6 New Questions To Build Rapport

author:         "Rain"
date:            Mon, 4 Jan 2006 21:34:00 GMT
website:        http://wwv.themysterymethod.com
subject:        6 New Questions To Build Rapport ...Here are some suggestions on how to interpret the answers to these questions. I am not a psychologist, but do have a brief knowledge of psychology and a more...

6 New Questions To Build Rapport: A Must Read for APUAs Here are some questions I discovered while studying in business school. They come from a set of questions employers are now asking in interviews. They are designed to discover more about the applicant than the standard, "What is your best quality and what would you like to improve on?" I figured that C1(build rapport) is a lot like an interview, but the, ahem, 'position' is different. I've recently used these questions in-set.

6 Interview Questions

1. You must plan your own death. How old are you? How does it happen? And what is the funeral like?

2. You can be any animal. What are you? You can marry any animal except your own species. What kind of animal do you marry?

3. You can pick your parents from any point in time; they can be real or fictional. Who are they?

4. We have found a stargate and you can travel to any location and time. To what 3 places would you go? OK. Now, what if once you cross through, you learn you cannot return? In which of the three places would you stay?

5. If you had to have a tattoo, what and where would it be?

6. You can invite five people to dinner, real or fictional, from any place or time. Who do you invite to dinner and why?

Here are some suggestions on how to interpret the answers to these questions. I am not a psychologist, but do have a brief knowledge of psychology and a more extensive knowledge on consumer behavior. Therefore, don't think too deeply about these answers. And don't be her therapist either. Use these as a guide on how to interpret her answers as well as what to interpret. This is meant to be an interesting way to discover something you like about her, so lead the interpretation in that direction.

Interpretations of her answers

1. Talking about how you would like to die says a lot about how you would like to live. This is a great point of reference for commonality. Finding someone who wants to live like you want to live is really special. Most of us aren't living as we'd like to, sharing that desire brings you that much closer to achieving it.

2. Confident people pick animals who possess qualities they like about themselves. Insecure people pick animals they admire. When selecting an animal for their spouse, they usually select an animal that is least like their last or current BF. For instance, if she says she would be a dolphin it means she admires freedom, intelligence, cuteness, beauty. If she chooses a dog for her spouse's animal, it means that she abhors disloyalty and her ex probably cheated on her.

3. Only those most comfortable with themselves and their families will answer with their own parents. The person's choices for her parents often reflect the qualities and/or conditions that were absent in her upbringing. Rather than draw attention to this, point out that fact that these are qualities which they want to instill in their own children. For instance if her dad was Einstein, she would like her children to be smart and great thinkers. If she wants her mother to be Amelia Earhart, she wants her children to have independence.

4. The places in time and space people choose tell you what kinds of feelings they want to feel when they are free of limits and stressors in their lives. If they choose Mars, they like to feel discovery and newness. If they choose prehistoric Earth, they like uncertainty and danger. The place they decide to stay often represents the extreme feelings they are most comfortable with. For instance if their third option was Antarctica, they are most comfortable feeling alone, versus discovery or danger.