CONTENTS
Introduction
Transcript
Analysis
Problem Solving Model
Communication Skills
Conclusion
Grade

INTRODUCTION

The following comments are from an interview conducted with Lisa (a pseudonym). Lisa figured that she had a simple problem that she could use some help with and was quite willing to talk about this situation which was bothering her. Lisa began the interview with a description of the problem she wanted help with and a general background of the situation. Basically, Lisa was interested in a man who she had worked with and who she has maintained a friendly relationship with. It appears that their current friendship might be changing and Lisa was unsure what her next move should be.

TRANSCRIPT

Due to the type of problem, I quickly determined that following a problem solving method would be the best way to help Lisa with this situation. The odd numbered statements are mine and the even numbered statements are Lisa.

1. So let me try this, you have a guy who might be interested in you personally but you aren’t sure.

I am paraphrasing some information that Lisa has given me about the situation.
2. I’m the type of person who likes very straight forward direct clear info & I’m not getting that from him . This is a bit of background to it. Recently, finally, (said with emphasize) in an email he wrote " So, when can I come over for tea or something? Well do tell." Oh, okay, finally, after like 8 months, finally, he made some concrete decisions & has been very clear & very straight forward so I emailed him back.
3. What has he been very clear about in that message to you – what are you getting from that message?

I want to clarify what exactly Lisa understands his last email to mean.
4. The message to me is "Yes, I’d like to get together & do something with you" and the going for tea is just a common ground that we both happen to like tea and it is another way of saying going for coffee. So I was interpreting that to mean well, let me know when you can get together & we will do something. I was very excited & very happy that finally, we are not working together, we don’t have to act like we are not interested, We can actually get together outside of work & actually do something. So, um, (slight pause)
5. Have you made it clear to him that you are interested?

I am asking for some clarification of the situation
6. As a result of his email I sent back an email responding jokingly, because he has a sense of humor, that well not getting together at my place is a good idea because you know me as a very organized and neat person at work, but at home I’m working on school, and uh, there is dishes in the sink and you know, I have home work all over the place. I wanted that to come across as a joke but I said why don’t we get together for coffee – the weather is supposed to be very nice for the next week, why don’t we get together for coffee & go for a walk or something. Let me know if this fits into your schedule. And I thought that was a good response, you know, being that it was an email. I felt a) I was giving him a positive message b) it was, there is a time frame, and uh, I haven’t heard anything, It is a bit of a surprise.
7. How long haven’t you heard anything?

I’m requesting more background information.
8. It’s been 1 ½ weeks. Uh, like, he did phone my place once in Jan & leave me a message & he said either phone me or email me. Well, we have been playing this email conversation back & forth.
9. How frequent are your emails?

Again, more background information.
10. Oh, it could be anywhere from once a day to once a week. He is out in a car or van so sometimes he is not near a computer terminal which he has explained to me. He is a police officer. So I know he isn’t always able to respond every day. So I thought that I’d leave it for 4 or 5 days to see if I get any answer & it has been a disappointment that I’m not getting any response.
11. Do you know if he has a girlfriend &/or a wife?

I wanted Lisa to elaborate a bit on the situation. I should have tried acknowledging Lisa’s statement of feeling disappointed
12. That is part of the reason when I first met him I decided ‘nope’, I’m not going to go out with any officers because I heard too many stories. My understanding from him is that no he is not, he was seeing someone, they actually lived together but he has now got his own house, he is on his own, he has a roommate, a fellow by the name of Mike, and he is young, single, and my understanding, is that he is available. But that is part of the reason why I want to go for coffee & just find out point blank. I don’t like anything that isn’t spoken or not understood. I want to make sure she is out of the picture. I’ve explained to him that I’m single. So I’m wondering if he is scared off by my direct straightforward response with a time frame of lets get together. But I guess I was looking for someone else’s perspective on the whole situation.
13. It is pretty hard for me to tell without knowing him but I would probably guess that A) someone else is in the (pause, as I change what I was saying) either there is a complication like, there is another women & he can’t respond in the time you might want or 2) he hasn’t got... he’s scared about responding. What might be the third option? He doesn’t want to I guess would be the third option.

Lisa stated what she wanted from me and I tried to give her my perspective of her options
14. That’s what I’ve been thinking too. How long do I pursue this, um, maybe part of his interest was that at the time, I wasn’t available and there is some excitement about getting my interest & maybe he isn’t interested in following up with something that might lead to something long term. Maybe he isn’t interested.
15. Maybe we can review some of the signals you have given him to find out what he’s thinking – you’ve told him that you are single, that you are interested – you thing fairly clearly?

