Planners’ Picks — July 14, 2026
We’re pulling out all the stops today and focusing on you and your team. Let’s play, drive, and slay together!
:: Image of the Week
:: Work Culture & Team Development
Drive Revisited and Summarized in 13 Minutes
What if the way we motivate people is mostly wrong?
That was the argument at the heart of Drive by Dan Pink. But fifteen years later, too many companies, schools, and families stubbornly cling to the old ways.
Dan made a video revisiting the book and highlighting the seven ideas that still matter most. The core lesson: You don’t install motivation in people. You create the conditions for it. See why CSN covered Drive as the CSN Book Club feature back in 2019!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_fCHBbgi-0
How to Slay the Chaos Dragon
You can’t shield your team from chaos entirely. However, you can help your team members navigate it with less pain by taking three highly effective steps: improving communication with other team leaders, adding blank space to meeting agendas, and guarding against bullies who take advantage of chaos. And remember: There are some upsides to chaos that shouldn’t be ignored.
See this article from MIT Sloan on dealing with chaos effectively and harnessing its energy.
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-slay-the-chaos-dragon
When Adults Embrace Play, They Create Community
A few years ago, Ren Yu was living in New York and, by most measures, doing well. He was productive and physically healthy, while building a life that made sense on paper. But something felt off.
What he was missing was harder to name. It was not a lack of activity or ambition. It was a lack of connection.
So he started something small. A philosophy group. No curriculum, no credentials required. Just people gathering to discuss a single idea at a time. One word, one question, and whoever showed up.
How might you create a sense of community in your workplace or other networks? See the impact of connection in this Greater Good article.
:: Trust, Psychological Safety & Belonging
What Do Bosses Actually Do?
What do bosses, managers, and leaders do? Go to meetings? Send emails? Tell people what to do? Dream up strategies and expect other people to execute them?
It’s tempting to suspect them of doing a whole lot of nothing. Ultimately, though, bosses are responsible for results. They achieve these results not by doing all the work themselves but by guiding the people on their teams.
Bosses guide a team to achieve results.
See this post from Radical Candor on three areas of focus for bosses:
https://www.radicalcandor.com/blog/how-to-be-a-good-boss-radical-candor?_hsmi=30169730
What Actually Makes You Feel Safe in Uncertainty
In this solo episode of the Becoming Unshakable podcast, Heather reflects on a conversation that’s showing up everywhere right now, inside organizations, leadership circles, employee focus groups, and even in our personal lives. Change fatigue is real. Uncertainty is exhausting. And somewhere along the way, many of us were taught that resilience means pushing through quietly while pretending everything is fine.
She shares why she believes we’ve confused strength with steadiness, and why those are two very different things. Strength often tells us to carry everything alone. Steadiness asks us to stay present, honest, and human while we move through difficult moments. That distinction matters more than ever in workplaces where restructures, layoffs, rapid AI adoption, and constant disruption are leaving people emotionally overwhelmed.
She also unpacks the hidden damage caused by toxic positivity. The pressure to instantly “find the silver lining” can unintentionally shame people for feeling anxious, uncertain, or emotionally affected by change. Real resilience does not skip over the human experience. It allows space for emotions, nervous system regulation, reflection, and recovery before rushing toward solutions.
Throughout this episode, Heather explores the idea of selective vulnerability, what it means for leaders to model humanity without emotionally spilling onto others, and how grounded leadership creates emotional safety for teams. She covers why AI can imitate optimism but cannot replicate the emotional journey humans go through during uncertainty, and why that human space in the middle still matters deeply.
This conversation is for anyone feeling emotionally stretched right now, whether you lead a company, a team, a family, or simply yourself. Maybe becoming unshakable is less about pretending you are okay and more about learning how to steady yourself honestly when you are not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkTk9g7D3Hg
:: CSN’s Book of the Week Recommendation
The Way of Excellence: A Guide to True Greatness and Deep Satisfaction in a Chaotic World
Whether you are practicing guitar, pushing your limits at the gym, leading a team, honing a craft, studying medicine, or giving yourself the time and space to finally write that book, the pursuit of excellence is a big part of what makes life worth living—and it is for all of us. Unlike “pseudo-excellence,” which is about hustle culture and hacks, genuine excellence is about challenging yourself in worthwhile endeavors, focusing on what matters most, and expressing the unique qualities that make you who you are. Too often, we get caught up in convenience and distraction to the detriment of our true potential. The good news is that we can set ourselves on a better path, one that includes more aliveness and resonance, more connection to self and others.
