Planners’ Picks — April 14, 2026
This week, we’ve been taxed with the challenge to overcome small challenges with resilience and grace. Let’s also listen better, create cultures of belonging, and demystify AI in our resources from the CSN planners.
:: Image of the Week
:: CSN’s Book of the Week Recommendation
The Twin Thieves: How Great Leaders Build Great Teams
Tired of underperforming in the biggest moments, the Westlake Aviators football team realizes their greatest challenge isn’t beating an opponent but rather rising above the Twin Thieves: the Fear of Failure and the Fear of Judgment. Through a journey of adversity, celebration, and heartbreak, the Aviators come to understand that great teams are built by great leaders.
This powerful story serves as a playbook for anybody in business, sports, education, or life looking to help a group of people maximize their potential.
Some things you will learn…
- How teams bonded by love build a toughness that fear never could.
- Why great leaders are great listeners.
- How connected teams are powerful teams.
- Why change is inevitable, but transformation is optional.
“Hope is not about knowing how things will turn out—it is moving forward in the face of uncertainty.” – Austin Kleon
:: Communication
7 Things Fabulous Listeners Do Differently
Listening is a bit like intelligence—most everyone thinks they’re above average, even though that’s impossible.
And listening is a skill you want to be great at. A recent study conducted at George Washington University showed that listening can influence up to 40% of a leader’s job performance. Travis Bradberry points out seven things good listeners focus on to excel in this area of leadership.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/7-things-fabulous-listeners-do-differently-travis-bradberry-0aihf
“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” — Nelson Mandela
Clarify Interests, Not Just Requests: The Secret to Better Collaboration
Want better outcomes at work? Start with this simple question:
Most people tell you what they want. It’s often harder for them to articulate why they want it. Here’s how to uncover what truly matters—clarify interests and build smarter outcomes in every conversation.
When someone makes a request, takes a stance, or digs in on an issue, it’s tempting to respond to what they say.
But behind every “I need this feature,” every “I can’t miss this deadline,” and every “This has to happen,” there’s something else: a pressure, a concern, a hope, a need.
Something they haven’t said—yet.
That’s where real clarity lives. And that’s the power of practicing the Clarify Others’ Interests habit.
https://letsgrowleaders.com/2026/03/30/clarify-interests-better-collaboration/
:: Mental Health and Self-Care
The Neuroscience of Flourishing: Four Practices for Turning Stress and Anxiety Into Clarity and Calm | Richard Davidson and Cortland Dahl
The Dalai Lama’s longtime collaborator on achieving fundamental okayness, transforming daily annoyances, and rewiring your brain.
Richard J. Davidson, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also the Founder & Director of the Center for Healthy Minds and Founder of the non-profit Humin.
Cortland Dahl, PhD, is a scientist, author, translator, and meditation teacher for the Tergar community.
Davidson and Dahl’s latest book is Born to Flourish. They also author the Substack newsletter, Dharma Lab.
In this episode we talk about:
- What it really means to flourish
- How difficult emotions like anxiety, fear, or grief can coexist with well-being
- Why flourishing is a trainable skill set, not a personality trait or a self-improvement project
- An introduction to the Healthy Minds Framework and its four pillars: awareness, connection, insight, and purpose
- Why short, informal “micro-practices” can be just as effective as formal meditation
- How to cultivate purpose
:: Creativity
Creativity and the Meaning of Work
Today we are experiencing a revolution in the workplace. Not only are institutions and huge conglomerates crumbling around us, our traditional ideas about work itself are dissolving. As a society we are undergoing a radical change in the way we think of work. We are starved for meaning and purpose in our lives, and with the breakdown in job security in the corporate world, we are no longer willing to separate our values from our work.
There is a yearning to align life purpose with work to make it meaningful. The Buddhists call this Dharma, spiritual work, the vehicle for Spirit to express its blessing. It is both inner work, remembering our true Self, and outer work, the expression of our unique talents and role in the evolution of humanity. Work is meaningful when we add to the quality of life to those around us. Work is a vehicle for our creations to be a blessing to the world.
Understanding the nature of creativity and how to develop it at the personal and organizational level will help us create the world we want. My vision is for the artists, mystics, scientists, and leaders in business to collaborate in using the convergence of science, technology, art, and spirituality to create a renaissance in the next millennium.
Read this article from Linda Naiman on incorporating creativity into the workplace.
https://www.creativityatwork.com/creativity-and-the-meaning-of-work/
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Saint-Exupéry
:: Productivity and Innovation
Are You Procrastinating?
Here’s a hack to get your brain to actually start from Daniel Pink.
Psychologists have found that certain dates act as mental reset buttons.
They call them temporal landmarks and they’re part of something called the “Fresh Start: Effect.
:: Trust, Psychological Safety & Belonging
Creating Cultures of Belonging
Culture Is Not a Buzzword. It’s a Strategy. In this episode of Culture Conversations, Megan Robinson sits down with Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to explore a question many leaders think they’ve answered—but often haven’t:
What actually creates a culture where people feel like they belong? Because culture isn’t built through mission statements or values on a wall. It’s built in the everyday experiences people have inside your organization. And if we’re honest, most teams are still trying to figure out how to get that right.
Tease Key Insights
- Belonging is a Performance Driver: When people feel like they truly belong they contribute more openly and collaborate more effectively. Belonging is not created by intention alone. It’s created by experience.
- Culture Lives in the Micro Moments: Bonnie emphasizes that culture is actually shaped in the small, consistent moments such as invitations to conversations, ideas that are acknowledged (or overlooked) and how feedback is given.
- You Can’t Build Belonging Without Awareness: Leaders can’t create inclusive, high-performing cultures if they’re not paying attention to their own behaviours and the dynamics within their teams.
Why this Matters?
We spend so much of our lives at work. And yet, too many people still feel like they have to shrink themselves to fit into the environments they’re part of.
When leaders commit to building cultures of belonging:
- engagement increases
- trust deepens
- innovation expands
- and performance becomes more sustainable
But more importantly, people feel seen. And that changes everything.
Listen or read the interview with Megan Robinson from Leader Experience with Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk on belonging.
https://www.eleaderexperience.com/post/creating-cultures-of-belonging
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” – Dr. Suess
:: Self-Leadership Development
Blind to Our Own Brilliance: Two Questions to See What Others See in You
Do you ever notice that you have a tendency to focus on what’s wrong or deficient with yourself instead of what’s good and right? If I were to ask you to make a list of 10 ways you’re not quite cutting it or 10 things you genuinely appreciate about yourself, which list would be easier to complete?
For a lot of people, it’s easier to call out what isn’t instead of what is. It’s like we’re looking at ourselves in a funhouse mirror, only able to see a distorted version of who we are. That’s why many of us are blind to our own brilliance. We can’t always see the goodness that’s already there. Sometimes we need somebody else to be a mirror to reflect it back to us.
See what keynote speaker Rachel Druckenmiller has to say about finding your self-concept clarity. Rachel was the guest speaker at CSN’s 10-year anniversary last August, and introduced her V.O.I.C.E. method for the first time at that event.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/blind-our-own-brilliance-two-questions-see-what-you-rachel-pfdre
“Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.” – Michel de Montaigne
Reading the Room Is an Essential Leadership Skill
In this Harvard Business Review piece, which analyzes why “roughly 70% of transformation efforts fail,” author Jenny Fernandez identifies the culprit: “It’s the human element,” meaning, “leaders who can’t detect resistance, misread silence as buy-in, or dismiss valid concerns as complaints.” In other words, leaders are falling short because they can’t read the room. Fernandez writes, “I see this pattern repeatedly: Organizations bring in leaders to drive change,” but without the EQ to accurately sense employee temperament, “even the strongest teams drift towards misalignment.” Thankfully, all hope is not lost. Organizations can pivot and, “close the gap between what leaders perceive and what people actually experience,” using four key strategies. Here are two.
1. Diagnose the Gap Without Making It Personal. “Executives promoted for technical expertise often score significantly lower on measures of interpersonal accuracy: the ability to correctly interpret others’ emotional states and motivations. The gap is structural, not personal. Organizations promote for one set of skills and then expect a completely different set to appear on demand.” Helping a leader develop in this area can start with a diagnostic reset, rather than labeling them as “tone-deaf.”
2. Build the Skill Through Repetition, Not Training. “Most companies respond to people-reading deficits by sending executives to emotional intelligence workshops. It doesn’t work. Research on skill acquisition and feedback-seeking supports this. Reading people accurately requires repeated exposure with immediate feedback loops. Leaders improve their interpersonal judgment most through structured reflection on real interactions, not classroom simulations.”
Get the full story here: https://hbr.org/2026/03/when-senior-leaders-lack-people-skills-transformations-fail
:: Work Culture & Team Development
The Question Leaders Keep Asking Me
This message from Cindy Rowe, keynote speaker on kindness and belonging…
There’s a question I get asked over and over again, no matter the industry, role, or size of the organization:
“How do we actually get people more engaged?”
Not just compliant. Not just showing up. But truly engaged, connected, and invested in their work.
And underneath that question…are a few deeper ones leaders don’t always say out loud.
In my conversations with leaders and teams, here’s what I hear most often:
“We’re doing everything we can, but people still seem checked out.”
“Communication keeps breaking down.”
“Morale feels low, and we can’t quite figure out why.”
“We’re moving fast, but it feels like we’re losing connection along the way.”
These aren’t failures. They’re signals. Signals that something in the day-to-day experience of work needs attention.
Engagement isn’t created through big initiatives alone. It’s built in how people feel, every single day.
After speaking with thousands of leaders and employees across industries, one thing is consistently clear:
People don’t disengage because they don’t care. They disengage when they don’t feel seen, heard, or valued.
It’s not usually about another program or policy. It’s about:
Feeling acknowledged for their effort
Being included in conversations that impact their work
Knowing their voice matters
The most effective leaders I work with don’t just focus on performance. They focus on people.
And when people feel valued, performance follows.
From Cindy Rowe’s weekly newsletter: https://thecindyrowe.com/blog/
:: Take Five
*Note: CSN occasionally adds “Take Five” articles to take you off the beaten path. Articles are about local or regional areas of interest, but not necessarily focused on leadership development. The intent is for you to take a break from being a leader and relax for a moment!
Sunbursts History
The Terrace sunburst chairs made their first appearance in the 1930s, about a decade before this photo was taken. Why were the three colors — John Deere green, Allis Chalmers orange and sunshine yellow — chosen for these iconic fixtures? See if you can answer this and other questions in our Summer Term quiz.
Note: the chairs come back out this week! Plan to enjoy an afternoon on the terrace soon.
“The patience you need for big things, is developed by your patience with the little things.” – Kevin Kelly
:: Upcoming Events
Demystifying AI: An introduction to UW’s AI tools
If you’ve ever thought, “I probably need to understand AI better,” we have a session made with you in mind. Join us on April 23 for Demystifying AI: An introduction to UW’s AI tools, a virtual session designed to help you understand AI and how it applies to your work.
All UW community members are welcome, whether you’re excited, skeptical or simply curious about AI. You don’t need any technical experience to attend — just bring your questions and willingness to learn.
What to expect
- A plain-language overview of generative AI
- An introduction to a selection of approved technology tools at UW–Madison
- Live demo showing what AI can (and can’t) do, including a hands-on opportunity
- Guidance on data privacy, intellectual property and responsible use
- Breakouts to explore the tools and discuss your questions
Event details
Date: Thursday, April 23, 2026
Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm, followed by supervised breakouts until 2pm
Hosts: UW Women in IT and Learn@UW
Register here: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/meeting/register/blYHdKerT9Woe3jvFCY8vQ
DreamBank: The Art of Gathering with Priya Parker
Reimagine connection with Priya Parker, bestselling author of The Art of the Gathering, as she teaches you how to design powerful experiences that foster innovation, invite belonging and create purposeful community.
Imagine a gathering that not only brings people together but awakens possibility and inspires dreams! Join us for this conversation with Priya Parker, bestselling author of The Art of the Gathering, as we explore the power of connection and learn how to design experiences that foster belonging, ignite innovation and spark purpose. Drawing from her expertise in conflict resolution and group dynamics, Priya will reveal how thoughtful invitations and inclusive facilitation can turn any gathering into a powerful experience—one that inspires, connects and empowers dreamers to create lasting impact. No matter if you’re planning a retreat, a conference or a team meeting, you’ll leave this session bursting with bright ideas to lead with unmatched creativity, empathy and purpose as you plan your next gathering.
CSN used Priya’s book The Art of Gathering to plan last year’s 10-Year Anniversary Celebration, and highly recommend it!
Date: April 30, 2026
Time: 12:00 – 12:30 PM
Online via Registration Link
Nominate a colleague for the 2026 IT Recognition Awards
We work with excellent people who do awesome things. Help your colleagues get the recognition they deserve by nominating them for the 2026 IT Recognition Awards. A UW–Madison tradition since 2020, the annual IT Recognition Awards honor colleagues who excel at what they do and strengthen our IT community. Nominations are due Friday, May 1.
All UW–Madison Academic Staff and University Staff working in information and technology fields are eligible. You can nominate a colleague in any of seven award categories:
- Community Engagement (Ellen La Luzerne Award)
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (Janet E. Plato Award)
- Lifetime Achievement
- Rising Star
- Team Achievement
- Transformational Achievement
- Unsung Hero