Doing interviews

It took me some time to decide the first entry for this blog. Since most development communicators do a lot of interviews, let me share some practical insights on interviewing. Here are some tips.

• Come prepared. Don’t turn up for an interview unless you are prepared. First, you will just be wasting your time. Second, you are wasting your interviewee’s time. Third, you will be wasting your office’s resources. So be prepared when you do interviews. You can do this by reading about the topic for interviews, asking around about your interviewee, and by preparing your list of questions. BUT, make sure that you don’t look every so often at your interview questions. The interview must be very fluid—more like talking to a friend so the other party will be enticed to tell lengthy stories. 
  
• Listen very carefully. There’s a book by Ricardo Ramirez and Wendy Quarry called “Communication for another development: listening before telling”. The importance of listening can never be overemphasized. Remember that you are there to get their stories, understand their realities. See it more like you’re watching a movie, you will never appreciate it if you will be doing other things such as chatting with somebody or if you’re mind is in a trance. Listen, listen, listen.
• Step back, and suspend judgment. Related to the previous point, make sure to unlearn so many things. Listen to their stories very well. See their stories from their perspective. Their realities count, not yours.

• Be sincere in listening, they will know if you’re not. Just like when you are talking to your friend, your interviewees will know very easily if you are not sincere in listening. Remember nonverbal cues are far stronger than verbal ones. This is crucial as some interviewees are very sensitive. In my work, farmers are very sensitive with this one. They will not show it to you, but you will know it, as they will be less enthusiastic in telling their stories. Their sentences will be shorter—you will not get anything significant from them. Remember, respect begets respect.
• Explain your purpose for coming. Often, it is always very difficult to start interviews for several reasons. First, an individual, for instance a farmer, would always find it weird to be revealing so many things to someone s/he’s met for the first time. Second, it is true that it does take some time before you could establish rapport with someone. To at least overcome these things, you need to explain very your purpose for doing the interview. If you are a rather young development communicator, introduce yourself properly. Credibility is always an issue for young development communicators.
• Explain what’s going to happen after the interview. We don’t want our interviewees to feel robbed after the interview. We don’t want them to have “what’s-gonna-happen-next?” questions in their mind. The polite thing to do is to tell them what will happen after the interview. For instance, if you are writing for a magazine, say that a story based on the interview might appear in a magazine, and that you will send him/her a copy. Sending your interviewees a copy of your work is always pleasing to them. And it is also your way of expressing your gratitude to them.
• Don’t burn bridges. Many development communicators consider it a done deal once they’ve conducted the interviews. They don’t communicate with their interviewees; some even decide to forget that an interview ever happened. Don’t be like them. Be very polite, and interact with them whenever possible. If they have questions, be very helpful. In my case, some farmers still text me regarding good varieties they can plant come next planting season. While I don’t have the exact answer to their queries, I redirect them to our PhilRice Text Center (09209111398). It is not about having the answers to their queries all the time, but having the ability to link them to proper channels—those who may have the answers to their questions.
• Don’t make promises that are hard to keep. While the chance is high that your work will be published especially if you have been commissioned by your office to do the interview, don’t make promises such as they will appear on a widely read magazine, their pictures will be seen by many etc. Remember that your work will be subjected to scrutiny by your editors, and unexpected changes are likely to happen along the way. And not to mention, there are mean editors out there—your work might not see print.
• Play it by ear. For some reasons, you do need to play it by ear. There are a lot of things that cannot be taught in classroom. Behaviours that we thought are already OK in our society, but are actually being frowned upon in others. I was tasked one time to interview Sudanese in Australia. In my training as a development communicator, we should always look at the interviewee in the eye—or at least maintain a good level of eye contact. However, I learned later that in Sudan, younger individuals should never look at the old guys in their eyes—that is a sign of disrespect! I was so ashamed after doing the interview. Good thing they didn’t mind, and that they understood that I didn’t know much about their culture. Things like that should not happen.