Outrageous Optics: Why CEOs Must Learn Interview 'Bridging' Skills

The Dejargonizer’s Foot in Mouth of The Month Award goes to Substack CEO Chris Best 👏👏 🦶😬

May 25, 2023

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[[[New Edition]]]

Substack CEO

Chris Best

was far from his best on a recent high-profile interview with The Verge editor in chief

nilay patel

Substack recently released a new feature called Notes, which feels a lot like Twitter. Mr. Best went on to Patel’s show to promote the new feature and discuss how it’s different and better. Patel asks Best about content moderation on Notes.

If you haven’t watched this yet, you really should.

Now there’s a whole genre of CEO interviews done gone wrong; and the raw WTAF-ness of this one belongs in the pantheon.

Here’s a pro tip: Besides turning up on time, not lying, and not being an asshole, the big secret ingredient to a successful media interview is to master the skill of “bridging”.

Bridging is going from fielding difficult questions by acknowledging them, moving to more stable ground by addressing them, and if done authentically, taking that opening to land your messaging and move the conversation along.

person standing on brown pallet — **Chris Best Foot Forward**. (Illustration. Photo by Carl Söderberg on Unsplash)

With good “bridging”, this part of the interview could have gone something like this:

Nilay Patel: “Is it acceptable to post that all brown people are animals and shouldn’t be allowed in the US on your platform?”

Chris Best: “Of course not. We do not condone bigotry in any form.”

[[Acknowledge the question as something Nilay deeply cares about]]

Once you feel the interviewer has heard you proving that you’ve heard them, you have established a bridge. Congratulations!

Now take a step, start laying down more tracks.

“Having said that, we do have a strong commitment to freedom of speech on our platform.

Did that land ok? Take another step.

“As you know Nilay, the line between freedom of speech and incitement to hate speech is now and has always been contentious —although the example you mentioned is clearly unacceptable and it targets a specific group of people.”

Then another step.

“We fully expect to have to adapt our content moderation policies and approach as the platform evolves.”

That most likely would have been that. In fact it’s what Substack put out after the interview.

a wooden bridge over a small stream in a forest — A lovely bridge. Photo by László D. on Unsplash

By continuously avoiding giving a clear condemnation of Patel’s example, by visibly retreating to formulaic legalese, Best just invites Patel go after him harder.

For the CEO of a popular publishing platform that aims to “build a new economic engine for culture” —

Chris Best

did himself no favors.

Mr. Best could have taken a page out of Elon Musk’s interview with the BBC.