Parlour Games
On how to focus interviews
Recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of interviews by the late Singaporean leader Lee Kuan Yew. While I don’t necessarily agree with his politics, I do like a certain technique he constantly uses in interviews, especially with journalists.
This “technique” is responding to a question with the observation that the question is “a parlour game”. In this context, a “parlour game question” is a question that on the surface might sound “cute” and interesting, even intelligent, but is not particularly constructive.
And so, recognizing the question as a “parlour game” question is an effective way of focusing the conversation on the questions that do matter.
Probably north of 90% of questions one hears in the media in Sri Lanka (and elsewhere), whether the interviewee is a politician, a businessperson, or a sports personality are “parlour game” questions. And sadly, neither the interviewer nor the interviewee is aware of that.
Fortunately, there is a very easy way of acquiring this awareness, which stems from the fact that there are very few questions that are not parlour game questions. As I see it, for any given person or role, there are probably about 10 questions (maybe less) that are key, and anyone interviewing that person in that role should stick to those questions.
For example, if I was interviewing a Sri Lankan politician, I’ll stick to the following three questions.
- What specific steps can we take to guarantee that Sri Lanka produces more high-value goods and services that other countries want to buy?
- What specific steps can we take to minimize waste in the public and private sector in Sri Lanka?
- What specific steps are we taking to reduce the unit cost of energy?
