The Seven Essential Life Skills, With Ellen Galinsky | Big Think Mentor | Big Think
The Seven Essential Life Skills, With Ellen Galinsky
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ELLEN GALINSKY:
Ellen Galinsky, President and Co-Founder of Families and Work Institute (FWI) helped establish the field of work and family life while at Bank Street College of Education, where she was on the faculty for twenty-five years. Her more than forty-five books and reports include the best selling Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs, Ask The Children, the now classic The Six Stages of Parenthood and the highly acclaimed Workflex: The Essential Guide to Effective and Flexible Workplaces. She has published over 125 articles in academic journals, books and magazines. At the Institute, Ms. Galinsky co-directs the National Study of the Changing Workforce, the most comprehensive nationally representative study of the U.S. workforce—updated every five years and originally conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor in the 1977. She also co-directs When Work Works, a project on workplace flexibility and effectiveness first funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that has produced a series of research papers, and has launched the Sloan Awards as well as conducted the National Study of Employers, a nationally representative study that has tracked trends in employment benefits, policies and practices since 1998. Information from FWI’s research has been reported in the media more than three times a day since January 2010. In 2011, the Society for Human Resource Management and the Families and Work Institute formed a ground-breaking, multi-year partnership that takes When Work Works out to businesses around the country.
At FWI, Mind in the Making projects include professional development for early childhood educators, interactive learning opportunities for families, 0 – 8 systems building within the Community Schools context, a video series that highlights cutting edge early childhood research, the development of materials for pediatricians, and small grants to diverse learning community partners. Mind in the Making has sold more than 100,000 copies and had more than 1.5 billion media impressions since April 2010. A leading authority on work family issues, Ms. Galinsky was a presenter at the 2000 White House Conference on Teenagers and the 1997 White House Conference on Child Care. She was a planner and participant at the March 2010 White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility and worked with the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor on the Regional Forums on flexibility that continued the work of the White House Forum. She served as the elected President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the largest professional group of early childhood educators. Ellen Galinsky is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2004 Distinguished Achievement Award from Vassar College. She was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources in 2005.
A popular keynote speaker, she appears regularly at national conferences, on television and in the media, including the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, World News Tonight and Oprah. Ms. Galinsky holds a Master of Science degree in Child Development/Education from Bank Street College of Education, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Child Study from Vassar College and numerous honorary doctoral degrees.
Ms. Galinsky is also a photographer. The latest shows of her photography were at the New York Hall of Science (2006 and 2012), UMA Gallery in New York City (2004 and 2007), RiverWinds Gallery in Beacon, New York (2008), GaGa in Rockland County, New York (2009), Blue Door in Yonkers, New York (2012) and Upstream Gallery in Dobbs Ferry, New York (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013). Ellen Galinsky is married to artist Norman Galinsky, and they are the parents of two grown children: Philip, an ethnomusicologist and founder-director of Samba New York—an inspiring new performance group—and Lara, Senior Vice President at Echoing Green—whose mission is to unleash the next generation of talent to solve the world’s biggest problems—and co-author of Be Bold and author of Work on Purpose.
@bigthink
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
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@PoetlaureateNFDL
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
This is a cool video.
@guru_laghima
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
Although I like being reminded fo these essential skills once in a while, I bet most of us have coe to the same conclusions in their life. But we still fail to be proactive persons. Why is that? I think that is because there is a difference between knowing what you need to do, knowing how to do it, and actually doing it. That discrepancy is huge in some people(me).
@andreatsmartanderson
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
Going to share this with my students this fa'13.
@ThanosSofroniou
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
How simple non-genius my mind understood this:
1. Motivation, 2. Be Moral, 3. Share opinions and thoughts with people, 4. Make friends, 5. Don't believe what anyone is telling you but rather what makes sense to you, 6. Get out of your comfort zone, 7. Don't wait for others to pop knowledge into your head, you have to put it yourself.
@timlombardini3556
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
Very informative.
@trustplanet
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
How can I learn more?
@sammyfirst6788
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
If you are the leader of a big company, then any good ideas benefit you and your company. You would not have to worry about being replaced if you own the company and the power. Your word is what it comes down to. Bedsides with the market and world always changing, if you rely solely on your own idea's for the business, you would surely fall behind at some point. Its all about taking the good idea's for the workers and give them nothing for all the money you make off it.
@rickackerly
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
This is your best expression of this most critical work. I just embedded it in today's post Thank you.
@rickackerly
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
I love your book, and refer to your excellent articulation of what the ends of education are (or should be), I love your story about what motivated your research, because it it provided the precisely correct focus for those who think education ought to change. It is shockingly eloquent that elementary kids say they don't like learning, when they mean they don't like school.
Your work is of critical importance and this particular YouTube is your best expression, yet. Thank you.
@markmotarker
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
sounds like a very honest work, accurate!
@TheBackwoodLink
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
The business community doesn't want thinkers, they want doers. Do what they tell you or hit the highway. The handful of people holding the knowledge and the power would rather hide behind the curtain of rule than allow their subordinates to offer up an idea or suggestion that would make them look inferior or pose the possibility of their replacement. In other words, everyone is only looking out for themselves.
@reallycoolgal
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
Teaching Focus and Self-Control on Youtube, the Kingdom of Procrastination.
@1rabid12
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
Watched it, didn't listen but for a few seconds– didn't want to be put to sleep (not a snide comment, always fell asleep in school). What I saw was confidence, sincerity, and a belief in her topic. Her presentation was calming and provided a warm, cozy feeling. She has a nice convincing smile. That she's kinda cute was a good thing too. She married?
@robcarlos3005
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
GOOD INSIGHT and its true!
@BoldrepublicRadioShow
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
This video is worth watching more than once.
@Luoshe
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
I wanna read her book now…
@Kvltklassik
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
Why so many dislikes…
@lakshmanankomathmanalath
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
great.
@AntiGravityC9
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
That elevator thing in 1 minute seems like something an intelligent movie character would do well.
@HallmarkJD
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
Spending less time on Youtube and the internet in general may help.
@johnparrot9
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
Smart and pretty. Can we get more of those?
@cazforlife
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
this is cool im in a class. studying some of the very thing she's talking about
@Kaufman17
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
Love this!
@Cruuzie
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
Good stuff
@henrypinkney5686
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
okay so here's how I'm doing by these 7.
1. good.
2. good.
3. FUCK >:(
4. not good.
5. good.
6. good.
7. good.
If it weren't for communication, I might just be a normal person. Unfortunately, years of shutting myself in my room and going on the internet and not having real life friends has taking its toll.
@ElectricIguana
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
1. Focus and Self Control
2. Perspective Taking (understanding how others think)
3. Communicating
4. Making Connections (Creatively)
5. Critical Thinking
6. Taking on Challenges
7. Self Directed, Engaged, Learning
@koopk1
February 18, 2026 at 4:29 am
It amazes me how poor most people are at all 7 of these areas.
Comments are closed.