TITLE : BAD LIES IN BUSINESS: THE COMMONSENSE GUIDE TO DETECTING DECEIT IN NEGOTIATIONS, INTERVIEWS AND INVESTIGATION.

Preface

Introduction

Most management books overlook deceit and modern theories assume that efficiency, sales, morale and motivation can be directed in a vacuum of total honesty. This is the great lie. He who lives on trust, dies of flatulence.

The lesson from this book is to question, or at least consider, the truth of everything important and this is a good place to start. Look at your favourite management book, the odds are that fraud and dishonesty are not even indexed, let alone covered in detail. Take the curriculum of any business course and the chances are fraud and dishonesty simply do not exist.

Like it or not, modern business is riddled with dishonesty, fraud, deceit and corruption which, too frequently, take managers by surprise. It has been said that for every credibility gap, there is a gullibility fill and this is unarguably true. People simply don't ask the questions they should, often in the belief that to do so is impolite.

Over the past years we have seen hundreds of businesses collapse as the result of dishonesty. In 1987 more than 180 American banks failed; many as the result of bad lies at a senior level.

Managers have said 'but we were never warned: no one told us to be on the look out and, besides that, we don't like to distrust people. We are a trusting company.'

There is an ironic twist and double standard in the way people look upon lies. Since Watergate, fewer people trust politicians. More than 60 per cent of the American population thought that President Reagan was lying when giving his account of the arms shipments to Iran and the diversion of funds to the Contras. Yet the very same people put implicit trust in the car salesman, the negotiator, job candidate or employee. It is easy to suggest that someone is lying when he does not have to be confronted directly and when the relationship is impersonal. Deceit on the doorstep is much more difficult to deal with.

There has to be great sympathy with most victims of deceit. Released from business school with the unquestioning belief that the world is full of flowers, nice smells and butterflies, flitting as they do in a Walt Disney film from flower to flower, it is not surprising that they overlook or avoid the trash and bad odours and are then amazed at the inevitable sting.

We hope this book will help redress the imbalance. The rule is when in doubt, express it clearly and repeatedly.

We must emphasize that we are not qualified psychologists or psychiatrists, but together we have more than 50 years' practical experience of dealing with liars, in all shapes, sizes, sexes and nationalities. We have also met thousands of nice, honest people, but they have too often been the victims and the losers, rather than the winners.

Our views frequently conflict with medical and academic research; we particularly question some of the present ideas on criminal motivation, body language or non-verbal communication and lie detection equipment. Our theory of interview phases (Chapters 4 to 11) is unique, but it works well in practice and provides a structure that anyone can follow.

There is little academic research of practical benefit that throws light on the situations in which people lie, on their thoughts and fears and more important on how a liar can be identified and dealt with. Lying is an art rather than a science and, in many cases, research to back up our conclusions simply does not exist. Recommendations on how to identify liars, the clues they inevitably give away and the types of questions that bring success are made against this background. But there are always exceptions and for that reason we cannot say that a liar will always react in a set way or that a given technique will always succeed. All we can say is that the conclusions and recommendations made in this book are accurate, based on our experience in the vast majority of cases.

We hope readers will have time to consider and perhaps try out some of the concepts discussed in this book: if so, we are sure they will be successful and not at all controversial or unfair.

Throughout the book, we have referred to the person at the receiving end of an interview as the 'suspect' or 'subject'; the difference is minor and for all practical purposes the words are interchangeable.

In a book of this nature it has been impossible to avoid the use of gender and retain a fluent text.The reader is therefore asked to accept that no bias is intended. Women arejust as likely to be interviewers as men, and can certainly tell lies with as much skill.

Most important of all, we must stress that the techniques of interviewing should always be fair and within the laws of the jurisdiction concerned. In criminal cases, it is vital that admissions and confessions are obtained voluntarily and without promise of reward or fear of oppression. The standards that have to be discharged to establish admissibility vary from country to country and over time.

In the USA the so-called Miranda ruling has been the guide. In the UK the Judges' Rules embodied the principles of admissibility in criminal cases for years. The recently passed Police and Criminal Evidence Act (known as PACE) has made changes but its rules are academic for most interviews. PACE and Miranda have far more limited applicability than most people imagine and only apply to those interviews which are expected to result in criminal proceedings and when conducted by police officers or similar professional investigators.

If all interviewers make sure that admissions and confessions are obtained voluntarily and fairly, the chances are that the evidence obtained will be accepted by a criminal court. But in all important cases, local lawyers should be consulted.

Standards governing the admissibility of evidence in civil or commercial cases are less rigorous and formalized. Generally what a person says can be admitted in evidence against him. But again it is vital that the interviewer should act professionally and fairly. Remember, almost everything is easier to get into than to get out of and that careful preplanning is justified for all negotiations and for interviews in which deceit is a factor.

A sound, methodical structure, sensible techniques and fair play will bring results. This is what this book is all about.

How to use this book

This book is written in a modular form, so that it may serve as a practical reminder for people planning to conduct an interview in which deceit could be a factor. Chapter 2 examines the taxonomy of deceit from the liar's point of view and we believe this is an essential starting point. Unless the interviewer understands what is likely to be going through the mind of the liar, he is almost doomed to failure. Chapter 3 looks at the legal and moral background against which interviews have to be conducted. It emphasizes the need for fairness and caution. Chapter 4 outlines the reasons why many interviews fail to uncover the truth; it looks at the different sorts of questions that can be asked and their likely impact on the subject. It introduces the four-phase concept we recommend for successful interviewing, which is a framework on which techniques have to be built. It also describes the ideal interview room and points out possible difficulties when criminals are interviewed at the scene of the crimes.

These four chapters may be looked upon as general background reading and an umbrella for the detailed analysis in the later chapters. Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are self-contained modules covering interviews ranging in difficulty from negotiations to people suspected of crime. We hope that a reader having to conduct an interview of a particular type can refer to the appropriate chapter and be presented with a practical summary of the action to be taken. Each chapter is intended to be self-contained and of necessity there is some overlapping between them. The different types of interviews share the techniques described in Chapter 11. Appendix C summarizes the most important concepts in a check list form.