OBTAINING INFORMATION FROM HUMAN SOURCES: CLASSICAL INTELLIGENCE: THE BATTLEFIELD TO YOUR FIELD

Augusto Boal observed that human relations are structured in a fundamentally theatrical manner: the use of space, the language of the body, the choice of words and the modulation of voice, the confrontation of ideas and passions - everything we do on the stage, we do constantly in our lives. This insight animates the choreography of human encounter. Organizations and corporations of every kind must relate, negotiate, probe, and exchange perspectives - and it is always people who do so. In doing so, consciously or not, they exchange considerably more information than they intend to give. Classical intelligence is, at its core, the art of absorbing as much of that information as possible in service of one's interests, while surrendering as little as possible of one's own. Throughout the chapters that follow, we will attempt to unravel the many ways in which these interactions can be turned to advantage - extracting the maximum value from every human encounter in support of the objectives at hand.