Dear Dave,

As I provided a response privately before your message was posted to
the group I have been waiting to see if anyone in the group can
provide information on their experience. It seems not so I'll attempt
to provide some comment that might be helpful.

First though it is of course necessary that individuals will need to
have experience or knowledge about the methods in order for them to
contrast and compare in any useful way.

Secondly, it is very important that the purpose of the study be
clear. For instance the purpose might be to test individuals'
knowledge of the techniques to determine the effectiveness of a
training intervention. Or it could be that you need some sort of
subjective view about how it felt or how effective it was from the
point of the participant or how effective it was from the point of
view of the participant's supervisor. There are many scenarios that
could be chosen depending on the purpose. There is more on the
subject of Superordinate Purpose and the Purpose Statement at
http://www.enquirewithin.co.nz/interview_purpose.htm.

Thirdly, it is very important, especially for an inexperienced grid
interviewer and if results from different interviews are to be
compared or amalgamated, that the elements are concrete with no
blurring at the boundaries. Also that they cover the whole field of
interest (the etceteras need to be spelt out). As an example the
experience of coaching or mentoring would be highly dependant on the
quality of the coaching or mentoring and therfore would be more or
less favourably compared to the other methods depending on
experience. There is more information on this at
http://www.enquirewithin.co.nz/HINTS/elements.htm and again it is
important to get the purpose right in order to select a useful set of
elements.

The general idea appears to have potential. But the value of any
results will depend on the quality of the groundwork done before the
interviews start. Also it is not just the interviewer whose time is
valuable, the most useful interviewees will be very busy people and
will deserve the respect a well thought out project provides.

I hope that helps

John