INTERVIEWS
click HERE to watch a video on "INTERVIEWS"
In Financial UA we emphasize the importance of sharing our experience, strength and hope. We do our best to avoid sharing opinions or giving advice.
Advice-giving is a subtle form of criticism, it communicates that someone needs to be told how to live their life in a manner that diminishes their ability to think and make right choices for themselves. Giving opinions about another persons life circumstances is like wandering into the realm of conjecture based on a foundation of incomplete information. Advice-giving and opinion-giving usually start with "You" statements. This falls into the same category as crosstalk. Within this recovery environment, advice, opinions and crosstalk are not appropriate as they jeopardize the safety and supportive atmosphere of the group.
By keeping the focus on ourselves, using "I" messages, we share from a place of personal experience. This allows others to identify with our experience--it allows others to take what they like and leave the rest.
Part of the recovery process happens through social learning. We learn from others during Meetings; through Outreach; through working in Small Teams or Groups; and through Service.
Using the Tool of Interviews, we ask more experienced members of the program to share their experience, strength and hope during an "interview". An Interview can take from 10 minutes up to an hour. The length of time for an Interview depends on what realistically works for the participants. We encourage each member to take notes during an interview. The program of Financial UA is like a learning environment for many of us. Here we find a safe place to learn new ideas, skills, techniques and systems that will help us to become more successful. We remind ourselves, we do not need to reinvent the wheel. We simply ask someone else how they did it; we learn from their experience by allowing them to share their best practices with us. By interviewing more experienced members, we can learn in minutes what it took them years to figure out.
Common interviews may look like:
Interviewing 10 people in Recovery, what was their experience with working a particular Step (out of the 12 Steps).
Interviewing 10 people in Recovery, what was their experience with using the tool of Visionboard (or any other tool of Financial UA).
Interviewing 10 people in Recovery, what was their experience with getting a Sponsor.
Interviewing 10 people in Recovery, what was their experience with identifying with the Symptoms of Financial UA.
Interviewing 10 people in Recovery, what was their experience with getting a Job... a prosperous Job...a Job earning $100,000 or more...
Interviewing 10 people in Recovery, what brought them to Financial UA and what other 12 step programs have they explored before this one.
Interviewing 10 people in Recovery, what changes have they experienced as a result of working the Financial UA program.
Interviewing 10 people in Recovery, what was it like to transition from one job to another and how exactly did that happen...step by step.
Interviewing 10 people in Recovery, in their experience, what is the best practice for doing outreach calls?