Planners’ Picks — June 23, 2026
We passed the Solstice and are officially in Summer now. With this new season, we have the chance to rise up—let’s manage interruptions, give some S.P.A.C.E., and navigate change like a boss. Create some fireworks in our actions, CSN’ers!
:: Image of the Week
Nobody talks about the moment before.
Not the win. Not the story.
The moment before.
That moment doesn’t make the highlight reel.
Nobody posts about it.
Nobody admits it happened.
But that moment is where you’re actually built.
:: Self-Leadership Development
This 20-minute exercise from Stanford could change your life
This 20-minute exercise from Stanford could change your life. It’s called the Odyssey Plan. Here’s how it works, and why you should try it tonight. You’re going to imagine 3 completely different versions of your next 5 years. It will challenge almost everything you think you know about your life. First: Map out your life if you stayed exactly on your current path. Same job. Same routine. Same direction. Where will you be in 5 years?
See Dan Pink’s full post on LinkedIn here:
You are what you consume
This [edited] excerpt was in Sarah Johnston’s weekly Career Briefs newsletter:
Most of us have heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” The idea is straightforward: the food you consume fuels your body, impacts your energy levels, and shapes your overall health.
The same principle applies to your mind.
Research consistently shows that the content we consume influences our mood, outlook, stress levels, and even our behavior. Spend enough time scrolling through negativity, outrage, and fear, and it’s difficult not to absorb some of it. Surround yourself with encouragement, inspiration, and hope, and you’ll often find your perspective begins to shift as well.
Pay attention to the voices you’re listening to. Pay attention to the content you’re consuming. Pay attention to the people you’re surrounding yourself with. Are they helping you move forward, or are they keeping you stuck in fear?
Choose people who encourage rather than discourage. Choose content that reminds you of your strengths rather than magnifies your insecurities.
What are you feeding your mind? Because just like your body, your mindset becomes stronger—or weaker—based on what you consume.
https://newsletter.briefcasecoach.com/p/career-briefs-you-are-what-you-consume
:: Productivity and Innovation
Managing Interruptions at Work – Create Working Environments that Work for Everyone
Many of us back in the office a few days a week, and as crazy as it sounds, it can be difficult to get work done at work. There are the drive bys – people who want your opinion on EVERYTHING before they make decisions, the interrupters who have just one question, several times a day, the visitors who want to update you on EVERYTHING happening in their personal lives, and coworkers who host meetings at their workstation, take calls on speaker phone, and who listen to music without headphones, while loudly eating potato chips. All of these distractions are enough to make many employees want to find a quieter place to work.
The concept that it can be hard to get work done at work is crazy. We’re at work to work. And yet many employees, with and without a door, get in at 7:00 am, before others arrive, so they can “get some work done” and stay late because they “got nothing done all day.”
Open work environments can be productive and interruptions can be minimized. Creating work environments that work for everyone require clear guidelines and direct communication, which many workplaces are missing.
Shari Harley is the author of How to Say Anything To Anyone, and has more advice on managing interruptions at work.
“The most direct path to a fulfilling career is not to follow your passion. It’s to follow your flow. Flow is the state of full absorption. When you’re in the zone, you don’t even notice that you’re enjoying it. Intrinsic motivation lies in the activities where time disappears.” – Adam Grant
If Everything Is Important, Nothing Is: Why Workplace Priorities Feel So Hard Right Now
Darcy Luoma states:
During a recent workshop on workplace priorities and time management, I started with a simple question: “What’s most likely to derail your day?” The responses came fast.
Emails. Quick questions that are never quick. The string of Slack messages. Meetings that should have been emails. Side conversations that you can’t easily extract yourself from. Someone even mentioned a broken desk chair that unexpectedly took up half the morning.
Then someone said something that felt especially familiar: “I work all day and somehow cross nothing off my to-do list. If anything, I’m just adding tasks to it.”
