Behind the Headlines

So my editor, Doug, comes over to my pod in the afternoon and sits all meet-the-press style across from me. He will be giving a presentation on one of our internal initiatives (saying it that way makes it sound covert and interesting…) later this week at a conference not in Hawaii.

It was strange. I was interviewed. I usually do the interviewing.

He began asking me several questions to which I promptly gave some babbling answer, afraid I wasn’t covering all the information, making it unclear, and/or misspeaking. I had to stop the questioning, gather my thoughts and then proceed. The process repeated itself several times as he asked more questions.

Afterward I was left feeling odd. I wanted to explain more. Did I mention that one thing that was really crucial to understanding everything else? Did I represent the information clearly? Did I sound like an idiot?

It really reversed the roles. I’ve been interviewed before, in particular about my job or some event. Having information, though, that someone else would be summarizing and presenting to a large audience was a little different. I’m always sympathetic about interviews, but doing something like this really was a reminder on the importance of being aware of the psychology behind being questioned.

And assuring the interviewee that they did not sound like an idiot.