Making People Talk: From Empathy to Inquisition

Abstract

A couple of years ago I met a man who was to become a good friend of mine. I remember that first meeting very well. I was at a large business conference in London and he was one of the speakers. After the last session of the day, I caught up with him as he was leaving and invited him to have a drink with me. We talked for over three hours and I was sorry when he said he had to go. I thanked him for a fascinating and stimulating conversation and took the liberty of asking him whether we could meet again (he was a well‐known writer and lecturer and extremely busy) and to my delight he agreed. Later that evening, reflecting on the meeting, I suddenly realised that my new‐found friend had hardly said a word during those three hours. He is one of those people who are artists in making other people talk about themselves and that was why I found him so fascinating. Of course, since then I have got my own back and learned a lot about him too. But at that first meeting, he got me to like him simply by being interested in me.

Citation

Townsend, J. (1986), "Making People Talk: From Empathy to Inquisition", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 10 No. 8, pp. 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb002209