Here, Stulberg finds convergence between modern science, age-old philosophy, and daily practice to explain that we are wired to strive for excellence—it is what we are here to do, core to our humanity. Yet our environment often works against us. The path he shares to reclaim excellence means learning about:
- Defining, living, and working in alignment with your values
- Cultivating focus and concentration
- The power of prioritizing consistency over intensity
- Building durable confidence
- The connection between mastery and mattering
- Developing the courage to care deeply
- Designing environments that support excellence
- Selecting goals based not just on what you want to achieve, but on who you want to become
- Overcoming the traps, pitfalls, and barriers to excellence, including alienation, chasing a never-ending supply of dopamine, and addiction to external validation and the opinions of others
- Applying the principles and insights of excellence to one’s organizations and communities
“The person who approaches a problem like an opportunity has an advantage that the person who sees an obstacle will never understand.” – Shane Parrish
:: Self-Leadership Development
Showing Up with Heart
Are our fallback workplace behaviors overriding the very things that keep us human?
- Push through
- Move faster
- Produce more with less
All while your body, heart, and relationships are fraying. Jen Marr welcomes Dr. Jonathan Fisher back to her Showing Up podcast for another conversation around his incredible book Just One Heart.
Jonathan’s work has helped countless people rethink burnout, stress, healing, and what true well-being actually looks like in high-pressure environments. This conversation sits right at the intersection of this: What happens when we start recognizing how essential our interdependence on each other is to live, lead, and flourish?
https://www.linkedin.com/events/7462291824938868736
Laozi’s 4 types of leaders, and why the best one is barely noticed
Two thousand years ago, the Chinese philosopher identified a problem workplaces still struggle with: leaders who create dependence rather than foster capability.
- According to Laozi, the highest form of leadership subtly creates the conditions that help people discover their strengths.
- Fear may force compliance and charisma may lead to loyalty, but only trust creates teams that thrive.
- True leaders allow their teams to feel a sense of accomplishment without demanding the credit for themselves.
https://bigthink.com/business/laozis-leadership
:: Recognition and Appreciation
The Problem With Accidental Gratitude
Why intentional appreciation matters in leadership and life—ee what Chester Elton calls accidental gratitude; we express appreciation when it’s convenient and reach out when the mood strikes. We assume the people we appreciate and love — our teams, our friends, our families — will know how we feel. Here’s the hard truth: they don’t. Not the way they need to. Read his recent article on this topic here:
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller
:: Productivity and Innovation
3 Ways to Quickly Get Out of a Rut
If you’ve been feeling lost, overwhelmed, exhausted, or like you’re meant for more but can’t seem to move forward, this episode is for you.
It’s finally time you get unstuck.
In today’s solo episode, Mel Robbins breaks down the 3 traps that keep you stuck – the hidden patterns that leave you wishing, overthinking, and doubting yourself instead of taking action. You’ve been beating yourself up instead of making the moves that could quickly get you out of a rut and onto changing your life for the better.
That ends today.
Through questions from your fellow listeners and straight-to-the-point coaching, Mell will show you how to spot the trap you’re in, understand what’s really keeping you there, and finally break free so you can go after what you want.
By the end of this empowering conversation, you’ll know:
- How to recognize the 3 traps that keep you stuck and reclaim your power
- How you can make progress on any goal in just 15 minutes a day
- How to let go of the past and use regret to fuel your next chapter
- Why waiting to feel motivated never works, and what to do instead
- Why your brain overcomplicates simple things — and how to outsmart it
- The mindset that instantly removes unneeded pressure from your life
- Exactly what to do when you have no structure or sense of direction.
If you’re sick of feeling stuck, this episode will help you see exactly what’s been standing in your way – and what it takes to finally move forward.
“The suspense is terrible; I hope it will last.” – Willy Wonka
Wired for Success Webinar Replay
Dr. Melissa Hughes will walk through the four-layer model behind sustainable performance, you’ll run through the diagnostic that tells you which layer is leaking your capacity right now, and you’ll leave with one specific thing to try this week. Check out the replay here: https://youtu.be/GdXIzeyJVzw?si=ycPa0QgQhMqY-TPm
:: Motivation
Permission was always yours to issue
Author Josh McLean reminds us that there is no better time than now to act — don’t wait for others to give you permission or for stars to align.