I’m asking for some information to get her to start some problem solving.
16. I think very clearly from my perspective
17. Right, that is all we can go on. Um, You think that you get along – that there is a repartee between the two of you. You haven’t had any feelings that he doesn’t like you.

This is a kind of a rhetorical question.
18. No, just the opposite, That he likes me but I was the one putting up walls & barriers & saying "no, I’m still in a relationship with Colin", um & then of course saying after a couple of months that I’m no longer in a relationship with Colin. Its ended, I’m doing things with my single girlfriends, & yes, I’m available.
19. Well, why don’t you email him (a quick change of thought) or what do you think are the options right now? Let’s start with that.

I think we are clear on the problem & I want Lisa to start some problem solving by brainstorming what her options are.
20. I think one of the options might be to continue the email conversation and maybe very jokingly, very lightly, kind of, you know, replay back and say "Oh, did I miss something, weren’t we supposed to get together" Or I guess another option might be to leave it alone, wait for him to contact me & I guess another option might be to phone him.
21. Do you have his telephone number?

I’m asking for some information. I don’t think that this was an important question.
22. I have his home number, cell number and his work number.
23. Did he give you all those number’s?

Again, this is asking for information which is not really important.
24. Initially, when we first started working together, we had to have a lot of contact with each other & a lot of times we had to go in after hours etc. so he gave me his number’s and I gave him my number’s. But I have respected that boundary & never called him personally. He has on the other had, phoned my place a couple of times and sometimes he has admitted not leaving a message and other times he has left a message saying phone me back or email me. So I feel that I’m responding to his initial message.
25. Okay, lets evaluate the different options that you said, because I think that those are probably all there is too. If you call him the pros of that would be ?… that you might get a response…

I’m asking Lisa to move on to the next step in problem solving by evaluating the options.
26. That I might get a response, that if I was to phone, personally, I think I could be more free with what I’m saying, could be more direct in what I’m asking, could get a definite answer so then I would know & be clear. Um..
27. The negatives?…

I’m asking for more problem solving
28. The negatives… I’m a very shy & quiet person & I’m wondering whether, okay, am I reading this situation right. A negative might be I’ve caught him at a bad time, he may not want to talk, he may feel he has already given me an answer by not responding. A negative might be that he might get angry, a negative might be
29. (before she has a chance to continue I interrupt) Why would he get angry?

I want some elaboration on why Lisa thinks her friend might get angry.
30. Possibly because I phoned him at the wrong time. I guess because of some of the responses I’ve gotten in the past where I’ve been really direct with people, very straight forward & I guess as I get older I don’t want to risk that much
31. So, its not really angry at your call, its angry at the situation that you are concerned about?

I’m trying to paraphrase what Lisa has told me.
32. Yes, (pause) that’s a different perspective. I guess maybe in my own mind I’m thinking the worst is going to happen you know so it making it difficult to make a decision what to do. Do you feel I’ve covered the "cons"?
33. I can’t think of anything to add on that option. The other option was to not do anything. If you don’t do anything then ?… the pros are…

Again, I’m trying to get Lisa to continue with the evaluations of her options.
34. To me, I would be left in the unknown
35. Is that a positive or a negative?

I want to clarify what Lisa has just said.
36. Oh, well, I guess the positives are if I don’t do anything then I’m not forcing things to happen maybe sooner than they are going to happen (pause) I can’t really think of a whole lot of positives for a lack of response.
37. Okay, what are the negatives?

Another problem solving question.
38. A negative for not responding is I’m left wondering, I’m left to wait on his timetable or his agenda, a negative would be I’m still unclear as to the situation, I haven’t got clarification. Um, (pause)
39. The third option was – I’m sorry- can you think of anything else.

I started to ask another question when I realized that I had interrupted.
40. No not really. The third option would be to send back a reply to his email and I guess a pro would be to..
41. (I interrupted Lisa) Excuse me, respond to his email – you were the last to send an email weren’t you?

I am asking a rhetorical question to get clarification.
42. Yes
43. So, send a second email is the second option and the first option was to phone him on the telephone?

Again, I’m asking a rhetorical question because I’m not exactly clear on the different options.
44. Uh huh. A pro to sending an email to him is that is isn’t over the phone, its not face to face, its easier, I wouldn’t get direct feedback, its personnel, maybe I wouldn’t get hurt as much. Um, I guess another pro would fit more into my thinking of like to know what is happening. I like to have guidelines. Uh, it could be positive in that I would know that, ok, I’ve sent a note & if he doesn’t reply or respond then I kinda go on and we haven’t invested a lot of time or effort and it is an easier solution then facing him directly. Uh, I guess a con to sending him another message is if I don’t get an answer back, I’ll be disappointed, I’ll be hurt. If I send a message & I get no reply then we haven’t had an chance to get together & have coffee or really discuss or find out if we are compatible. The loss of a possibility.
45. Which is a con actually for all 3 of your options isn’t it?

