インタビューの本質〜二人の間にある景色を見る〜 The essence of the "interview" ~ The sharing of views between 2 people, to arrive at previously undiscovered thoughts and ideas. ~

現在会社の人事・広報の役割の名目で、全道中の学校を巡り、講演活動とインタビューを行なっております。

そしてこの活動を、Air-G北海道FMと連携をして、インタビューの声をラジオを通して発信しています。

最近は自分よりも若い高校生と対話することが多く、彼らのキラキラとした目と、情熱にいい影響をもらう日々が続いています。

4月より始めたインタビューですが、大変奥が深いことに気づいてきました。

私の質問や、聴く姿勢によって、学生たちの話す内容やトーンが大幅に変化します。

彼らの興味や話したい内容を汲み取りながら、その場で一番適切な質問を投げかけていく。

これがなかなか難しい。

まだまだスキル不足だなと思い、より学生たちの心の声を引き出せるように努力しなければと思う日々が続いています。

以前、友人との何気ない会話の中で出てきた言葉がありました。

「Interは「間」、Viewは「眺め」、インタビューっていうのは、二人の間にある景色を見るということだよね。」

この言葉を聞いた時に、インタビューの本質に気づきました。

「あーそうか、二人の間にある景色を見ながら、一人じゃ到達できない場所に、お互い手を取り合って向かっていくことがインタビューなんだ。」

インタビューなしで、自分がすべての事柄に気付けるのなら、別にインタビューなんてする必要はないはずです。

なぜ、インタビューが必要なのか？

話し手が一人では気づけないことを、聞き手が質問によって引き出せる可能性があるから。

話は少し変わりますが、これは「教育」に通ずる部分があると思います。

教育が英語で"Education"ということは多くの方が知っているはずです。

それでは、Educationの語源はご存知でしょうか？

Educationの語源は、ラテン語の「引き出す」です。

このことから、私は教育というのは「引き出す」ことと認識しています。

答えを教えるのではなく、答えに辿り着くために必要な知識や発想を引き出し、答えへ導く。

Interviewも引き出すという要素が重要視されています。

なぜなら、聞き手が答えを知らないから。

話し手がどのような思考を持ち、どのような経験をしてきたかを調べることはできます。

しかし、今目の前にいる話し手すら想像もできなかったこと、考えたこともなかったことを、聞き手がわかるはずはありません。

これはまるで、聞き手と話し手が、行き先の決まっていない船に一緒に乗り、未だ見ぬ場所へと進んでいくようなもの。

そして、インタビューという手段を通して、話し手がまだ見つけられていなかった、内に秘めていた何かを引っ張り出すかのように、舵をとる。

後に、未だ見えていなかった答えや、道しるべを発掘できた時に、喜びを分かち合うことができる。

これがインタビューの醍醐味です。

「Interは「間」、Viewは「眺め」、インタビューっていうのは、二人の間にある景色を見るということだよね。」

この友達の言葉によって、インタビューの本質を掴めました。

これからも、数え切れないほどの学生と出会い、彼らの思いを引き出していきます。

どんな景色が見れるかな？

これから出会うすべての学生とのインタビューが楽しみです。

Two of my roles in our company are those of Human Resources and advertising. Part of fulfilling these roles has been my work in interviewing students all across Hokkaido.
I also take part in the Air-G radio show, playing these students' recorded voices directly into the microphone during the broadcast.
In this role, I interact with many people younger than I am, and I have been inspired by their passion.

I started these interviews in April, and instantly realized the profundity of the situation. Not necessarily the answers themselves (although there were many profound answers as well), but also just the act of doing an interview.
The things they would talk about and their tone of voice would change dramatically once they were given a platform and asked the right questions.
A good question, first and foremost, is one that sparks the interest of the speaker, letting them talk about something they want to.

This is quite difficult. 
It is often the case that the speaker doesn't even know what they want to say, and so it is up to the question to bring it out of them — to reach down to the bottom of their heart and pull out the message that they didn't even know they were capable of delivering.
I work on this everyday.

I had a conversation with my friend the other day, and she said "an interview is the sharing of views between 2 people."
When I heard this, I was struck by the true essence of what it means to have an interview.
I realized that an interview is trying to reach a place, that we would never be able to reach on our own, with the help of each other, hand in hand, and the shared view in between.

If we were capable of seeing everything on our own, there would be no need for interviews.
The point of an interview is to offer new vantage points by asking questions to a speaker who previously may not have seen things a certain way.

This is a bit off-topic, but I think the concept is also intertwined with that of education. "Education" has many meanings, but for me it has less to do with teaching, and more to do with bringing out something that was already there. It is not providing students with the answers, but rather asking the right questions to lead the students on the right path, in which they may arrive at their own answers.

In the same manner, I think an interview places emphasis on drawing something out of the speaker. The interviewer has to be able to do this without even know what the answer is themselves.

The interviewer can research what the speaker has accomplished and what kind of experiences they've had, but the interviewer cannot imagine something that the speaker themselves has not yet thought of either.

It is as if the interviewer and speaker are on a boat together, headed to a place they have not yet discovered.
The interviewer provides the speaker with a new way of thinking, in an attempt to bring out a thought that the speaker had not yet previously come up with.
If the speaker is able to arrive at this magical place in their mind, a special moment is shared between the interviewer and the speaker.
This is the best part of the interview.

Taken literally, the two halves of the word — "inter" and "view" — provide it's most basic meaning.
"An interview is the sharing of views between 2 people."
Thanks to my friend, I've come to understand the true essence of the interview.
I will continue to meet countless students and strive to bring out their deepest thoughts from the bottom of their hearts.
I'm excited to see what magical places we can discover together.