How I build and run behavioral interviews

How about, instead of asking "Tell me about a time you...", and you presuming to understand the situation so well that you can make judgments about nuance based on the off-the-cuff example you asked for, and trying to cut them short from "rambling"...

You instead ask them "Say you have a situation like X; how would you approach it?" And you can change the situation by adding information, "What if the report responds Y?"

Then both people are operating from closer to similar information about the situation. (Though it's still possible that the interviewee understands something about these situations in general that the interviewer doesn't.)

This also avoids dredging up past unpleasant situations (someone with more experience will have handled more unpleasant situations, but that doesn't mean it doesn't invoke a somber mood, if they're not acting or oblivious).

It also means they don't have to also think about how much they can say under NDA and being discreet about personnel matters (while a poor interviewer might take hesitation or choosing words carefully as interviewee trying to put themselves in the best light or keep a fabricated story straight).

An expected objection to this approach of spinning a hypothetical situation is that candidates might just say what they think are the correct answers. But knowing the correct answers is at least half the problem. And what do you think many candidates are doing in the interview anyway, if they are the kind to know the correct answers, but not follow them in real life.

However, in some places it seems to be too cavalier -- in the sense that it suggests we now have a magic prism with which we can "diagnose" the candidate's shallowness or lack of candor. When really they're just saying something basically innocuous. Cause it's like, been a long and mostly boring interview process so far, has it not, and they're trying to slog their way through the canned / pre-programmed (if arguably necessary) part of the process like you are.

For example, under "Things to watch out for":

High standards: if they say there’s nothing they wish they’d done differently, this may also be lack of embarrassing honesty, or not holding themselves to a high standard

Or they had a genuinely shitty experience (with high costs to finances, relationships and/or health) that was 80 percent out of the blue and beyond their control. And they'd really rather just move on. Or if they did tell you the real context and their real reasons for doing X -- you'd very likely ding them (quite likely fatally) for doing so.

I've missed out on hiring good people who were nervous or worried about doing a bad job in the interview. I'm sure I still do miss out on some but I've found a method that lets some people feel more comfortable without being overly difficult on me and can live with that.