Planners’ Picks — March 3, 2026
Tomorrow is March Forth — something we’ve talked about before. A chance for you to move the needle, make progress, and elevate your leadership.
How will you March Forth this week?
:: Image of the Week
:: CSN’s Book of the Week Recommendation
Distancing: How Great Leaders Reframe to Make Better Decisions
In Turn the Ship Around!, lauded by USA Today as one of the 12 best business books of all time, former nuclear submarine captain David Marquet told the story of creating a thinking team that transformed the worst-performing submarine into the best in the fleet. The second book, Leadership Is Language, delved into the transformative power of shifting from Industrial Age language to intent-based communication, enabling teams to think and act like leaders.
Now comes book 3 in the Trilogy.
What if there was a way to instantly see your reality with the clarity of a coach – unencumbered by the baggage of you being you?
In Distancing, bestselling author and former submarine captain David Marquet (Turn the Ship Around!) and psychology professor Michael Gillespie introduce a powerful solution: distancing. This simple but underused superpower lets us step outside ourselves to see with clarity and decide with wisdom.
Through three practices—Be Someone Else, Be Somewhere Else, Be Sometime Else—we adopt the perspective of a coach, view our situation from afar, or become our wiser future self. Each unlocks instant insight, reduces anxiety, and improves judgment.
Blending science, stories, and practical tools, Distancing equips us to rise above ego and emotion, cut through bias, and make choices we’ll be proud of—in leadership, in life, and for the long term.
“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer
:: Change Management
The Six C’s Required of Modern Talent
Today like never before we are living in a world of rapid transformation and change. New industries rise and fall and the inter-connected unstoppable forces of globalization, demographic change and technology twist and toss all of us. In this landscape how do we train talent or hone our own skills? What will remain relevant and in demand in an age of shorter and shorter half-lives of firms and business models?
Six key skills will be essential in the future. Three of these have to do with the individual (Cognition, Creativity, Curiosity) and three on how we connect with each other and the world outside our minds including working with Agentic employees and AI Tools (Collaborate, Communicate, Convince).
- Cognition is simply learning to think and keeping our mental operating system constantly upgraded. This requires deliberate practice and sustained work. Improved cognition is achievable.
- Creativity is connecting dots in new ways, looking beyond the obvious and this skill will be key as AI powered computers, data crunch and co-relate faster than we ever will. To be human is to be creative. Creativity as vividly described by Sir John Hegarty is “an expression of oneself”.
- Curiosity is simply being alive to possibilities, questioning the status quo and asking two questions. What If ? And Why Not ? Today the key competitor or opportunity in any category comes from outside it. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but the lack of curiosity may kill the the careers of many people.
Being cognitively gifted, creative and curious will not be enough since we are living in a connected world where eco-systems, teams and linkages are how ideas are born, value created, and long-term careers forged. It is a world where we will need to combine with five types of employees in a firm ( Full-time, Freelance, Contract, Fractionalized and Agentic). To do so we will need to hone, build and train for three other skills:
- Collaborate: Collaboration is key to work in a world where API’s (Application Protocol Interfaces) and MCP’s (Machine Context Protocols) are not just about handshakes or conversations between technology but also between individuals with different skills, teams in different countries, partners, suppliers and much more.
- Communicate: Learn to write. Learn to speak. Learn to present. It may be so old school but watch the people who succeed, and they are good at communication. And all of these can be taught and learned.
- Convince: Every one of us is a salesperson regardless of what we believe our title is. This is true even if we do not sell anything at work. We have to convince colleagues of our points of view. We have to convince our partners to join us on our life journey. Learn to convince and learn to sell. Story telling is a key.
From Rishad Tobaccowala’s weekly newsletter
:: Connection
Leading with Love using the LACE Way: Listening, Accountability, Collaboration, Empathy
- The question isn’t whether you hear them; it’s about whether they feel heard.
- Fear of making mistakes sometimes makes people hide them from leadership, whereas accountability and psychological safety in teams allows members to step up and do the right thing.
- We all need collaboration to be successful, and yet so many leaders think they have to have all of the answers.
- Empathy is about leading with humanity, even in the midst of deadlines and targets to hit. Change how your team feels about going the extra mile!
