objective behavioral (i.e. experience) level helps us to eliminate or at least isolate some of the "noise" that may have influenced perceived results and outcomes. For example, we've all heard phrases like "luck of the draw," "so-and-so sure was in the right place at the right time...," and so forth.
There is an art and a science to behavioral inquiry and interviewing. Asking the right questions in the right ways and knowing how, when, and where to probe are sometimes obvious; however, tried-and-true techniques can help sharpen that which may not always be immediately intuitive "in the heat of the moment." That's where the structure of a methodology plays an important role. I liken it to using a drill and knowing where to put the drill bit, how deep to go before pulling it up, and where to place it next.
Inquiry dialogue can be effective or ineffective; efficient or inefficient. These conversations can be formal or informal - or somewhere in between; however, a game plan with some structure is what makes a real difference.
I have designed, developed, and facilitated a variety of learning experiences that begin with foundational inquiry principles, concepts, and techniques - followed by areas of application and focus that can be readily customized to meet your organization's needs and objectives.
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