The security guard couldn’t hear Beth Williams over the screeching alarm. LED strobe lights danced up and down the powder-blue and pastel-pink walls of the Cub House day-care center. The guard moved to block Maria Sanchez from walking toward a classroom to pick up her daughter. He extended his arm toward her chest. Maria looked frightened, and Beth, Cub House’s founder and director, was horrified. She rushed to the guard and hissed, “She’s fine!” directly into his ear. She then took out her phone and typed a few numbers, and the alarm and lights stopped. A piano resumed playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in a classroom down the hall.
A version of this article appeared in the November–December 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review.