Listen to the LACE Way on this 8 minute recording from Simon Phillips for some more details on creating space for others to participate in the decisions and successes of your work area.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3cgEOSTaZSHYtiQh7Gj3fd?si=nIhhQ-MGTbakg811Z-Livw
:: Developing Better Habits
Time is the wildcard
There are two feet of snow blocking your car from the road. This is a problem. Except it’s not a problem if you don’t need to leave the house for a few days—the snow will melt on its own. And it’s not a problem if you had decided to move to the island of Saba a few years ago. It never snows there.
Traffic on the way to an important meeting is only a problem because we didn’t leave twenty minutes earlier. The rent that’s hard to cover after a vacation—same thing. The real world feels like the source of our problems. But our decisions over time might be the actual culprits, hiding in the corner.
Instead of treating time as a given and the real world as an impediment, what happens if we accept the real world and make different decisions about time?
From Seth Godin’s Blog: seths.blog/2026/02/time-is-the-wildcard/
Just Show Up
Your life is shaped by what you do every day when nobody is watching. The secret comes down to three words: just show up.
See Dan Pink’s 60-second video on this habit: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danielpink_your-life-is-shaped-by-what-you-do-every-activity-7424463976257777665-bGC5
:: Communication
Listening is not a technique, but a way to build trust
As professionals, listening well extends beyond basic active listening and should include intentional presence, understanding and genuine engagement, writes Courtney Barthle with ICF. Rather than treating listening as a set of techniques, leaders must listen to understand lived experiences and create space for honest dialogue, which can uncover barriers and build trust, Barthle writes.
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists. Not so good when people obey and acclaim him; worst when they despise him. If you do not trust the people, you make them untrustworthy. The good leader talks little. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, the people say, “We did it ourselves.” “ – Lao Tzu
:: Self-Leadership Development
The 3 Types of Failure and How to Bounce Back
What if the very thing you’re trying hardest to avoid is actually the doorway to becoming unshakable?
In this episode of Becoming Unshakable, Heather Younger sits down with Amy C. Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor and the researcher who introduced the world to the idea of psychological safety. Her work has shaped how leaders and teams think about trust, learning, and performance for decades. When it comes to failure and resilience at work, Amy isn’t just part of the conversation. She helped start it.
In this conversation, they explore one of the most powerful ideas from her latest research: not all failures are the same.
For years, most of us have heard one of two messages. Either failure is unacceptable… or we should “fail fast and fail often.”
Amy offers something much more grounded.
She explains that there are three distinct types of failure:
- Basic failures that can and should be prevented
- Complex failures that come from systems, uncertainty, and multiple factors
- Intelligent failures — thoughtful experiments in new territory that help us grow, innovate, and build resilience
And here’s the part that really makes you think: If you’re not experiencing some intelligent failures, you’re probably playing it too safe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GdSxLt6UKo
Why Leaders Need to Take Play Seriously
Play isn’t just for children; it’s a survival skill for creativity, resilience and innovation.
We often imagine the lives of our palaeolithic ancestors as an unrelenting struggle, but the very existence of cave art suggests that at least some of them could focus on making meaning beyond necessity. So what drove them? Was it sacred ritual, primitive science or early performance art? It might have been something more fundamental: the simple human urge to play.
Play is easily dismissed as frivolous. It’s seen as childhood’s domain or as neatly parcelled weekend leisure. But evolution says otherwise. Play is older than civilisation itself. Far from being a cultural garnish, it is our evolutionary inheritance.
Psychologists value play because through it, we learn not just to survive but to be. Today, however, play is treated like dessert, viewed as a reward after “real” work. But perhaps it’s the opposite. Perhaps play is the real work and the true birthplace of creativity, empathy and innovation.
https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/why-leaders-need-take-play-seriously
“Art is the highest form of hope.” – Gerhard Richter
The Invisible Rules Women Leaders Are Still Expected to Follow
There are rules women leaders are expected to follow. They’re not written down. They’re rarely spoken out loud. But they are felt — in meetings, in performance reviews, in who gets listened to and who gets labelled “too much.”
Most women don’t learn these rules formally. They absorb them. Through raised eyebrows. Through subtle feedback. Through silence when they speak — and praise when they soften.
And the cost of following these invisible rules? It’s enormous. See keynote speaker Sonia McDonald’s article on these rules, and how to break them tactfully.
:: Trust, Psychological Safety & Belonging
How to Have Hard Conversations That Strengthen Trust
If you’re putting off a hard conversation, it’s probably not because you’re weak. It’s because you care.
