Mining Information from Other People — A Menta-Morphosis Competency

Mining information from other people.

This refers to information that exists from other people.  Typically, this would exist in conversations with other people: interviews, interrogations, and content prepared by other people: reports, slide sets, blog posts, podcasts, etc.  So, for example, if we are making a decision about rearranging account territories, and we speak with each of the salespeople involved, what we learned  would be information from other people

The primary challenge when we are mining information from other people is making sure that you are collecting accurate information.  Information from people is subject to  being passed through lots of filters:  Biases, faulty memories, poor analysis, personal agendas, etc.,. can all warp the information. So, what someone tells us, whether in a report, an interview, or any other means, should be viewed with somewhat of a jaundiced eye.  Much of this can be eliminated by asking ourselves some questions about the information:

1. Does this person have anything to gain by an interpretation of this information?
2. How do I know that this information is accurate?
3. What’s missing from the information?  What would I expect to be here and is not?

          One example of this comes from the days when I recruited salespeople for a  professional recruiting agency in the northern suburbs of Detroit.  We would receive job orders from our clients seeking to hire a salesperson, and we would then recruit, interview and recommend people for the client to consider. Interviewing salespeople seeking a job, therefore, was an everyday occurrence, and a skill that we continually tried to improve upon. It’s a classic case of information from other people.

We assumed that the salesperson had, at the minimum, embellished his background and references. So, we always checked the information that we could: The degree he/she claimed, the dates and reports of the previous employment, etc.  A conversation with his/her reference was always a part of this “validity” exercise.

Finally we could focus on what was missing in the resume and interview. (Question C above.)  Is there a gap in the resume?  Why is there no name for the previous supervisor?

Used For

Sifting through information in order to unearth the important bits and pieces of it

Input/Output

The starting point is a beginning question, often the end result of the Start Right competency.

The output of this component process is a list of nuggets.

How to

1. Select the people well.

A. As close to the source as possible.  So, for example, if you wanted to decipher customer’s behavior, you could interview a number of customers, gather the salespeople’s opinion, or talk to the sales manager.  The manager, being two layers removed from the source, would be the least reliable, the salespeople next, and the customers themselves more reliable.

B. Minimal personal agendas.  To the extent that you are able, select people who don’t have a vested interest in the outcome.

C.  A reputation for honesty.

2.  Interview well.

At a minimum, prepare a written objective for the interview – what is it you would like to learn? And, prepare some basic questions before the interview

There are some excellent tips here. https://www.indeed.com/hire/c/info/6-interviewing-techniques-to-conduct-an-effective-interview.

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