I recently came across two unrelated articles\u2014back to back\u2014that created an unexpected connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first, sent to me by my wife, summarized research led by Boston College psychologist Peter Gray, published in The Journal of Pediatrics (2023). It pointed to something many of us recognize intuitively: children in the 1960s and 1970s, given more unstructured and unsupervised time, often developed resilience by solving problems on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second article reported on Catherine, Princess of Wales, and her comments about the difficulty of adjusting to a \u201cnew normal\u201d following cancer treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Different contexts. Different stakes. But the same underlying challenge: how do you adjust when the conditions around you have fundamentally changed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the workplace, this question shows up more often than we admit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A manager changes. A team restructures. Expectations shift\u2014sometimes quietly, without clear direction. What once worked no longer does. The instinct is to double down on familiar approaches: communicate the same way, escalate the same way, rely on the same patterns that worked before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when the environment has changed\u2014even slightly\u2014unthinkingly repeating past behavior isn\u2019t consistency\u2014it\u2019s potential misalignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another signal is often overlooked: the internal sense that something is \u201coff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These early warning signs are frequently dismissed as overthinking or being overly cautious. But in many cases, they are the first indicators that expectations, boundaries, or risks have shifted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Situational Discernment<\/strong> requires noticing these signals\u2014then testing them against what can be observed, rather than ignoring them or reacting to them blindly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This matters because change rarely announces itself clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In modern workplaces, disruption is often persistent rather than episodic, with shifting expectations becoming the norm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Situational Discernment is the ability to recognize when the rules\u2014spoken or unspoken\u2014have shifted, and to adjust accordingly. It\u2019s not just about adapting. It\u2019s about interpreting what the situation now requires, even when that requirement isn\u2019t clearly defined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A \u201cnew normal\u201d isn\u2019t simply a return to stability. It\u2019s a new set of constraints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Misreading those constraints can create friction, damage credibility, and escalate conflict without intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What feels like persistence may be perceived as resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What feels like clarity may be interpreted as escalation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What feels like fairness may be dismissed as inflexibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over time, this gap between intent and perception erodes credibility\u2014and once credibility is questioned, even well-intended actions can be ignored or resisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The real challenge isn\u2019t change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s recognizing what the change actually demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Start there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How do you recognize when the environment has changed\u2014and what that change actually requires? Situational Discernment begins with noticing the signals most people ignore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,11,10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-framework-validation","category-leadership-power","category-practical-scenarios","category-situational-analysis","category-workplace-conflict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcl-associates.com\/RIWYB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcl-associates.com\/RIWYB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcl-associates.com\/RIWYB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcl-associates.com\/RIWYB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcl-associates.com\/RIWYB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mcl-associates.com\/RIWYB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":411,"href":"https:\/\/mcl-associates.com\/RIWYB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions\/411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcl-associates.com\/RIWYB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcl-associates.com\/RIWYB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcl-associates.com\/RIWYB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcl-associates.com\/RIWYB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}