That’s the experience so many leaders and teams are having right now. People are busy from the minute they log in until the minute they shut down for the day, but despite all that motion, there’s often a lingering sense that the most important work still isn’t getting done. Teams feel reactive, and employees feel like they’re disappointing someone, no matter what they choose to focus on.
And underneath all of that is usually the same issue: unclear workplace priorities.
Most organizations have plenty of goals. The challenge is that modern workplaces are filled with competing demands, constant interruptions, and shifting expectations, all happening at the same time. When every request feels urgent, people stop evaluating what actually matters most. They just react.
That may keep work moving, but it rarely creates clarity.
:: Work Culture & Team Development
It’s Your Career: Having a Productive Career Development Conversation with Your Supervisor
Research shows that employees who participate in regular career development conversations feel more engaged, motivated, and supported in their growth. These conversations help you understand your strengths, clarify your goals, and find opportunities to grow key ingredients for greater job satisfaction and long-term career success. In this module, you’ll reflect on what matters most to you, create a career development plan, and learn how to approach a meaningful conversation that can positively shape your career path.
Take this self-paced course from LTD on having a conversation with your supervisor on your own career growth, or use it as a template to lead a discussion with your team members.
“The best protection any woman can have . . . is courage.” – ELIZABETH CADY STANTON
7 Destructive Things Leaders Say that Stifle Innovation, Trust, and Teamwork (and what to say for more innovation)
What if the everyday phrases you use as a leader are quietly stifling innovation on your team? Leadership Without Losing Your Soul has some insights for you.
If your team seems hesitant to share ideas or to take initiative, the issue might not be a lack of talent; it might be communication. This episode zeroes in on how common leadership language can unintentionally shut down creativity, trust, and problem-solving, even when you intend to be cautious or efficient.
By listening, you’ll walk away with:
- Insight into seven common phrases that quietly crush innovation and teamwork
- Better ways to respond that encourage creativity without sacrificing structure
- Practical language shifts that build psychological safety and stronger collaboration
Hit play now to learn the simple language shifts that can unlock your team’s best ideas and turn hesitation into momentum.
Are You Giving Your Team Enough S.P.A.C.E.?
There are five key environmental levers which Dr. Audrey Tag presents as the SPACE framework…and here is an example of how it might apply in practice:
You have a senior member of the team who appears to be under-performing – what do you do? The majority of responses will function at the individual level – performance review, “informal chats”, target setting and the like – but SPACE will prompt you to think beyond that to what might be endemic within the environment…and can be easily tweaked. See her acronym put into action in this article:
:: Hiring and Interviewing
The Halo Effect and Horns Effect
Have you ever met someone and just known, before a single word was exchanged, whether you liked them or not? Maybe it was the firm handshake. The perfect smile. The slightly too-loud laugh. Or the wrinkled shirt.
Your brain made a judgment call in less than 100 milliseconds. Once it did, everything that followed got filtered through that snap decision, whether you realized it or not. Welcome to the Halo Effect and its evil twin, the Horns Effect. These two cognitive biases are so thoroughly baked into our neural wiring that even the smartest, most self-aware people aren’t immune.
“Good enough is almost always good enough.” – Barry Schwartz
:: CSN’s Book of the Week Recommendation
Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell
Bill Campbell played an instrumental role in the growth of several prominent companies, such as Google, Apple, and Intuit, fostering deep relationships with Silicon Valley visionaries, including Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt. In addition, this business genius mentored dozens of other important leaders on both coasts, from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists to educators to football players, leaving behind a legacy of growing companies, successful people, respect, friendship, and love after his death in 2016.
Leaders at Google for over a decade, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle experienced firsthand how the man fondly known as Coach Bill built trusting relationships, fostered personal growth—even in those at the pinnacle of their careers—inspired courage, and identified and resolved simmering tensions that inevitably arise in fast-moving environments. To honor their mentor and inspire and teach future generations, they have codified his wisdom in this essential guide.
Based on interviews with over eighty people who knew and loved Bill Campbell, Trillion Dollar Coach explains the Coach’s principles and illustrates them with stories from the many great people and companies with which he worked. The result is a blueprint for forward-thinking business leaders and managers that will help them create higher-performing and faster-moving cultures, teams, and companies.
