Planners’ Picks — June 9, 2026
We’re removing some things to reveal something else today. We’re also overcoming complaint fatigue, taking criticism better, and creating possibilities for greatness in our resources as K-12 schools finish up their seasons and the kiddos start their summer break.
:: Image of the Week
This week’s image comes to us from Austin Kleon, who just released his next book on creativity. Austin uses the art of subtraction to achieve some of his images — what might you remove from your current environment to create something new, better, or more effective?
:: Burnout & Stress
Overcoming Complaint Fatigue
Are you working with a customer-facing team who commonly are challenged with complaints or issues? How do we recharge and reframe in those environments to avoid burnout and complaint fatigue?
Dr. Melissa Hughes provides some tools and brain-based discussions you can have with your team to prevent burnout and elevate your team’s abilities. See the worksheet here:
https://uwmadison.box.com/s/9dgt3ikg7vki9vag2z5fctn2hfltl63h
:: Creativity
Linda Naiman’s Creativity at Work Handbook
Whenever there is a crisis, there is also an opportunity. The question is, how do you discover opportunity in times of turbulence and chaos?
Creativity gives you the ability to perceive the world in new ways, find hidden patterns, make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and generate solutions. When you’re faced with unprecedented problems, creativity is more important than ever.
You might think that creativity takes up too much time or that you don’t have the right sources to be creative.
Know this: If you can provide creative solutions your customers love, you will always be in demand. You are creative in business when you conceive and implement new or significantly improved products, services, experiences, or processes that create value for your customers.
The key to success is to focus on learning about your customers and prospects. The more you understand their pain points and unmet needs, the better your chances of creating winning solutions.
An Adobe study in 2014 found that companies that embrace creativity outperform rivals in revenue growth, market share, and talent acquisition. Additionally, creative companies get products to market faster, enjoy a price premium from buyers, have more people who speak on their behalf, and disrupt their traditional markets.
Download Linda’s work handbook here: https://uwmadison.box.com/s/0xyy7bawelzmj4wnjwwchmqw7azccgo0
“Creativity is one of the last remaining legal ways of gaining an unfair advantage over the competition.” – Ed McCabe
:: Coaching
The Art of Questioning: Coaching’s Superpower
In this article, we’ll explore how effective questioning creates insight, the traps that coaches can fall into, and how to use questioning with confidence, whether you’re an executive coach, a team leader, or someone building a coaching culture within your organization.
Questions may be described as the precision tools in the coach’s toolbox. When used well, they help people think more clearly, view situations from new perspectives, and deepen their self-awareness. But there’s more to questioning than simply being curious or asking whatever comes to mind. Questioning is a tool that unlocks insight, deepens awareness, and ultimately leads to real change.
Download this resource here: https://uwmadison.box.com/s/w6kapognv8vnd95sholyc9zyid3mlgjm
:: CSN’s Book of the Week Recommendation
Must Be Nice
Comparison may be the thief of joy, but it sure is hard to ignore people who have bigger paychecks, better health, more talent, less debt, longer vacations, larger homes, thinner waists, or nicer mothers-in-law than us. It’s not easy to be thankful when the lucky breaks always seem to land in someone else’s lap.
In Must Be Nice, artist, author, and professional speaker Jason Kotecki offers a fresh and funny take on gratitude. With his whimsical art and inspiring words, he’ll make you laugh, make you think, and help you perform jujitsu on jealousy to look at thankfulness in a whole new way.
Not only that, Must Be Nice is a pep talk, reminding you about all the ways you rock while giving you a road map for leveraging the talents you may have overlooked.
If you are . . .
- tired of playing the compare game so prevalent on social media . . .
- a recent graduate uncertain about finding your place in the “real world” . . .
- experiencing midlife dissatisfaction with the direction you’re heading in . . .
- or on the verge of retirement and wondering what’s next . . .
. . . this book is for you, helping you thrive as you figure out why you’re here and what to do next.
https://shop.escapeadulthood.com/collections/books/products/must-be-nice
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
:: Communication
The communicator’s guide to writing for skimmers
Most employees don’t read your carefully crafted messages. they quickly read messages on their phones and try to empty out their groaning inboxes as fast as possible.
The solution for internal comms pros? Refocus your writing for skimmers.
https://www.ragan.com/internal-comms-writing-for-skimmers/
Pay attention to HOW you deliver your message
Allison Clarke has a short message to remind us that our tone and expressions say as much (or more) than the words we share.
“The business of life is the acquisition of memories. That is all there is.” Carson from Downton Abbey
How to Take—And Give—Criticism Well
We live in an age of popular criticism. This is especially true in the world of business, where leaders can find themselves in the hot seat quickly. Hit by a supply-chain disruption and can’t fulfill your customers’ orders? Get ready, fellow executives: That will be chalked up as your fault for not planning for such obvious risks. Worse still if, during the origin of that crisis, you were on a vacation with your family—the audacity! Of course, this example doesn’t account for the truly absurd forms of criticism: Woe be unto you if an internet troll posts about your bad hair day. (I myself have a perpetual “no hair day,” which invites its own brand of trollery.)
