MBR Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception

I decided I was going to read a book a week for a year, here's a quick review of this week's book.  You can see the ongoing list here.

Basic Info

Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception by Pamela Meyer



Why I read it

I watch a lot of TED videos, Pamela has one, it caught my eye.  It wasn't ground breaking by any means but it was interesting enough for me to plunk down twelve bucks on the eReader version (I borrowed my wife's Kobo Touch for the first time, which I thought I would hate but didn't). Here's the talk:

How it connects to the Public Sector


I'm not sure that there is a direct connection, unless you think you work in an office full of liars, at which point you probably need a little more help than just this book ;)

That said, the book did reinforce (heavily) the point that face to face communications are always preferable whenever there is any skin in the game because a face to face meeting gives you the opportunity to observe those with whom you are dealing, thus making you more likely to catch deception before it catches you.


What I got out of reading it


I actually found the book difficult to read at times.

Much of the book is dedicated to describing facial features, body language or mannerisms. I felt as though the content would have been better suited to a video (or series of videos) than a book. It was  rife with bullet point statistical filler and the chapter on deception audits was (in my opinion) incredibly far flung.

That said, it wasn't all bad. I will definitely be paying closer attention to people's physical comportment whenever I think the truth may be getting stretched or listen more carefully to my friends whimsical narratives of the long weekend to determine the degree to which they are embellishing their exploits.

And, if that's something you'd be interested in than Liespotting may be a good fit. If not you may want to steer clear... and that, my friends, is the god's the honest truth.




Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect