Planners’ Picks — July 9, 2024

Planners’ Picks  A collection of resources from CSN planning committee members worth mentioning

We’re back from the holiday weekend and ready to dig in (or shovel out?). Let’s motivate the team, listen more, and build challenger safety in our workplaces this week. Remember to check out our Summer of Celebrations page and submit an entry on our Celebrations Wall!

 

*Note: Don’t fret if you can’t get to all of these resources! You can choose one or two that interest you if you’re short on time.

:: Image of the Week

Radical Candor: 
"Communication is measured at the listener's ear, not the speaker's mouth." - Kim Scott

This week’s image reflects on one of the core insights from ‘Radical Candor’ — the CSN summer book club selection: True communication isn’t just about speaking—it’s about ensuring our words are truly heard. Understanding begins not at the speaker’s mouth but at the listener’s ear.

 

:: Work Culture & Team Development

Catch People Doing Something Right – 4 Ways to Build Workplace Morale

Creating a workplace culture that breeds high morale and engagement doesn’t happen by accident. It requires leadership – wise, empathetic, discerning, thoughtful, strategic, and caring leadership. And it’s a leadership you can’t fake. It has to flow from the ethos of who you are as a person.

Read these recommendations from Randy Conley, based on information from Ken Blanchard, a man who knows a thing or two about leadership. Along with his wife Margie, he has created a leadership development company that embodies several principles of a high engagement culture. In the traditional Blanchard style, Randy took some complex issues of morale and engagement and tried to crystallize them into simple truths that all leaders can use to build morale in their organizations.

https://leadingwithtrust.com/2014/06/22/catch-people-doing-something-right-4-ways-to-build-workplace-morale/

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman

Motivate Your Team by Using Autonomy, Trust and Empowerment

Empowerment is a basic motivational need. It revolves around freedom of choice, trust, engendering commitment and accountability, and people’s ability to employ their unique talents. After we’ve set team purpose and learned about each of our people—including their ambitions, concerns, talents, frustrations, and experience—we increase our chances of reaching team goals by allowing our people discretion in how to accomplish them.

Motivation via providing a greater sense of ownership and autonomy is an important aspect of empowerment. Read this short article to learn more about motivating your team.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/motivate-your-team-using-autonomy-trust-empowerment-william-schirmer/

 

:: Mental Health and Self-Care

Try the 5-3-1 Practice

The 5-3-1 Practice from the Center for Healthy Minds is a set of informal tips to cultivate well-being. Scientist and Center Founder Richard Davidson and Clinical Psychologist Shilagh Mirgain brought well-being to the Today Show workplace on its segment on happiness. Mirgain shared the 5-3-1 Practice, originally developed in partnership with well-being workplace facilitator Jill McDermott.

https://centerhealthyminds.org/join-the-movement/try-the-5-3-1-practice

Jump Back Up July with Action For Happiness

Action for Happiness publishes a calendar each month with a theme. Jump Back Up July gets us going in the second half of the year to find ways to bounce back, move forward, and elevate our game. You can print it, or add it to your digital work calendar with a click. Look to subscribe to their newsletter for webcasts and other goodies too!

https://actionforhappiness.org/calendar

 

:: LinkedIn Learning

Active Listening for Better Leadership Communication

Even as new technologies have prompted radical changes in the world of work, basic interpersonal communication skills remain as critical as ever. In this course, join Heather Younger—the two-time best-selling author of The 7 Intuitive Laws of Employee Loyalty and The Art of Caring Leadership—as she details what active listening is, why it’s a critical skill for leaders, and how to optimize communication so your employees feel heard, valued, and understood.

Heather shares her five-step framework for active listening and explains how to discern passive listening from active listening, detect and respond to common nonverbal cues, and demonstrate curiosity and empathy when actively listening. She also shares specific tactics to help you become more present, expand your decision-making circle, and properly communicate the connection between team feedback and the actions you take based on that feedback. Tune in to take the first steps towards becoming a better listener and leader.

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/active-listening-for-better-leadership-communication/active-listening-the-key-leadership-skill?anchor=SOCIAL_PANEL&u=56745513

“Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.” – Jim Rohn  

 

:: Productivity and Innovation

Debunking 9 Common Productivity Myths: Reclaim Your Time and Focus

Are you on a constant quest for peak productivity? You’re not the only one. In today’s fast-paced world, it has become a continuous theme. As a result, we’re bombarded with tips, tricks, and tools that promise to unlock our hidden potential and transform us into lean, mean productivity machines. Despite this wealth of information, some myths have become deeply ingrained, hindering actual productivity.

In light of this, let’s dispel these nine common myths and promote a more realistic and sustainable approach to productivity.

https://www.calendar.com/blog/debunking-9-common-productivity-myths-reclaim-your-time-and-focus/

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently something that should not have been done at all”   – Peter Drucker

 

:: Self-Leadership Development

The Ripple Effect of Your Frontline Leaders: How They Can Accelerate Your Organizational Success

Have you ever tossed a stone into a pond and watched the ripples spread? That’s exactly what our frontline leaders do within our organization – they create waves of impact that reach far and wide. These leaders are essential to the success of our organizations, and honestly, it’s something we often underestimate.

