INTERVIEWS
The proper structure to your rationalisation
The rationalisation is used to help show understanding to your subject and promote cooperation during the interview.
Once you’ve completed the difficult task of selecting an appropriate story to use for your rationalisation, you have to make sure you structure it properly. A rationalisation is broken down into four steps: State it, Story it, Moral it and Link it.
If you are going to tell a story related to financial issues, first you have to state it. For example, “It reminds me of a friend of mine who had found himself in a financial pinch a few months ago”. After you state the rationalisation, you tell the story to your subject, which should be presented in the third person.
As you conclude your story, put a moral to it and say something like, “As you can see, sometimes people make decisions they wouldn’t normally make if they weren’t in that type of situation”.
Finally you bring the rationalisation full circle by linking it back to the investigation. “That’s why I take the time to sit down and talk to people. To figure out what was going on that may have caused that good person to make a decision they wouldn’t normally make.”
Utilising this structure, you will find your rationalisations will have a much greater impact on your subject.
by Chris Norris, CFI
Wicklander-Zulawski Europe