I’m asking a rhetorical question.
46. Uh huh
47. The loss of not getting together is a con for all of them.

I am just acknowledging this point.
48. That is why I suggested the idea that we get together for a coffee or going for a walk – we seem to be playing this game back and forth for the past 8 months and do we really even know each other well enough to feel that we want to try and pass some time. You never really know a person until you start (long pause as it appears that she doesn’t know exactly what to say)
49. You know him on a professional level and you like what you see but you don’t feel you have enough of the personal side to him. So, you are pretty good at going through the options. Did you see a clear option that sounded better then the others?

I tried to paraphrase what Lisa was trying to say and then I continued on with going through the problem solving model step of choosing the best alternative.

INTRODUCTION

The interview I had with Lisa was very easy to conduct. Lisa was very receptive to getting some help with trying to decide what to do about her relationship with a male friend. The problem was not a complicated one, although important to Lisa, and I found it easy to follow a problem solving model. The method that I wanted to follow had four steps: 1) identify the problem, 2) explore the options 3) evaluate the options and 4) choose a course of action.

In analysing this interview I will try to evaluate my effectiveness at following the above problem solving model and being the type of listener that Lisa needed.

PROBLEM SOLVING MODEL

Identifying the Problem

Lisa gave me a pretty complete picture of her relationship with her male friend. She was relaxed and open to discussing the situation and in line #12 was hoping that I would give her my opinion of what she should do. I tried to get more pieces of information in my first few comments and questions to her so I could have a clearer sense of her relationship with her male friend. Although she thinks that she has been very clear to the guy, I got a sense that she might have given him unclear messages as to what she wants. When I try to clarify this in comment # 5 she states that she thinks she has been very clear but I get the same feeling and go back to trying to clarify if she has given a clear message in comment #15.

Explore the Options

Once I felt I understood what the problem was, I asked Lisa (comment #19) to list what she thought were the options available to her. Comment #20 shows what she thinks are the options. This step in the problem solving model was very easy as Lisa came up with three options which I also thought to the best.

Evaluate the Options

After Lisa outlined the three best possible courses of actions I suggested (comment #25) that we make the transition to evaluating the options and that she think over the pros and cons of each alternative. This stage went fairly well but I think that I could have helped the process better if I had written down the options and marked down the pros and cons that Lisa had suggested.

Choose a Course of Action

The transition to this stage came at comment #49 where I tried to review her feelings and then move to get Lisa to make a decision. At this point, Lisa comes up with one of the options that she had not expressed a lot of positive points about and when I bring this to her attention she laughs and says that it might be true but she was opting for the safer course of action. We explored her feelings about that a bit and then Lisa decided to proceed with the option that she had listed a lot of positives about. Again, had I had made notes we could have referred to the pros and cons of each option before choosing a course of action.

I think that my communication skills were quite good at this stage as I allowed Lisa to make her own decision and I tried very hard not to impose my viewpoint. When she expressed that she wanted a ’safe’ option, we talked about her feelings and I was successful at getting her to see herself in what I believe was a no lose situation so she did not have to fear anything. The interview ended with a clear decision of what Lisa was going to do and real commitment to her decision.

EVALUATION OF PROBLEM SOLVING MODEL

The problem solving model gave me an excellent framework to conduct the interview. It was a simple model which suited the type of problem and it was easy to flow through the different stages. It seems that background information is often required at each stage of the model as the process seems to expose hidden pieces of the puzzle. I believe the model worked well for Lisa and I as we were able to come to a clear decision after going through the information. I really liked the fact that the model gave us a framework to discuss a personal problem in a very comfortable manner.

RECOMMENDATIONS

I really should have taken notes during this interview. It would have prevented some confusion I had about the options and we could have referred to the notes when choosing a course of action. I think that at each stage of a problem solving model it is probably a good idea to include the idea of either reviewing the situation or allowing for new pieces of information to come out that might be of importance to any decision. However, I still need to watch out that I ask the right questions so as not to get information which is not really important.

