Advanced Strategic Interviewing Course (ASIC) 

(3-days)

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Lena is the creator of this brand of training which she has trained for numerous organizations. Her credentials and years of real-world expertise in interrogation and interviewing make her a subject matter expert In this field.  A version of this course is certified by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services. This course focuses on non-accusatory interviewing practices.  Participants will learn skills in four critical areas:

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ENHANCED COMMUNICATIONS: First, participants will be tested on their level of self and situational awareness.  Awareness plays a critical role in interpersonal communication because individuals must be aware of how they come across to others, through tone of voice and body language. A lack of awareness can unintentionally invite negative consequences and hinder rapport efforts. Without awareness, communication, through words and through body language, can be misinterpreted and possibly offensive in nature. You may be inadvertently closing yourself off to communication, you may give the perception that you are disinterested, or you may look insecure and thus lose respect and trust from others. Without awareness, you will not be able to observe and listen to others in order to pick up on the subtle indicators that indicate anxiety and stress, and often times deceit. When we don’t actively listen to others, we will make assumptions and let our biases and prejudices lead us to make key decisions and report incorrect information. Participants will learn how to increase their self- and situational awareness in order to overcome communication barriers. Participants will also learn how to overcome conversational challenges, how to remain emotionally controlled, and how to change negative language to positive; the avoidance of negative language alone can change the entire outcome of a conversation.  Enhanced communication skills shape successful interviewers.  

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INTERVIEWING: Second, participants will learn non-accusatory interviewing skills such as using effective questions to fully exploit information and avoiding ineffective questions that waste time, cause frustration and feed information. By asking good questions, participants will collect pertinent, non-biased information, increase positive relationships and avoid the misinformation effect. Participants will learn how to structure an interview by taking the interview from the Marco level to the Micro, and back to Macro to ease concern and increase cooperation. Participants will learn icebreaker tips to get the interviewee engaged, questioning techniques such as how to timeline information in order to fully extract details, and how to handle interview challenges. By preparing for the “what ifs,” interviewers can effectively handle situations where the interviewee shuts down, refuses to answer, or seems irritated or pressed for time.  Participants will analyze and critique interviewing techniques in a real-world case study.

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ELICITATION: Third, participants will learn conversational elicitation techniques to obtain information during an interview to conceal objective(s) and relax the interviewee. Elicitation is an operational tool that exploits aspects of human psychology; certain aspects of which make human sources vulnerable to elicitation techniques. Participants will learn why elicitation works and how to be an effective elicitor by being able to control conversations, exploiting conversational gates, and by using conversational transitions. Elicitation is an effective tool to gain information indirectly so that you don’t have to ask a question.  Asking questions can sometimes sound accusatory and sometimes identify what we don’t know. Participants will be required to conduct an elicitation exercise where they will go out in town and elicit information from an unwitting individual.

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DECEPTIVE ANALYSIS: Fourth, participants will learn how to read body language and how stress affects body language. They will learn about the different types of liars and the correlation between nonverbal indicators of deception. We do not listen as actively as we should. We need to focus more on what others say rather than what we want to say. When we do, we start to uncover hidden meanings in the words people use. Participants will learn the basics of how to accurately, and quickly detect verbal deceptive indicators in others. Participants will learn how to conduct statement analysis on written and spoken statements in order to identify indicators of deception. During this class, participants will be given real-world statements that they have to analyze for deceptive indicators. Participants will also learn my three go-to questions to ask when they suspect a person is lying to them and what to do once a lie is exposed to get to the truth in a non-accusatory manner. Participants will be tested on their observation and detecting deception skills through videos and real-world role-play exercises.

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Please contact us for more information on pricing and scheduling at training@thecongruencygroup.com.

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