Elicitation: The Intelligence Skill Every Business Can Use
How a core intelligence technique applies to business, and how to defend against it
Elicitation is the skill of using ordinary conversation to learn about a person, their work, their plans and the people around them, without them realising they have given anything away. It has long been a core technique in intelligence and law enforcement. With the right elicitation skills training, it is just as useful in business.
It is also one of the most common ways sensitive information leaves an organisation.
How elicitation works
People share far more than they intend to. Most of us like to be helpful, to correct a mistake, to be recognised for our expertise and to return a confidence. Skilled elicitors use these natural tendencies.
A deliberately wrong statement invites a correction. A flattering remark invites detail. A shared story invites one in return. A question about a general topic slowly narrows towards the specific information wanted. None of it feels like questioning, and the person giving the information usually leaves thinking the conversation was pleasant and ordinary.
Where businesses use elicitation
Used ethically, elicitation helps professionals in many roles. In due diligence, it helps build a picture of a potential partner or investment beyond what is in the documents. In negotiation, it reveals the other side’s position, priorities and limits. In sales and client relationships, it uncovers what a client really needs.
Investigators use it to gather information without alerting the subject. Recruiters use it to get a fuller picture of a candidate, and wealth managers and bankers use it to understand a client’s circumstances and source of wealth.
How elicitation is used against your organisation
Those skills work in both directions. Competitors, criminals and hostile states use elicitation and social engineering to obtain trade secrets, client information and details of security arrangements. Approaches happen at conferences and exhibitions, in hotel bars, over the phone and through professional networking sites.
The approach is rarely obvious. A friendly contact at an industry dinner asks about a project. A recruiter on a networking site offers paid advice in return for an overview of your sector. A caller claiming to be from a supplier needs to confirm a few details. Each conversation seems harmless on its own. Together, they can give a competitor or hostile state exactly what it was looking for.
Staff who understand how elicitation works are far better at recognising it and far less likely to give information away. That makes elicitation skills training as valuable for defence as it is for gathering information.
What good elicitation skills training covers
Good training starts with understanding: why people share information without realising it, and the cognitive biases elicitation relies on. It then moves to technique, including funnelling and how to plan an approach around the outcome you want, using the 5WH model of who, what, where, when, why and how to structure each conversation.
Influencing is the natural partner to elicitation, so the training covers influence principles, building rapport and trust quickly, and handling difficult or hostile conversations. Participants learn to read non-verbal cues and adapt their approach to what they observe.
Elicitation now happens online as much as in person, so the training also covers digital elicitation, pretexting and other social engineering tactics, and how to defend against them. It finishes with practical application: conducting productive conversations, recording what was obtained, and the ethical considerations and operational security that apply.
Our Elicitation & Influencing Skills course
Our elicitation skills training is available at three levels. The Introductory Session is an informal introduction to elicitation and influencing and how they apply in the workplace. The Practitioner Workshop builds the knowledge and skills to gather information discreetly, through facilitated discussion and practical exercises. The Advanced Workshop recaps the techniques and moves into practical exercises that replicate real encounters.
Workshops are facilitated by former members of UK government, military and law enforcement, and are delivered to public and private sector teams. A 90-minute Lunch and Learn version is also available.
Gathering information, and protecting it
Elicitation is one of the oldest intelligence techniques, and one of the most practical for business. Elicitation skills training helps your people gather information more effectively and recognise when someone is trying to gather it from them.
To discuss elicitation training for your staff, get in touch with the team.