She Tried to Swipe the Page

Oct 15, 2026

Written By Bart Berkey | Founder of Most People Don't

SHE TRIED TO SWIPE THE COVER

The first child we handed the book to was about four years old, and before any of us could say a word, she put her finger on the cover and swiped.

Nothing happened, so she tried again, and when the cover still refused to move, she pressed two fingers against the picture and spread them apart, trying to zoom in on a page that was printed on paper and was never going to get any bigger.

We had just received the very first sample of "Be Where Your Feet Are", the opening book in our Most Gorillas Don't (But You're Not Most Gorillas) series, and we had carried it into a coffee shop because we wanted real, live feedback from parents and children who had never seen it before.

I walked in expecting to learn whether the story would hold a child's attention, or whether she would like the purple gorilla on the cover. Instead the very first thing I learned was that she did not yet know a book was something you turn.

My first reaction was surprise, and I will admit that some of it was the kind of surprise that comes right before a laugh, the "kids these days" reflex that most of us carry around without ever noticing it.

The longer I sat with it, though, the less funny it felt, because she had not done anything wrong at all. She had simply done exactly what every screen in her life had taught her to do, with complete confidence.

I had seen that same confidence once before, in a room full of adults.

NOBODY HAD SHOWN HER YET

Her mother immediately helped her and showed her how to turn, not swipe, to see the next pages. Quickly she became delighted with the colorful story in front of her, whew!

In her world, glass answers a fingertip, pictures grow when you spread your fingers, and the next thing arrives the instant you ask for it. That is not a flaw in her thinking, it is a perfectly logical conclusion drawn from everything she has been exposed to so far.

We cannot hold it against her that nobody had handed her a book yet, and I have come to believe we owe exactly the same grace to the young people walking into our organizations, who are not missing something in their character so much as they are missing someone who has taken the time to show them.

That is a training and mentoring problem, and these problems belong to the people who have already turned a few pages.

THE CONFERENCE ROOM

I once worked with a client who was very focused on making sure their next generation of leaders understood the value of face-to-face, personal, deep, and genuinely friendly relationships with their customers. Their concern was that many of their newer people were hiding behind email, using it to deliver bad news and, more and more, using it as the only way they communicated at all.

Email is the grown-up version of the swipe, because it is fast and clean and it always responds, and it also lets you deliver something hard without ever having to watch it land on another person's face.

What that group came to realize is that their differentiator was, and always would be, customer service. Anyone can match their price or copy their product, and a chatbot can answer a question at three in the morning, but no chatbot can make a customer feel the way a human being who genuinely cares can make them feel.

That realization is a big part of why we created the HUMANALITY System™, which is about making people feel cared for, valued, seen, and heard in a highly processed, transactional world.

TEACH THE TURN

Some of the most important things in leadership simply do not respond to a swipe, like earning trust, sitting across from a customer who is upset, remembering a name, or noticing that someone's face is saying something their words are not. Those things open one page at a time, and they only open for someone who is actually in the room.

The job of a trainer, a teacher or a mentor is not to take the screen away, because the speed and fluency young leaders bring are real strengths that most organizations badly need. The job is to teach the turn, which means showing them, patiently and in person, the slower skills that no device is ever going to teach them.

There is a quiet irony in where this happened, because the whole point of the book that little girl was holding is to "Be Where Your Feet Are", and she was the one who reminded me that presence is something we have to model before anyone can learn it.

Three Things to Try This Week:

Watch the swipe first. The next time a newer team member handles something differently than you would, ask them to walk you through why they did it that way before you correct anything, because there is almost always logic underneath it, and understanding that logic will make your coaching land instead of bounce.
Turn the page where they can see it. When you have your next difficult conversation with a customer or a colleague, in person or by phone, bring a younger team member along if it is appropriate, and talk with them afterward about what you noticed in the room and why you chose not to handle it by email.
Hand them the book. Pick one message this week that you would normally send by email because it carries bad news or real feeling, deliver it face to face or by voice instead, and then invite someone you are mentoring to do the same with one message of their own.

Don't get frustrated that they swipe, and teach them what is worth turning the page for.

Somewhere on your team this week, someone is going to swipe at something that only opens when you turn it.

Who is watching you closely enough to learn how, and what are you showing them?

Most People Don't... But YOU Do!

Bart

P.S. If there is a little one in your life who could use a book worth turning, Plum's first story, "Be Where Your Feet Are", is available now at bartaberkey.com/most-gorillas-dont-but-youre-not-most-gorillas.

YOUR TURN!
I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

Who is watching you closely enough to learn how, and what are you showing them?

Somewhere on your team this week, someone is going to swipe at something that only opens when you turn it. Who is going to show them how?

Your input & story might end up on stage helping someone too.

Please click reply and share your thoughts with me.

Thank you, I read every one!

Meet Plum

Learning that being different is a gift