Building rapport with any person or group involves one key component: listening. To effectively build rapport you must listen to the other party to determine as much information about them as possible. While, when working with another party, it may be true that knowledge is power, power is the antithesis (the opposite) of rapport.
In the scenario presented, the first objective is to find out more information about the group's environmental concerns. Next is to establish a connection by allowing sharing of the other's personal experience.
In a dialogue, open-ended questions should be used. These questions elicit emotional and thoughtful responses allowing them to introduce their personal view on the world. For example, "Tell me, what do you do in your work with the environment?" This will give you insight and it demonstrates to the party you have a desire to know about them. Closed questions are those that only require a yes/no response. They often are perceived as cold or disinterested and most often put a limit to conversing.
Once some information is gained from the party, rapport is established through sharing personal thoughts, feelings and ideas. If the party is concerned about building materials causing cancer because of a life-story they share about a loved one with cancer, sharing briefly that you knew someone with a similar experience can build trust. Although you must avoid one-upmanship by interrupting to tell your story because such interruptive stage-stealing curtails trust.
When there is a lack of common experience, showing interest in one of their interests can also be useful. "I've never experienced something like that. Please, tell me how you dealt with stress of that." A simple statement encourages the party to open up about themselves. Using the techniques mentioned acknowledge their concerns and explain how the company plans to address them.
No comments:
Post a Comment