Watch the replay of a recent webinar from Kevin Eikenberyy where he explored how frontline leaders shape our organization’s success. You’ll walk away with a solid action plan to enhance the ripple effect of your leadership. If you are looking to jumpstart the development of your leaders, or are stymied by your past efforts, this will be worth your time.

The Ripple Effect of Your Frontline Leaders: How They Can Accelerate Your Organizational Success

 

:: CSN’s Book of the Week Recommendation

How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

As #1 New York Times bestselling author David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.”

And yet we humans don’t do this well. All around us are people who feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us do better, posing questions that are essential for all of us: If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them? What kind of conversations should you have? What parts of a person’s story should you pay attention to?

Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity and his determination to grow as a person, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience and from the worlds of theater, philosophy, history, and education to present a welcoming, hopeful, integrated approach to human connection. How to Know a Person helps readers become more understanding and considerate toward others, and to find the joy that comes from being seen. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception.

The act of seeing another person, Brooks argues, is profoundly creative: How can we look somebody in the eye and see something large in them, and in turn, see something larger in ourselves? How to Know a Person is for anyone searching for connection, and yearning to be understood.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Know-Person-Seeing-Others/dp/059323006X

Watch this youtube video of David talking about parts of the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwENbKn3tqI

 

:: Communication

How to Build Challenger Safety

Do you feel like you can be candid about change? Challenger safety satisfies the basic human need to make things better. It embodies the support and confidence we need to ask questions such as, “Why do we do it this way?” “What if we tried this?” or “May I suggest a different way?”

As the highest level of psychological safety, challenger safety matches the increased vulnerability and personal risk associated with speaking up and offering a different point of view.

3 Ways to Build Challenger Safety:

  1. Respond to dissent constructively — Your positive emotional response to disruptive ideas and bad news indicates your high tolerance for candor. It will protect your people in their right to dissent.
  2. Reward shots on goal — Reward your team members with recognition and enthusiasm when they attempt to challenge the status quo. Not all ideas will have merit, but we want to see the quantity of shots increase.
  3. Weigh in last — Speaking first when you hold positional power softly censors your team. Listen carefully, acknowledge the contributions of others, and then register your point of view.

From the LeaderFactor weekly newsletter: https://www.leaderfactor.com/

 

:: Kindness in Leadership

Kindness 101: A Look at Leadership

Now to the series “Kindness 101,” where Steve Hartman and his children share stories built around kindness and character, and the people who’ve mastered those qualities. Today’s lesson is leadership. To find out what that means, Steve went to a skate park, where one middle school boy showed us what leadership with compassion looks like.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/kindness-101-a-look-at-leadership/

“Every act of kindness is a piece of love we leave behind.” – Paul Williams

 

:: Upcoming Events 

CSN’s ‘Summer of Celebrations’ Networking Events

>> Chazen Museum Self-Guided Tour

Celebrate the arts on campus! CSN members will meet at the Chazen Museum front entrance to enjoy a self-guided tour of some of their works, and network.

Date: July 18, 2024
Time: 10:30 am-12:00 pm
Registration Deadline: July 12
Register Here: https://go.wisc.edu/54imfu
More information about Chazen can be found at https://chazen.wisc.edu/

>> Allen Centennial Gardens Walking Tour

Celebrate nature and the outdoors! CSN members will meet at the Allen Centennial Gardens front entrance to enjoy a walking tour of some of the gardens, do some optional art projects and thank you note writing, and network. Note: dogs are welcome on a leash! Bring your furry workmate along.

Date: July 31, 2024
Time: 1:30-3:00 pm
Registration Deadline: July 30

Register Here: https://go.wisc.edu/3mr39m

More information about Allen Centennial Gardens can be found at https://allencentennialgarden.wisc.edu/plan-your-visit/

>> Babcock Dairy Tour and Tasting

Celebrate industry and discover dairy delights. Observe, indulge, and learn at Babcock Dairy! CSN members will meet at the Dairy Store for an observation experience to learn more about Babcock Dairy behind the scenes. We’ll visit the store for a treat* and head outside to enjoy it while we network and celebrate.

*A complimentary scoop of Babcock ice cream is included in this session!

Date: August 15, 2024
Time: 10:30-11:30 am
Registration Deadline: August 8

Register Here: https://go.wisc.edu/dw1ly6

More information about Babcock Dairy can be found at https://babcockdairystore.wisc.edu/observation-deck-tours/

Well Wisconsin: Hydrate Healthfully

Stay fully hydrated and feel your best this summer. Test your hydration knowledge with quiz questions in our webinar that explores why our bodies need water, safe sources of drinking water, signs of dehydration and tips for staying hydrated. Plus, we’ll demonstrate two recipes for refreshing beverages to help you stay hydrated this summer. We’ll also highlight Well Wisconsin resources that can help you feel happy, healthy and at home as you work toward well-being.

Mon, Jul 15, 2024
11:00 AM – 11:45 AM CDT

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/147590083882124891