Building Critical Thinkers: Translating Parenting Wisdom into Workplace Coaching

Hello All,

I had a conversation recently about the difference between rules and guidance, and realized that my thinking on this was quite different from the thinking of the other person's.
I see these as distinct, they were seeing these as the same, just dressed up with different words. One pretending not to be a rule.

But I truly think that these are different. And that reminded me of some of the common sayings we use at home and at work with children and with colleagues.
With children, I've certainly used this phrase "be careful" without providing any useful details that could help a child actually be safe, until I learned better phrases such as the ones covered in this image.
I saved this image years ago, but still go back to it as a reminder regularly.

And then I wondered, what would this look like in the workplace? I put that very question to Google in AI mode, and here is the result:

My prompt: "locate a workplace example for a supervisor or coworker that corresponds to this image of language instructions for parents." and then my followup " provide the source for your response" gave me the following information to share with you.

"Instead of telling a team member to "be careful" or "don't make a mistake," supervisors and coworkers can use language that builds situational awareness and prompts proactive problem-solving.

Help Your Team Foster Situational Awareness by Saying:

• Notice how... the client reacts to that pricing, the system logs spike during deployment.
• Do you see... the conflict in these project requirements, the bottleneck in this workflow?
• Try adjusting... your presentation speed, the testing parameters, the communication frequency.
• Try leveraging your... data analysis, past campaign templates, cross-functional partners.
• Can you track... the shifting market trends, the negative user feedback, the scope creep?
• Do you feel... confident in this timeline, aligned with the broader stakeholder group?

Help Your Team Problem-Solve by Saying:

• What's your plan... if the vendor misses the deadline, if the server goes offline?
• What can you use... to automate this manual process, to back up your hypothesis?
• Where will you... document these compliance risks, allocate the remaining budget?
• How will you... address the executive pushback, scale this feature next quarter?
• Who will... sign off on the final budget, support you if you hit a roadblock?

The workplace examples provided in the previous response are an original, direct adaptation of the parenting framework shown in your image.

Framework Source
The original graphic and language framework, "What to Say to Kids Instead of 'Be Careful!'", was created by author and blogger Linda Akeson McGurk for the website Backwoods Mama. Her guide focuses on fostering risk-awareness, physical competence, and autonomous problem-solving in children during outdoor play.

Workplace Adaptation
Because there is no official corporate version of this exact infographic, the previous response translated McGurk's core structural categories directly into professional management equivalents:

• "Foster Awareness" was mapped to "Situational Awareness & Risk Assessment" in the workplace (monitoring workflows, deployment logs, and client reactions instead of slippery rocks or poison ivy).
• "Problem Solve" was mapped to "Proactive Contingency Planning" (planning for missed vendor deadlines or feature scaling instead of navigating climbing boulders or crossing logs).

This translation aligns with modern agile management, coaching methodologies, and psychological safety practices where leaders are encouraged to ask open-ended, active-learning questions rather than issuing vague, anxiety-inducing warnings like "don't mess up."

I hope this is useful information, and would love to hear from you if you think it is...and if you think it isn't!

All the best,
Holly

Knowing What Can Wait: managing Energy, Priorities, and Summer Zucchini

Hello all,

This week...it's hot and humid!

While I am busy at work, and getting through my daily checklists, and participating in my library's AI July professional development with gusto...I'm also taking it a bit easy the moment I get done work.
Pick up my dad's groceries...of course.
Go to Wednesday night trivia with my retired library peeps...yes, I can do that.
Repaint the hallway...nope.
Extra chores...nope.
Garden projects...nope.
I'm just expending the required minimum distributions of energy. Remembering that there will be time later for things that aren't both important and urgent.

And I hope that you are saving your energy for the important things also.
Try The Eisenhower Matrix, (also referred to as Urgent-Important Matrix) technique or others you've heard of to get through a draining week or month.

Finally, in case you have a vegetable garden or CSA share, here's some super Zucchini recipes from Jim Wilson/The New York Times:

"Our Best Zucchini Recipes
Zucchini is summer’s gift. Embrace it with simple grilled zucchini, crunchy fried zucchini, ever-popular zucchini bread and all the options in between."

View the recipes.

All the best,
Holly

From Students to Staff: What Do We Need to Thrive?

