Planners’ Picks — June 30, 2026
Halfway. (Or all the way, if you’re working on fiscal year closeouts!)
How will you make the second half of 2026 matter? Let’s celebrate our independence and dependence on others concurrently.
:: Image of the Week
3 practical tips to never take your “normal” for granted:
1) The one-thing list:
Every morning before checking your phone, think of one thing you have right now that you once desperately hoped for.
↳ A steady paycheck.
↳ A happy relationship.
↳ Waking up in good health.
Remember when you wanted what you currently have?
2) Reverse the lens:
When something frustrates you (like traffic), pause and ask: “What am I lucky to have that makes this frustrating?”
↳ You have a job to be late to.
↳ A car that gets you there.
↳ A child to pick up at school.
Someone is praying for the things you complain about.
3) Think about your worry list from a year ago:
Seriously, try to remember all the little things that stressed you out.
↳ Maybe you burned dinner one night?
↳ Maybe a project didn’t go as planned?
Honestly… I bet you don’t remember most of last year’s worries. So anything you’re worried about now will be old news by next year. Past-you would be amazed by the “normal” life you get to live.
From Jade Bonacolta on LinkedIn
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” – Seneca
:: Productivity and Innovation
How To End Your Workday
Ernest Hemingway had a rule for ending his writing days: he stopped while he still knew exactly what would come next—sometimes, reportedly, in the middle of a sentence.
As Hemingway told the Paris Review in 1958: “You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again.”
I stole this idea, and you should too. For my last act of each workday, I specify a single important task that I will take up first thing in the morning. As it did for Hemingway, it gives tomorrow a known target. That simple act of specification defends against two of the most reliable ways a workday goes sideways.
The drift to feeds. Your brain is wired for convenience. So when you arrive at your desk with no defined task, you will tend to opt for what some cognitive psychologists have called the “path of least resistance.” That will often be an algorithmic feed or your inbox. A specified starting point gives your attention somewhere to land that isn’t a notification—somewhere that you’ve already designated as important.
The “mere urgency” effect. In a series of experiments, researchers showed that people tend to choose urgent tasks over important ones, even when the important task is clearly a better use of time. Urgent tasks are well-defined and easily actionable—respond to that thing; check that notification. Important work, meanwhile, often feels vague, with a longer or perhaps uncertain timeline. When you follow Hemingway and specify tomorrow’s important task down to the exact next move, you give your important work the quality that normally lets busywork win. You’re making the important thing the easy thing to start.
See more from David Epstein here: https://davidepstein.substack.com/p/how-to-end-your-workday-the-hemingway
“It is only heavy because you are deciding over and over again to carry it. Embrace change, and loosen up your sense of identity. Let yourself walk a new path. You do not have to ignore or erase the past, You just have to wholeheartedly embrace the present and move on.” – YUNG PUEBLO
What Innovative Leaders Do Different, with Linda Hill
Linda Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration and Faculty Chair of the Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business School. Globally recognized as a top leadership and innovation expert, Linda has been named by Thinkers50 as one of the world’s top five management thinkers. She is the co-author, along with Emily Tedards and Jason Wild, of Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation (Amazon: https://amzn.to/479b5al)
We all want to think of ourselves as innovative, but it’s often not easy to know exactly what that means in practice. In this conversation, Linda and I explore what her research shows that leaders do to drive innovation successfully – and how each of us can get just a bit better.
Key Points
• Rather than coming up with a vision and asking people to follow it, innovation is about creating the culture and capabilities to create the future together.
• Innovation leadership shows up in three ways within organizations: the Architects, the Bridge Builders, and the Catalysts.
• Instead of setting the stage for themselves, innovative leaders set the stage for others.
• Often, we view horizontal relationships through the lens of organizational politics. The most effective innovation leaders view these relationships as leadership opportunities.
• Traditional team structures are a starting point, but not an ending point. Leaders at Mastercard, Pfizer, and Cleveland Clinic all brought in team members from both inside and outside the organization.
• Rather than thinking about a decision as final, it’s helpful for innovation leaders to frame it as a “working hypothesis.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLPaqs0kYrI&t=22s
:: Work Culture & Team Development
The Check-In: Celebration. Intention. Expectation.
Gregg Potter recently shared a simple model on LinkedIn that came out of a doodle during a meeting. He has since reworked it into something for you to sit with on your own, away from any team or project. Just you, taking stock of how you’re actually showing up in your collaborations right now.
Here’s the premise. You can’t directly see the Five Building Blocks of Collaborative Intelligence at work inside you (Awareness of Self, Transformational Leadership, Facilitation, Conflict Resolution, Friendliness to Collaborate). They live underneath the surface. They’re the engine, not the dashboard.
But there are three things you can see. Three honest questions that tell you, with real reliability, how well that engine is actually running. Which one have you been quietly avoiding?