But from the valid to the petty, criticism is no joke when it comes your way. In my own business, student evaluations are taken with deadly seriousness. As one academic colleague quips, professors today are treated like a Denny’s on Yelp. Google yourself and your professional rep, and you may find that opinions are … mixed.
We all love to criticize. Unfortunately, we also hate being criticized. That leads to a happiness problem in the giant, constant, panoramic review that is the experience of modern work life. As a leader, you’re in a criticism sandwich—you’re going to be taking it as the decision-maker in the spotlight, and you’re going to be giving it as feedback.
So, if leaders can’t avoid receiving (or giving) criticism, we might as well try to understand how we can best receive (and give) it with our and our employees’ happiness top of mind. Because as I have argued in this newsletter, happiness leads to success in your career and for your company.
https://link.hbr.org/view/654a7671fe5aeb7c2e87714b6a11c1000f05763dacc17038/b4969ec4
:: Work Culture & Team Development
How to Create Team Guidelines
Dave from Coaching for Leaders interviews Susan Gerke, the president of Gerke Consulting & Development. She has worked with global teams and has certified facilitators around the world to deliver management, leadership, and team offerings. Susan is co-creator of GO Team (http://goteamresources.com/), a training suite for organizations to power team performance.
Key Points
• Don’t create guidelines yourself and give them to the team.
• A starting point for how to create team guidelines is what did not work well on a previous team.
• The interpersonal dynamics that emerge are more critical than the guidelines themselves.
• Aim to create no more than 8 guidelines.
• Disagreement is the sign of a healthy team.
• Continue to revisit guidelines in future meetings and milestones (new members join, change of team composition or purpose)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQZiyGTnSG4
“I am a woman with no secrets. Life has forced me to confess everything.” — Frida Kahlo
:: Work Culture & Team Development
Are You Creating a Climate of Possibility?
See this short Instagram post from Sir Ken Robinson on how creating a climate of possibility allows things to blossom and flourish.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXHzSDzjeJR
:: Upcoming Events
Wired for Success LIVE Webinar with Dr. Melissa Hughes
Somewhere along the way, most of us bought into the same unspoken rule about success: If what you’re doing isn’t working, push harder. Pedal faster. Do more.
Neuroscience says that strategy isn’t just ineffective; it’s cognitively expensive. Every “push harder” pulls from a single, finite pool of neural energy that also fuels your focus, your decision-making, your emotional regulation, and your creativity. The harder you push in one place, the less you have everywhere else. You don’t get more capacity. You get more depletion dressed up as productivity.
This is why high performers so often hit the same wall: the strategy that got them here quietly stops working, and the only tool they’ve been taught is to apply more of the thing that’s already failing. The brain doesn’t reward harder. It rewards aligned, fueled, and rested.
When your state is regulated, your systems reduce friction, your habits carry the load that motivation can’t, and your identity holds steady under pressure; success stops feeling fragile. It stops requiring a perfect week, a great night’s sleep, and an iron will to function. It just… works. Even on ordinary days. Even on hard ones.
That’s a design upgrade. The brain you already have is wired for sustainable performance. Most of us were just never shown how to work with it rather than against it.
The Science of Success: Why Legends Visualize
Dr. Melissa Hughes is hosting a 60-minute live webinar on the neuroscience of sustainable performance. This is for anyone tired of pushing harder and ready to design smarter. We’ll walk through the four-layer framework that makes success stable instead of exhausting, and you’ll leave with tools you can use the same day.
It’s live, and it’s free. No pressure either way, but if you’ve been running on fumes lately, this is the conversation worth showing up for.
Two Dates to Choose From (same content):
Date: June 4, 2026
Time: 2:00 – 3:00 pm CST
Date: June 16, 2026
Time: 11:00 am – 12:00 pm CST
Location: Zoom link provided after you register (replay recording will also be available)
https://brainpowerrocks.com/live-webinar
LAST DAY (Session 1) – CSN’s Summer Book Club: The Octopus Organization
This summer, the Campus Supervisors Network is exploring The Octopus Organization, a book that reimagines how teams create clarity, build ownership, and strengthen accountability in a rapidly changing workplace.
We’ll break the book into three one hour sessions, each focused on one of its three core parts and 36 antipatterns:
• PART 1 — Creating Clarity (June 16: 1:00-2:00 pm) (REGISTRATION CLOSES TODAY!)
• PART 2 — Increasing Ownership (July 9: 1:00-2:00 pm)
• PART 3 — Inciting Curiosity (July 23: 1:00-2:00 pm)
Join one, two, or all three sessions — whatever fits your summer schedule. We are sharing instructions on how to access the book through the UW–Madison Libraries, so no purchase is required.
This is a great chance to connect with colleagues and sharpen your leadership practice in a low-pressure, high-impact format.
Next steps will be communicated to all registrants before each session.