Hello all,

I recently worked with a few librarian colleagues to plan a library orientation for our summer EOP students, always a fun, smart group of young students.

Our plan focused around giving them a headstart on the fall semester with important knowledge about the library services, spaces, and staff who are all here to help them achieve at their best level. We created a brief study preferences survey designed to break the ice and get them thinking about what they needed in order to be successful academic students, so that we could then highlight all the different ways the library meets a wide variety of student needs. We also asked questions about their research experiences and ways they like to get help.

That started my thinking about what all of us need in order to achieve at our best level as employees. What do I need? What do you need? What does your colleague need?

If SUNY employees are like SUNY students, (and I know I am), we need a variety of different resources at different times. Knowing what's available to you is the foundation of being able to draw on those resources when you need them. And summer is a great time to do a little exploration of your campus landscape of resources. Career resources, mental health resources, upskilling resources, physical health resources, and so much more are available to most of us.

So, what do you need to be successful in your next challenge? What resources are around you that could help make that happen? Like students needing to know about library services, spaces, and staff, we need to know about SUNY services, spaces, and staff that are here to help us thrive.

Take a look around your campus and talk with your colleagues about strategies and tactics they have used to get where they are, and map out your own network for success.

All the best,
Holly

Picturing Life and Liberty for All

Hello All,

We know that "a picture is worth a thousand words", and art can reach us on levels that other communications fail to do.

This week I'm sharing a link to a series of three posters created in 2017 as part of a campaign to highlight how few women (about 23 %) were part of the workforce in Egypt at the time.

These stunning posters are part of a larger collection focused on Women's Rights as Human Rights. In particular, look at Finding women in [technology / politics / science] shouldn’t be this hard.

Only 23%.

That's not much below where we are now with women in technology in the U.S., with some variation in industry sectors.

Not enough, not proportional, not fulfilling the promise of a country where all are guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

As you celebrate our nation's independence, consider how we can make those words from our Declaration of Independence ever more real for women.

Thanks for everything you do,

All the best, Holly

Navigating the Terrain of the Moment

Hello all,

This week’s post is about the fluidity of effort and the value of clear goals.

I’ve been taking some short hikes this past week. Each time the effort has seemed different; alternatively hard, challenging, frustrating, easy, or glorious. Our Adirondack mountain hikes are buggy, muddy, rocky, steep and occasionally gentle with glorious views and lovely little running streams. So the terrain of the moment certainly influences how I am feeling, and whether I can breathe or need to stop and recover.

I’m doing this because I have a goal. Later in July I want to redo one of the 46 official High Peaks, this time along with my youngest grandson who will turn eight at the end of this month. I haven’t hiked an Adirondack High Peak in probably 20 years, so I’m trying to get stronger in preparation for that.

I'll be 20 years older and certainly slower when I do that hike in July, but I'll also be smarter and better equipped (looking at you waterproof hiking boots!). I'll be using hiking poles on the downhills to protect my knees, and I've learned the value of taking snack and drink breaks instead of pushing through till the top of the mountain like I used to do. I'll be a different person really, so it will be a different hike.

My goal, to be able to share that experience with my grandson, and hopefully set him on a lifetime path of loving the mountains, is one that means a lot to me. So I'll keep training.

Why am I telling all of you this?
Because our work lives and careers often take the same meandering paths as my hikes. And one day at work can be very different from the next day. Things that seemed easy two years ago might seem hard right now. Learning something new might seem more effortful this Wednesday than it did last Friday. A project that you could finish in a month years ago might take three months now because there are so many more customer considerations or integrations or approvals or procurement reviews. Things don't stay the same. Your relationships with your coworkers could seem more challenging or more glorious from week to week, and that is our lives, my friends. That is our lives.

It helps to keep focused on the goals. When we don't understand the goals, or don't believe in the goals every effort feels hard. When we know and are aligned with the goals most of us can push through those challenging times and really appreciate the easier times when we are making visible progress. When you are able to set your own goals, or collaboratively help shape the goals, well that's even more powerful.

So when you're the leader, make sure your team really gets the vision and goals. And when you're the team member, make sure you can get behind the goals.
Work can still be hard, but it might not feel as hard.

All the best,
Holly