CHAPTER SIX
Making Feedback Effective
There are moments and then there are moments.
There are moments that pass us by with hardly a second thought, and moments that remain in our mind forever. One of the barely remembered moments for me happens on the airport shuttle bus traveling from the long-term parking lot to the terminal. I invariably ask myself, “Did I lock my car?” I can never remember.
I do remember, however, at the age of five being picked up by my mother from school and taken to the doctor’s office. Burned in my mind is the scene in the waiting room as we walked through the door. A deathly silence hung in the air. One woman sat in her chair crying. An old-fashioned, console TV with dark wood cabinetry was on one side of the room as every eye watched in horror the news of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. It was November 22, 1963.
When my mom took me back to school, she told me to tell the principal that the president had been shot. These were the days when there wasn’t a TV in every classroom and instant Internet news was decades away. I remember staring up at that tall man and having him say to me, “That’s not a very funny joke. Now go back to class!” (which may give you a bit of insight into the kind of student I was). I also remember the same tall man apologizing to me at the end of the day.
There are moments and then there are moments.
There are conversations and there are conversations. There are conversations that pass us by with hardly a second thought, ...