USE OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS

The following chart summarizes the communication skills used in the transcript excerpt:

Communication Skill Times Used Transcript Line
 

Skills used	Number of times used	Statement numbers
Elaboration & background info.	7	3,5,7,9,11,29,35
Paraphrasing	3	1,31,49
Rhetorical question	4	17,41,43,45
Problem Solving	5	15,19,25,27,37
Acknowledging	1	47

Listening & Attending Skills

We sat opposite each other during this interview and I tried to keep my position in an open, relaxing manner (by keeping my arms in a relaxed manner at my side and leaning towards her slightly when she was talking to me) so Lisa would feel comfortable. I tried to maintain good eye contact throughout the interview and not to flap my hands about too much when talking.

Basic Communication Skills

I enjoy talking to people and I believe that if anything I ask too many questions so I found it easy to ask the questions that helped me understand the situation and what Lisa wanted help with. Lisa seemed to be very relaxed as she didn’t need to be prompted for most of the information. I asked for elaboration or more details throughout the interview and a couple of times I asked for information that I see in hindsight was irrelevant to the problem. (comments #21, 23)

I used paraphrasing a few times but I found that it wasn’t a skill I felt was needed more as Lisa was quite clear in most of her explanations and not emotional or requiring much back up. I asked a few rhetorical questions just to be sure I understood what Lisa was saying and I probably wouldn’t have even needed these questions had I kept notes.

I expressed acknowledgement only once in the transcript excerpt and I feel that was the only one opportunity to do so.

Advanced Communication Skills

The majority of comments I made in the transcript excerpt were related to problem solving skills. I believe this interview was about finding a solution to Lisa’s situation and I tried to keep on track to that point of view. I tried to keep Lisa moving towards a solution whenever I felt that we had covered whatever point or stage we were on.

The transcript excerpt does not include the one time I challenged Lisa. I used this skill to get Lisa to look at why she was worried about which option she decided on and I was successful in getting Lisa to accept that she was in a no-lose situation.

EVALUATION & RECOMMENDATIONS

I felt that this interview was very successful as Lisa was left with a good feeling about what she was going to do. I also left the interview feeling positive about Lisa’s decision as I agreed with her course of action based on the information that I got.

As it was not a complicated problem we were dealing with I was not required to use a lot of communication skills beyond problem solving. I still have to be careful about interrupting others but in general, I think I provided the help that Lisa was looking for. The only point that I am unsure on and so will watch for next time, is that I might be a little to problem solving oriented and sometimes this might lead to pushing the person I am talking with in a direction they might be uncomfortable with.

CONCLUSION

This second interview was quite different from my first interview so I got the opportunity to work on different communication skills. The differences between the two show me that the problem solving models I try to follow will depend a bit on the type of problem or situation I am confronted with. A more complicated problem or situation probably would require a problem solving model which included a stage dedicated to getting at or identifying the core of the problem.

The most important communication skills I think I need to use are the skills that make the interviewee feel comfortable opening up. I also need to remember to not interrupt and to not lead the interviewee to a conclusion that I want, that he or she doesn’t buy into.

GRADE
 

Introduction Gives background information about the setting and purpose of interview Describes purpose of analysis Describes how the analysis will be done	1/2 Does not describe how the analysis will be done.
Transcript Transcribe 10 minutes (about four typewritten pages) of the interview.  Number the statements.  Choose ten continuous minutes that best reflect your use of the interview approach and questions.	2/2 Good
Analysis of transcript After each interviewer statement provide an annotation that gives the following information: Purpose of statement Kind of listening or questioning skill used Indicates how well you did and what you might do differently	1/2 No evaluation or recommendations.
Analysis of communication skills Indicate in a table the kinds and number of each listening skills you used Describe your use of the skills, giving examples Evaluate your use of the skills Make recommendations for changes	2/4 Good table.  Description should have considered each listening response kind.  Evaluation did not consider strengths or weaknesses of some of the response kinds.
Analysis of interview strategy Describe the interview strategy used from the point of view of structure and approach Describe each step in the interview Discuss use of transition from one step to another Evaluate your use of interview strategy, including structure and approach, as well as each step you used Make recommendations for change	2/4 Does not discuss approach or transition. Good description of each step. Evaluation and recommendations also should have included  mention of structure and approach.
Conclusion Summarizes key points from analysis, including recommendations	1/2 Conclusion only mentioned one recommendation. Should have been provided more of the key points from analysis.
Use appropriate formatting (including subheads) and use correct grammar and spelling throughout	2/2 Over good use of grammar and spelling. (emphasis not emphasize) Formatting was okay.
Does the assignment show that you have put extra effort and initiative into your work?	1/2 Analysis could have been more detailed.
TOTAL	12/20

Comments:

Overall the assignment was well done.  Good interview and transcript.  However, more attention to detail and consideration of all requirements would have increased grade.
 

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