Elicitation techniques

Invoking the term elicitation usually takes us to the secret world of three-letter intelligence agencies, but it is also a skill that many SEs today use. In fact, many senior SEs may be naturally skilled at elicitation and not even realize it. If you are interested in reviewing a public-facing document produced by the FBI on elicitation within the context of the intelligence world, you can find it here: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/elicitation-brochure.pdf/view.

But you don’t have to be an intelligence agent to successfully use the art of elicitation. It really is not a mystical art at all, and if you boil it down to the absolute principle of the topic, it is using a conversational style of dialogue versus a direct question methodology to learn information. Yes, there is a time and place for this and it is not to be utilized all the time. Furthermore, elicitation is certainly not an exact science, but it is a skill that you can work on and improve...