See his article on this here: https://mailchi.mp/ddb690641118/thursday-thoughts-is-back-bring-your-questions-18001455
:: Kindness in Leadership
Kindness Shown to Mentors
A little kindness goes a long way! @uwmadison faculty and staff read heartfelt comments from former students. Who in your life deserves to hear about the positive effects of their mentorship or training on you?
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DYe-o5BOepU
“Too much focus on grains of sand, and not enough on the beach.” – Hazel Symonette
:: Self-Leadership Development
10 Leadership Lessons in 60 Seconds
Author and keynote speaker Jen Marr is being Captain Obvious for a minute:
Leadership skills of the past are not enough for the present.
Humans and our way of working is being disrupted beyond recognition.
Not that this is bad – it’s just different.
I’m excited to be training up the next generation of leaders.
And those who are leading that next generation.
We have work to do. Let’s go!
See the infographic with 10 leadership lessons below:
Stop Before You Make It Worse
More thinking does not always produce better thinking.
In a 2025 paper titled “The Danger of Overthinking,” researchers studied large language models as they worked through software engineering tasks.
The tasks were not simple autocomplete systems. They were models designed to reason.
But the researchers found a strange pattern: when the models spent too much time reasoning internally instead of interacting with the environment, their performance often got worse.
They identified three patterns: analysis paralysis, rogue actions, and premature disengagement.
The more the models overthought, the worse they tended to perform. See Greg McKeown’s story in its entirety here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/1-minute-wednesday-310-stop-before-you-make-worse-greg-mckeown-drwac/
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” – ancient proverb
:: LinkedIn Learning
Managing Up with Emotional Intelligence
As AI handles more technical tasks, your ability to influence and persuade those above you sets you apart and future-proofs your career. In this course, award-winning author and speaker, Melody Wilding, teaches you how to navigate power dynamics and build stronger relationships with your boss and senior decision-makers using emotional intelligence strategies. You’ll implement five key conversations to manage up more effectively, including gaining alignment with your leadership on strategic priorities, push back when you’re given extra work (without being disrespectful), and gain visibility for your and your team’s accomplishments. Discover through practical tools and scripts how to secure buy-in for your ideas, deliver tough feedback to your boss, and work with difficult personalities such as micromanagers or highly critical leaders. This course equips you with the skills to lead upward during a time when human connection has become your biggest differentiator.
This course includes AI-powered Role Play. Role Play allows you to practice what you’ve learned in interactive simulations of real-world conversations.
Learning objectives
- Build stronger relationships with your manager and senior leaders using emotional intelligence strategies that position you as invaluable in an AI-enhanced workplace.
- Master five key conversations to influence decision-makers, navigate changing priorities, and showcase your value when human skills have become your competitive advantage.
- Decode your manager’s communication style, set clear and diplomatic boundaries, and deliver feedback up the chain of command while maintaining (and building) credibility.
:: Curiosity
How Does Wonder Keep Us Young and Open?
Wonder is love’s curiosity—the quality that keeps us engaged with life, open to surprise, capable of being moved by what we encounter. Children have it naturally. They approach the world with fresh eyes, asking “What is this?” and “Why?” and “What if?” They haven’t yet learned to be bored, jaded, or too sophisticated for amazement.
Then we grow up.
https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/how-does-wonder-keep-us-young-and-open
:: Upcoming Events
The Power of Beliefs with Shawn Achor
Are the stories you tell yourself helping you thrive – or holding you back?
Each of us sees the world through a lens shaped by our experiences, assumptions and beliefs. This lens quietly influences our everyday life – including our wellbeing, relationships and choices – but most of us rarely stop to question it or realise how much power we have to change it.
At this special event, positive psychology expert Shawn Achor will share insights from his new book The Power of Beliefs and explore how the stories we tell ourselves can either hold us back or help us thrive. Drawing on cutting-edge research, powerful real-life examples and his trademark warmth and humour, Shawn will reveal how our conscious and unconscious beliefs shape the way we experience the world – and what becomes possible within it.
Shawn will introduce the Seven Core Power Beliefs that underpin resilience, connection and purpose – and explain how small shifts in mindset can create meaningful changes in our everyday lives. At a time when many of us feel overwhelmed and disconnected, this event offers a hopeful and practical guide to reclaiming your agency and optimism.
Whether you’re seeking greater fulfilment, stronger relationships or simply a more empowering way to navigate life, this conversation will leave you inspired to see yourself and your future differently.
Join bestselling author Shawn Achor to discover how your beliefs shape your reality – and how small shifts can transform your life.
“You have to prove yourself every time. But that sure beats the alternative of doing nothing.” – CLIVE DAVIS
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) – DEADLINE TO REGISTER IS JULY 1
- 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