May 22, 2026 · 24 min · 9 segments
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The other day, my six-year-old walked up to my office and he said, "Hey, Dad, you may not be able to log into your phone for a few minutes." And I knew right away what had happened when he said that, right? And I asked him, I said, "Well, buddy, did you try to log into my phone? Did you try to enter the PIN?" And he turned around and said, "No," and then started to walk away, and then turned back around and said, "Actually, yes." Now, my six-year-old knows that he's not supposed to use my phone, particularly when I'm not there.
We're really stingy about screens in our house, and he just had this really hard thing.
He told me at one point, he said, "Dad, it's so hard not to use it." And of course, in that moment, what he was wrestling with was something so deeply relatable, not only in terms of, uh, a draw to use the phone when you're not supposed to, but so deeply relatable at a deeper level.
It was a kind of an amazing parenting moment that happens, right? I, of course, when he told me, "Yes, I did do that," when he knew he was not supposed to, I immediately gave him a hug and said, "Buddy, I'm really proud of you.
You, you did something really brave by telling me the truth that was really hard to tell me in this moment." And that little anecdote was this reminder of something that is so real in organizations, which is that it is often the case that we fear to tell the truth organizationally because we fear the cost of it.
That was happening with my son, right? He, he thought he would get in trouble for using my phone when he knew he wasn't supposed to, and so his first instinct was to lie to me.
And, you know, he probably felt some shame about that or whatever, and I understand.
And he turned back around and told me the truth, and I wanted in that moment to do the same thing that you want to do when you hear that story, right? Which is to reward him for telling the truth.
You know how hard it is, and it's just, like I said, so relatable to want to shade the truth.
And I think that what's happening there at the six-year-old level is happening in organizations all around all the time.
And it's something I've noticed a ton in a whole bunch of recent conversations about the way organizations function, and I'm being reminded of it sort of constantly right now, and I wanna talk about it for a few minutes here.
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The other day, my six-year-old walked up to my office and he said, "Hey, Dad, you may not be able to log into your phone for a few minutes." And I knew right away what had happened when he said that, right? And I asked him, I said, "Well, buddy, did you try to log into my phone? Did you try to enter the PIN?" And he turned around and said, "No," and then started to walk away, and then turned back around and said, "Actually, yes." Now, my six-year-old knows that he's not supposed to use my phone, particularly when I'm not there.
We're really stingy about screens in our house, and he just had this really hard thing.
He told me at one point, he said, "Dad, it's so hard not to use it." And of course, in that moment, what he was wrestling with was something so deeply relatable, not only in terms of, uh, a draw to use the phone when you're not supposed to, but so deeply relatable at a deeper level.
It was a kind of an amazing parenting moment that happens, right? I, of course, when he told me, "Yes, I did do that," when he knew he was not supposed to, I immediately gave him a hug and said, "Buddy, I'm really proud of you.
You, you did something really brave by telling me the truth that was really hard to tell me in this moment." And that little anecdote was this reminder of something that is so real in organizations, which is that it is often the case that we fear to tell the truth organizationally because we fear the cost of it.
That was happening with my son, right? He, he thought he would get in trouble for using my phone when he knew he wasn't supposed to, and so his first instinct was to lie to me.
And, you know, he probably felt some shame about that or whatever, and I understand.
And he turned back around and told me the truth, and I wanted in that moment to do the same thing that you want to do when you hear that story, right? Which is to reward him for telling the truth.
You know how hard it is, and it's just, like I said, so relatable to want to shade the truth.
And I think that what's happening there at the six-year-old level is happening in organizations all around all the time.
And it's something I've noticed a ton in a whole bunch of recent conversations about the way organizations function, and I'm being reminded of it sort of constantly right now, and I wanna talk about it for a few minutes here.