THE  ONE MINUTE APOLOGY:  A Powerful Way to Make Things Better: Ken Blanchard, Margret McBride
- - A SUMMARY by Jason Young

I ask myself the following questions, and answer truthfully:

·         What mistake did I make?
·         Did I dismiss another person, their wishes, feelings, or ideas?
·         Did I take credit when it wasn’t due?
·         Why did I do this?
·         Was it an impulsive, thoughtless act? Was it calculated? Was it a result of my fear, anger, or frustration? What was my motivation?
·         How long have I let this go on? Is this the first or repeated time? Is this behavior becoming a pattern in my life?
·         What is the truth I am not dealing with?
·         Am I better than this behavior?

Then I do the following:

Begin with surrender…
·         I am truthful and admit to myself that I’ve done something wrong and need to make up for it.
·         I take full responsibility for my actions and sincerely recognize the need to apologize to anyone I have harmed, regardless of the outcome.
·         I have a sense of urgency about apologizing-I act as soon as possible.
·         I tell anyone harmed specifically what I did wrong.
·         I share how I feel about what I did with those harmed

I complete with integrity…
·         I recognize what I did is inconsistent with who I want to be.
·         I reaffirm I am better than my poor behavior and forgive myself.
·         I recognize how much I have hurt another person by making amends and demonstrate my commitment not to repeat the act by changing my behavior.

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