W.A.I.T for Qualitative Interviews

Posted by nnlmneo on February 12th, 2016 Posted in: Blog

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Why 

Am 

I 

Talking?

 

My sister-in-law recently told me about the W.A.I.T. acronym that she learned from a communication consultant who spoke to her staff. It’s a catchy phrase for an important communication concept: Be purposeful when you talk. This self-reflective question can be applied to any conversational setting, but I want to discuss it in the context of qualitative interviews for evaluation data collection.

Surveys and tests are examples of quantitative data collection instruments. They require careful crafting and pilot-testing to be sure they collect valid information from respondents. By contrast, in qualitative interviews, the data collection instrument is the interviewer.  The interview guide itself is important, but the interpersonal manner of the interviewer has far greater impact on the trustworthiness of the information gathered. The key responsibility of the interviewer is described succinctly by Michael Q. Patton in Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods:

“It is the responsibility of the interviewer to provide a framework within which people can respond comfortably, accurately, and honestly to open-ended questions.”

Listening skills, of course, are key to good interviewing.  As program evaluator Kylie Hutchinson said recently in a 2016 American Evaluation Association conference presentation, evaluators need ask their questions, then shut up.  If you can learn to do this, you are more than halfway there.  Julian Treasure has a TEDtalk with excellent tips on developing your listening skills.

However, how you talk is important as well.  Here are a few ways I would answer the question “Why Am I Talking?” during an interview:

• I want to show that I share something in common with my interviewee: People are more comfortable talking to others who are like them. I say things like “I feel that way, too, sometimes” or “I know what you mean. Something like that happened to me a few years ago.”  These statements can help me build rapport.
• I want the interviewee to know that no answer he or she gives can surprise me. Social desirability is something that survey researchers always consider in instrument design. Even in the anonymous survey context, people may give answers to make themselves “look good.” So you can imagine that the dynamic is even greater in the face-to-face interview setting. When broaching a sensitive topic, I let my interviewee know I’ve heard it all before. I might say, for instance, “Some people have told me they spent hours researching a serious health condition. Others say they were so frightened by the diagnosis, they didn’t want to read anything about it. How did you respond when you were diagnosed?”
• I want to allow the interviewee an opportunity to answer a question hypothetically. Sometimes you may ask an interviewee about choices or behaviors that are potentially embarrassing. Let’s say I want to know what barriers prevented them from following their doctors’ orders. This question could feel awkward to interviewees if, for example, they lacked understanding or willpower to follow a physician’s recommendations. So I frame questions that allow them to distance themselves personally from their answers. Rather than asking them to describe a time they didn’t follow a doctor’s orders, I might say “Sometimes people don’t do what their doctors tell them to. In your experience, what are some of the reasons people might not follow their doctor’s orders?
• I want to show I’m listening and to check my understanding: Paraphrasing your interviewee’s comments is an active listening technique that demonstrates your interest in the ongoing discussion. It also is a validity check on your own interpretations of their answers. I say things like “Okay, so let me make sure I understand.  Essentially, you are saying…?”
• I’m managing the emotional climate and turn-taking in a focus group. I choose language to maintain a neutral, non-judgmental atmosphere and to model respectful interaction. I also talk when I need to reign in someone who is dominating the discussion. I might say “So  Truman gave us quite a few great examples of how she uses MedlinePlus. What examples can someone else add to Truman’s examples?”

All of these tips, by the way, are from Patton’s book on qualitative methods. Here is the full citation:

Patton, MQ. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice (4^th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2015.

If you would like to read more about W.A.I.T, here’s an excellent article from the National Speakers Association.  I also want to thank Lauren Yee and Donna Speller Turner from the NASA Langley Research Center for alerting me to W.A.I.T.