How do you establish a positive, constructive relationship with anyone at anytime? Sometimes we meet people whom we feel naturally attracted to, and communication is easy. But how about when communication is NOT easy, people we are not attracted to, those we have just have nothing in common with, or people we even don’t like? Avoid them you’ll say. And that sounds like a good approach. But how about if those are people you HAVE to be in contact with, your boss, key staff, friend of friend, or… your mother in law? 🙂
There’s hope in sight, because one of the first skills we learn in NLP is ‘Rapport’. Rapport is a process of matching and mirroring which creates a condition conducive to trust and cooperation. Rapport building skills are used in a wide array of situations, and especially in inimical contexts where two or more persons are ill-disposed toward each other. Police interrogators fore one are usually highly trained in the art of Rapport.
Read this Newsweek article that describes how Ali Soufan, an FBI agent got a prime 9/11 terror suspect to talk without torture.