I recently visited a large financial institution in Toronto to conduct some field research with their Fraud Management team. It's a pretty serious environment, with almost no privacy for the agents; low cube walls and constant monitoring of their activities either visually or through listening to their phone calls. No cell phones are allowed, and there is a "clean desk" policy that means the work environment is predictable and impersonal.
So, when I was led to a block of Loss Prevention Agents by their manager, they looked somewhat alarmed. I found out later that it's business-only with the managers, and the agents did not know what to expect when I approached. They certainly didn't think it would be a potentially-welcome break from the routine. I knew my first task was to put them at ease in order to gather usable results.
What did I do? I smiled (always a good start) and said "Don't worry, nobody is in trouble, I'm only here to see how you guys are using our product. You can't give me a right answer or a wrong answer, I'm just interested in what you normally do in the course of a regular work day."
I could see them relax, glance at each other and smile, and then go back to work. It's always part of our protocol to reassure individual participants, but this was the first time I had to reassure an entire group!
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