Multi-platform rapport
I encountered an amusingly challenging interview situation earlier this week. My team and I were at a client's site to kick off a project, including some interviews with stakeholders. For a variety of reasons (access and scheduling being the most obvious) we had agreed to interview the different stakeholders in pairs. Our meetings were spread throughout the day so in between sessions we were hanging out of the corporate lobby, working on our laptops, etc.
Our main client burst into the lobby about two minutes before our interview, startling us from our LCD-screen-reverie. "Let's go!" he urged us, as we grabbed up our gear and headed into the elevator. We arrived at an upper floor and followed him into a conference room, where he began dialing the speakerphone on the table. I just wasn't sure what was happening, so we all dumped our stuff and took seats. Our client got the stakeholder on the phone (we had an inkling it might be on the phone but we weren't entirely sure), threw the call to us to introduce ourselves and then disappeared to find the other stakeholder.
There was a slightly awkward moment as we took the reins of the call, beginning by asking our interviewee if he knew much about why we were in this phone call. As it often happens with stakeholders - or even users - they've agreed but aren't sure what the dealio really is. So we clarified the plan and then began asking him questions. As he regaled us with really interesting, the other stakeholder walked into the room, unescorted by our main client. Meanwhile, our telephone stakeholder is continuing with a relevant and interesting story.
What to do? This was a crisis of manners, exacerbated by the interviewing context. We acknowledged our newcomer with our eyes, with gestures, and a few whispered names/intros (which I'm sure the sensitive phone mic picked up). When the story finished, we acknowledged our newcomer, who fortunately knew the telephone stakeholder. We went back and restated the goals of the conversation, which of course our friend on the phone had already been through.
Anyway, this new stakeholder was equally fascinating and voluble, and quickly offered up a number of detailed examples and stories for us. I'm sure you've been in a group conference call when everyone is in a room - except for you. It's so easy to end up completely marginalized. I did not want to do this to our telephone stakeholder, especially with the momentum we'd already begun to build with him. But our other stakeholder is telling some long stories.
And this is where I caught myself flicking my eye contact between the two, as a way to (I guess - it was an automatic gesture) demonstrate interest and maintain engagement. Except one person was on the phone. Yes, I was looking back and forth between the guy in the room and the phone. I was projecting all of my rapport building onto a device, using eye contact only. Needless to say this wasn't very effective!
I think we muddled through, directing questions to our telephone interviewee, using his name, and otherwise trying to maintain our connection across all platforms. But the special case of interviewing more than one person and interviewing over the phone are challenging enough, finding ourselves trying to manage the combination of the two was an extra level of complexity. When I caught myself trying to make eye contact with the phone was when I knew that were in a very small pickle, but that my instincts were carrying me.
Our main client burst into the lobby about two minutes before our interview, startling us from our LCD-screen-reverie. "Let's go!" he urged us, as we grabbed up our gear and headed into the elevator. We arrived at an upper floor and followed him into a conference room, where he began dialing the speakerphone on the table. I just wasn't sure what was happening, so we all dumped our stuff and took seats. Our client got the stakeholder on the phone (we had an inkling it might be on the phone but we weren't entirely sure), threw the call to us to introduce ourselves and then disappeared to find the other stakeholder.
There was a slightly awkward moment as we took the reins of the call, beginning by asking our interviewee if he knew much about why we were in this phone call. As it often happens with stakeholders - or even users - they've agreed but aren't sure what the dealio really is. So we clarified the plan and then began asking him questions. As he regaled us with really interesting, the other stakeholder walked into the room, unescorted by our main client. Meanwhile, our telephone stakeholder is continuing with a relevant and interesting story.
What to do? This was a crisis of manners, exacerbated by the interviewing context. We acknowledged our newcomer with our eyes, with gestures, and a few whispered names/intros (which I'm sure the sensitive phone mic picked up). When the story finished, we acknowledged our newcomer, who fortunately knew the telephone stakeholder. We went back and restated the goals of the conversation, which of course our friend on the phone had already been through.
Anyway, this new stakeholder was equally fascinating and voluble, and quickly offered up a number of detailed examples and stories for us. I'm sure you've been in a group conference call when everyone is in a room - except for you. It's so easy to end up completely marginalized. I did not want to do this to our telephone stakeholder, especially with the momentum we'd already begun to build with him. But our other stakeholder is telling some long stories.
And this is where I caught myself flicking my eye contact between the two, as a way to (I guess - it was an automatic gesture) demonstrate interest and maintain engagement. Except one person was on the phone. Yes, I was looking back and forth between the guy in the room and the phone. I was projecting all of my rapport building onto a device, using eye contact only. Needless to say this wasn't very effective!
I think we muddled through, directing questions to our telephone interviewee, using his name, and otherwise trying to maintain our connection across all platforms. But the special case of interviewing more than one person and interviewing over the phone are challenging enough, finding ourselves trying to manage the combination of the two was an extra level of complexity. When I caught myself trying to make eye contact with the phone was when I knew that were in a very small pickle, but that my instincts were carrying me.