But here’s the leadership reality: avoiding it doesn’t protect trust — it erodes it.
If you feel the tension, your team — and whoever you’re in conflict with — probably does too. They already notice the misalignment. They already know something isn’t being said. And they’re waiting on you.
When leaders avoid what’s hard, teams don’t feel secure. They feel stressed.
If you want to be a steady leader people follow because they want to — not just because they have to — you must know how to navigate hard conversations in a way that builds trust instead of breaking it.
Below is a practical framework you can use to turn a difficult moment into a stronger connection.
“The human soul does not want to be fixed, it wants simply to be seen and heard.” – Parker Palmer
Trust Is Not a Title
Trust is not something we can simply declare. It is something other people decide, over time, based on their experience.
Over the years, I have often been introduced to professional advisers who described themselves as “trusted advisers.” Each time, it jarred. Not because trust doesn’t matter – it most certainly does – but because they had already decided it was their label.
The phrase ‘trusted adviser’ skips the very mechanism that makes trust real. You don’t appoint yourself to it. You are either treated that way, or you aren’t. To bring it even closer to home, just because you are related to someone, or had a friendship for many years, trust can not be assumed or be unconditional.
Trust emerges from behavior, not words or positioning. It is built from consistency, not credentials. It is what happens when things are uncertain, uncomfortable, or inconvenient.
When someone labels themselves as trusted, they are usually trying to signal reassurance. But the signal can backfire and can collapse a relationship-based outcome into a self-assigned identity, and in doing so, quietly erode credibility.
Real trust is asymmetric. It lives with the person on the receiving end of it, not the adviser, not the leader, not a family member or friend. It shows up in what is shared, what is withheld, and who gets called when something actually matters.
The paradox is this:
The more someone needs to say they are trusted, the less likely it is that trust is already present.
So in summary, do the work and let trust speak for itself.
From Dani Saveker at https://glasmethod.com/leaps-blog
:: Mental Health and Self-Care
How to Rest Well
Taking a break isn’t lazy – learning to recharge is a skill that will allow you to enjoy a more creative, sustainable life.
Downtime is undervalued in today’s busy, always-on world. But for most of human history, rest – time in which we can recharge the mental and physical batteries we use while labouring – was prized as a gift. To Aristotle, work was drudgery and necessity; only in leisure could we cultivate our mental and moral abilities, and become better people.
Today, though, it’s become commonplace to think of work and rest as opposites. Work is active and valuable: it’s where we prove our worth and create a legacy. Busyness is a badge of honour, even a sign of moral superiority. Rest, in contrast, is often treated as if it’s passive and pointless.
We should not regard work and rest as opposites, but partners. Each supports and justifies the other. Each provides things that every person needs. You won’t fully flourish unless you master both work and rest.
https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-rest-well-and-enjoy-a-more-creative-sustainable-life
:: Upcoming Events
New LTD Series: Supervision and Management Mastermind Exchange
Do you wish you could share challenges with a committed group of colleagues and brainstorm solutions? Managing and supervising are such important jobs, and it can be lonely sometimes. Here is an opportunity to build a space to discuss real situations in a structured way.
You can expect a peer-supported collaborative environment that will be highly interactive, including small group activities and discussions. Participants will share challenges and work together to problem-solve, share perspectives, brainstorm, innovate, and network.
This is a committed group for a short time. Attendance and participation are required for each session. If this pilot series is successful, more will be offered in the future.
Sessions: Five total that are held every other Thursday
Dates: March 12, March 26, April 9, April 23, and May 7
Time: 9 – 9:50 a.m.
Location: 21 N. Park St. Rm 5045 (in person)
Ready to sign up? Complete the interest form by March 5th. Note: To access the interest form, you must be logged into Google with your campus NetID.
Please email ltdsupervisordevelopment@ohr.wisc.edu with any questions.
Leadership Improv with CSN
We’re doing it again! Through a variety of fun, engaging activities, Amanda and Jason from IT Connects will demonstrate how improvisational comedy skills can help supervisors work through difficult situations with staff and peers, as well as practice leadership skills in a light-hearted and low-risk environment.
No comedy or improv skills necessary; we just ask that you bring your willingness to be curious and open to trying new things.
Date: Thursday, March 19, 2026
Time: 2:00-3:15 pm
Location: 1210 W. Dayton St. (DoIT), Room 3139