:: Change Management
8 Ways Great Leaders Navigate Constant Change without Causing Burnout or Overwhelm
How do you keep your team motivated and focused when constant change keeps shifting priorities before the work is even finished?
If your team is dealing with AI disruption, economic uncertainty, organizational changes, or competing priorities, you’re probably seeing the impact firsthand—frustration, confusion, burnout, and declining morale. In this episode, David Dye shares practical leadership strategies to help you navigate constant change without losing your team’s trust, energy, or commitment. You’ll learn how to create stability amid uncertainty and keep people focused on the work that matters most.
By listening to this episode of Leadership Without Losing Your Soul, you’ll learn how to:
- Prepare your team for constant change by setting expectations, creating reliable communication systems, and advocating for the context your team needs.
- Reduce frustration and burnout by intentionally retiring old priorities, celebrating progress, and helping people let go of unfinished work.
- Keep people engaged and productive by connecting new priorities to purpose, clarifying critical behaviors, and maintaining trust during times of uncertainty.
:: Upcoming Events
CSN’s Summer Book Club: The Octopus Organization
Three sessions. Three big ideas. One smarter way to lead.
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. Today we’re holding session one, but you can still register for the remaining stand-alone sessions and get in on learning with your peers!
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) (Passed)
- PART 2 — Increasing Ownership (July 9: 1:00-2:00 pm)
- PART 3 — Inciting Curiosity (July 23: 1:00-2:00 pm)
Join one or two remaining sessions — whatever fits your summer schedule. We are sharing instructions 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.
Register here: https://go.wisc.edu/t565w7
Access The Octopus Organization at UW-Library: Steps to download “The Octopus Organization” from EBSCO
The book’s introduction: The Octopus Organization Introduction
ForwardFest 2026 Line-up Announced!
The Forward Festival is Wisconsin’s largest technology and entrepreneurship festival, attracting more than 5,000 attendees and serving as host for more than 40 events over 5 days every August.
Forward Fest 2026 will run August 17 – 21 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Now in its 16th year, it’s the state’s flagship celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship for business folks, nerds, social impact innovators, foodies, hackers, entrepreneurs, creatives, problem-solvers, community supporters, and more from across the Midwest.
Whether you’re already plugged into the Midwest scene or you’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to sample what the area has to offer, Forward Fest is about bringing the technology and startup communities together to learn, share, and have some fun. The Forward Festival provides the rare opportunity to interact with professionals across a wide range of disciplines and at a variety of events, and is open to everyone.
Many of the events are free to attend! https://forwardfest.org/about
Some recommended sessions:
How We Show Up Matters with Kim Walters
Technical expertise gets you in the room. How you show up determines what happens next.
In this interactive session, consultants will examine the attitudes, assumptions, and habits they bring into client and colleague relationships, and how those choices shape trust, collaboration, and results. Through meaningful dialogue with peers, you’ll uncover blind spots that may be limiting connection or effectiveness in your work.
Date: Monday, August 17, 2026, 1:00-3:00 pm online
https://forwardfest2026.sched.com/event/2P0Ej/how-we-show-up-matters?iframe=no
Date: Thursday, August 20, 2026, 8:00-10:00 am in-person @ Willy Street Coop, 1128 Williamson Street, Madison
https://forwardfest2026.sched.com/event/2P0Eg/how-we-show-up-matters?iframe=no
Bridging Generations at Work: Leading Multigenerational Teams Through Technology & Change
Bridging Generations at Work is a dynamic, beginner-friendly session designed to help leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals successfully navigate generational differences while driving meaningful progress through technology. This session will explore how communication styles, expectations, and comfort with technology vary across generations, and how these differences can either hinder or accelerate success.
Thursday, August 20, 2026, 12:30-2:30 pm at Delta Beer Lab, Madison
https://forwardfest2026.sched.com/event/2P0Ej/how-we-show-up-matters?iframe=no