The other night my seven year old niece came over and wanted to do some star gazing, so I grabbed my nice pair of binoculars, handed them to her, and we headed outside.
As we were walking through the front door, she bumped them against the door frame pretty hard. Now these are fairly expensive optics, and perhaps I should have known better. I didn’t say anything, but it must have been obvious from the brief sharp squint on my face that I had concern, as Madison looked up and apologized without prompting:
“Uncle Walt, I’m really sorry I bumped your binoculars. I didn’t mean to.” She paused for reflection, “I think it happened because I wasn’t paying attention.”
I was impressed by this very forthright and honest assessment on her part. “Are you paying attention now?”
She thought for a second, “I’d like to think so.”
Ah, if only we all could have this kind of open dialog at work.