Level Up Your Witness Interviews with These 6 Mindset Shifts

Does it sometimes feel like pulling teeth when you’re conducting a witness interview? We’ve all had those interviews where the witness just gives 1 or 2 word answers, with no elaboration.

It’s normal for that type of interview to occur every once in a while. But, if you’re feeling like you’re regularly having to pry information out of the witnesses you interview, it may just be time for a mindset shift.

In this piece, I’ll discuss the 6 mindset shifts that can take your witness interviews from meh to marvelous.

I conducted around 12,000 witness interviews, both for litigation cases, and for internal investigations, during the 30 years that I worked as an investigator.

I’ve taken what I learned from conducting effective witness interviews and help plaintiff law firms maximize their client recoveries and firm revenue, and organizations trying to improve their internal investigation processes. Click here to learn more about the ways I can help your organization. 

Simple Witness Interview Mindset Shifts for Maximum Effectiveness

These simple mindset shifts are easy to implement, and they’ll really boost the effectiveness of the interviews you conduct.

Mindset shift # 1: Interviews are not fishing expeditions.

Speaking of fishing, here’s a quick anaology. With what approach would you be more likely to catch fish? 

If you took a boat out into the middle of the ocean, and dropped a fishing line into the water using whatever bait you happened to have handy, and lowered the bait to any old depth, without knowing what type of fish might be in the area, or what they like to eat.

Or…

Taking your boat to a specific location where fish are known to be schooling as identified by using a fish finder, dropping your fish line to the depth where the fish are shown to be located, and matching your bait to the food that those fish like to eat. 

You’re definitely more like to catch fish in the second scenario than in the first one. And conducting a witness interview works the same way.

You should have an idea of what the witness knows for each interview you conduct. Yes, there may be suprises where the witness talks about information you didn’t know the witness knew. 

But there should be a specific purpose for each witness interview you conduct based upon the type of information the witness knows or is thought to know. And by focusing your interview on that specific purpose, you are far more likely to get detailed information from the witness.

If you conduct a witness interview simply because the witness “might know something” you’ll be disappointed with the results of the interview.

Mindset Shift # 2: It’s what the witness has to say and not the questions you ask that matters.

After all, the entire point of conducting a witness interview is to ascertain what a witness knows about specific information. So don’t spend the interview focusing on asking the “right” questions. 

In fact, don’t prepare a list of questions to ask the witness. When you do that you focus more on the next question on your list, and less on what the witness says, because you want to make sure that you don’t miss asking any from the questions you’ve prepared.

And if you are focused on what you want to ask next. You’re really not listening to what the witness is saying. And that’s the wrong approach to maximizing the effectiveness of your witness interviews.

When you conduct the interview, focus on what the witness says in response to the questions you raise, and then ask follow up questions based upon the specific information the witness tells you. Pull that thread as far as it will go before going onto the next topic. 

That’s how you get the maximum amount of detail from each interview.

If you focus on the next question on your list of prepared questions, you’ll also miss following up on any new information that arises. After all, that new piece of information wasn’t something you prepared for so you’re more likely to respond superficially, or even to ignore this new direction which deviates from your prepared list of questions.

I’ve conducted more than a few witness interviews where the witness brought up something new, that was not anticipated, that I was able explore in depth with the witness because I focused on what was said rather than the next question to ask, and that allowed the interview to take on a whole new area that turned out to be important. 

Mindset Shift #3: An interview is not an interrogation.

Witnesses can lie. Though in my experience, it’s not as common as it’s sometimes depicted. So when that happens do you confront the witness? No. You don’t.

When it comes to interviews your role is to document what the witness has to say. Not to challenge it. In other words, the goal is to lock the witness in to what he has to say, and to do so even if it’s a lie.

You want to lock him in because you can then use other approaches to undercut or impeach what the witness says through information provided by other witnesses, or through information developed from other sources, such as documents. 

The more a witness will elaborate on a lie, the better. Doing so opens up potential avenues to discredit him later on.

Sure, if you really want to catch the witness in a lie, you can try to elicit inconsistencies by asking the same questions in different ways during the course of the interview, and see if the answer changes in any material way.

But in the end. That’s not really your role.

Mindset Shift #4: You need the information more than the witness needs to provide it to you.

It can be easy to lose sight of the fact when it’s all said and done, you need the information that the witness posses much more than the witness needs to provide it to you.

Why does this matter? 

Because the burden is on you to make the interview process as easy as possible, and as convenient as possible, for the witness. The more comfortable you make the interview process for the witness the better the quality of information you’ll receive from the witness.

This is especially difficult to do when you’re under time pressure. An investigation has a lot of moving parts, with many of those parts hinging upon your ability to conduct your witness interviews as quickly as possible so as to not hold up the rest of the investigation.

But, the fact that it’s convenient for you doesn’t mean that it works for the witness. The first thing that I asked a witness when I first contacted her was have I caught you at a good time?

That’s a simple way of demonstrating repect to the witness. Which goes a long way towards geting the witness to be cooperative. And that helps to make the interview you conduct more effective. 

Mindset Shift # 5: Silence is golden. Nature abhors a vacuum.

There’s a great remedy to one and two word answers that can make a witness interview stilted and ineffective. It’s called silence.

Remember that old adage that nature abhors a vacuum? When it comes to witness interviews, that vacuum is created by silence. In particular, your silence.

Instead of trying to prod the witness into going into more depth on an answer. Remain silent after the witness provides his answer to your question. Be patient. Don’t rush to ask your next question. If you wait silently for long enough, the witness will fill that silence with more and better information.

As the professional conducting witness interviews, you’ll always been more familiar and comfortable with the interview process than anyone that you will interview. And for the witness your familiarity with the process and their lack of familiarity with the process makes it really uncomfortable for the witness.

Silence works. Here’s why. Sitting in silence makes the other person feel like they’re being judged. And the best way to get rid of that feeling of being judged is to fill that void with words.

Mindset Shift # 6: Empathy matters. A lot.

The last of the mindset shifts listed here, may actually be the most important one. And that’s because being interviewed as a witness in an investigaion is a difficult experience. 

You feel like you’re putting yourself out there, and you’re never sure if the person interviewing you actually cares that you’re in a difficult place. 

Many witnesses, especially in internal employment related investigations, worry about retaliation, including losing their paycheck.

In times of easy job offers, maybe that’s not a big concern. But when jobs are no longer plenty, and people who are fired or laid off can expect months of job searches before finding a comprable job, it can be pretty darn scary.

We’re talking worrying about keeping a roof over their head and food on the table.

And being interviewed as part of investigation can make you feel like you’re sticking your neck out and exposing yourself to retaliation of some kind.

So being empathetic to the witness, and demonstrating that you understand how being interviewed can cause problems for the witness, goes a long way towards helping to put the witness at ease. 

And there’s no downside to letting the witness know that you get the difficult position doing the interview places the witness. And understand their concerns.

Adopting these 6 mind set shifts into your witness interview process can help to take the effectiveness of your witness interviews to a new level. And doing so doesn’t require a steep learning curb to incorporate them.

Whether you’re part of a civil plaintiff law firm that uses an in-house case preparation investigation system, or you conduct witness interviews as part of an internal investigation in the workplace, I can help you maximize the effectiveness of your investigation process. Click here to learn more about my consulting and training services.