INTERVIEWING: Truth, Deception and Lies,
and the fine line between them

By: Douglas Cash, MBA, CFE, CFI, CFCI

Research indicates most people have a limited chance of identifying lies during a conversation/interview. In most cases ,the chance is no more than 50-50. Interviewing is an art and not everyone is meant to be a good or great interviewer. Most people conduct interviews without having any or very limited interview training. As a professional interviewer, I have been studying the art of interviewing since the early 1990s and continue to learn something new each day.

There are many professions where an interview is intended to identify missing or omitted information. In my experience, many of the individuals asked or directed to perform these interviews are "green" and have limited interviewing or life experience, this may be due to an organization or company attempting to keep the interview cost under or within a specific budget.

In addition, an emotional attachment between an interviewer and interviewee can interfere with the interpretation of verbal and non-verbal behavior. If you believe the person you are interview ing is going to tell you nothing but the truth, you can miss the deception. If you believe the person is going to tell you nothing but lies, you can miss the truth. If the interviewer's demeanor demonstrates non-belief the interviewee is less likely to tell the truth as it will not be believed anyway.  

Interview Styles
 

There are several different interviewing disciplines taught around the world; however, two common styles include accusatory and inquisitory. In the accusatory style, the interviewer starts the interview and basically accuses the interviewee of being involved in some type of behavior. Who likes to be accused of doing things wrong, even if we have? When this style is used, the majority of the people being interviewed are placed on the defensive from the very beginning of the interview. It takes a lot of time and patience to break down the individual's wall of defense in order to get to the truth.

On the other hand, who doesn't enjoy helping someone understand what they do for a living, what has taken place in the work place, what activity they witnessed or, in general, what are their thoughts about a certain subject? This style of interviewing is the inquisitory style and can greatly improve the communication flow between the interviewer and interviewee, which is the true goal of an interview. 

A Useful Tool
 

As a professional interviewer, there is one concept I learned many years ago that continues to be helpful throughout an interview. The concept is called "TMMAT," which stands for Tell Me More About That. TMMAT is commonly called a soft demand and can be used in just about any type of interview being conducted. Interviewers listen for an aspect in an answer they would like to get more information on and simply say something to the affect, "During your comment, you mentioned (insert topic here), tell me more about that." You will be amazed how much additional information you might get from the interviewee.

As the character Harry Callahan (played by Clint Eastwood) said in the 1973 movie Magnum Force, "A man's got to know his limitations." Interviewing is one of those areas where an individual needs to know their limitations. Gain knowledge through interview training, look to others with more experience and never be afraid to get a professional interviewer involved before any key interview is conducted. You may only get one chance at an interview, so make sure to get the best results possible from the interaction.

To learn more about getting the most out of interviews, please contact us today.