“I spent years in that waiting room. I called it preparation. It wasn’t preparation. It was postponement with a fancy outfit on.”
Stop feeling stuck and unclear on your purpose in life. It’s time to feel energized and live in alignment towards achieving your full potential. What are you waiting for?
Josh’s book, Catalyst: https://a.co/d/018L1XBA
:: Mental Health and Self-Care
The Right Perspective Shouldn’t Need a Catastrophe to Show Up
On LinkedIn, Ian McCain wrote the following:
Last Friday, my fifteen-year-old son was a passenger in a car accident.
It was bad. Bad enough that “could have been so much worse” isn’t a figure of speech in our house right now, it’s a fact we keep saying out loud because saying it makes the relief feel real. He came out of it with a broken hand and a cracked rib. Banged up. Sore. And grounded from a summer he had very specific plans for.
The part I keep turning over in my head, is that he’s not angry. He’s not bitter about the timing, or the plans, or the weird splint cast thing he’s going to be sweating through all summer. Somehow, he’s grateful. Like genuinely, clear-eyed grateful. He knows exactly how the math could have gone the other way, and instead of fixating on what got taken from his summer, he keeps landing on everything that didn’t get taken from the rest of his life.
A fifteen-year-old figured that out in about a day. It’s taken me considerably longer, and I’m not sure I’ve fully landed it yet.
Read the whole article to gain the right perspective without going through a catastrophe.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/right-perspective-shouldnt-need-catastrophe-show-up-ian-mccain-u96re
“The best revenge is not to be like that.” – Marcus Aurelius
The expert guide to taking control of your emotions
Ethan Kross is a world expert in the psychology of emotions, and he has identified a set of tools that can help us to tend our wellbeing.
Ever since he was a child, Ethan Kross has been “an observer of emotion” and the often counter-productive ways that we deal with difficult feelings. “It seemed as if we were all just stumbling along, occasionally finding an accidental or Band-Aid solution to help us manage our emotional lives. Sometimes our improvised tools helped. Sometimes they made things worse. It seemed so haphazard, isolating, and inefficient,” he says.
As a psychologist at the University of Michigan and director of the Emotion and Self-Control Laboratory, Kross hopes to change this sorry state of affairs. In his new book Shift: How to Manage Your Emotions So They Don’t Manage You, he aims to equip us all with a set of tools that will help us to navigate our ups and downs more constructively.
Kross spoke to science writer David Robson about the benefits of “negative” feelings, creating safe spaces and emotional oases – and the surprising upsides of distraction.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250226-the-expert-guide-to-taking-control-of-your-emotions
:: Upcoming Events
Attend Fully Prepared to Lead Courses This Summer!
While the steps to register for Fully Prepared to Lead professional development have changed, the courses have not! Here are some upcoming courses with space still available. Take your learning to the next level with our LTD group at UW-Madison
- Impacting Team Dynamics – Tuesday, July 21 from 1 – 3:30 pm
- Personal Brand and Leadership Awareness – Wednesday, July 22 from 9 – 11:30 am
- Effective and Engaging Meetings – Wednesday, August 5 from 9 – 11:30 am
- Understanding Organizational Politics – Wednesday, August 12 from 1 – 3:30 pm
Have questions? Contact Theresa Kim, Learning and Talent Development, Office of Human Resources
The Power of Connection: Creating Lasting Friendships in an Increasingly Lonely World
Join the Middleton Library in a virtual conversation with bestselling author Dr. Marisa Franco, one of the world’s leading experts in human connection. Her book, Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make–And Keep–Friends, explores the science of different attachment styles and how they impact our relationships–often in ways we don’t realize!
How do we make and keep friends in an era of distraction, burnout, and chaos, especially in a society that often prizes romantic love at the expense of other relationships? In Platonic, Dr. Marisa G. Franco unpacks the latest, often counterintuitive findings about the bonds between us—for example, why your friends aren’t texting you back (it’s not because they hate you!), and the myth of “friendships happening organically” (making friends, like cultivating any relationship, requires effort!). As Dr. Franco explains, to make and keep friends, you must understand your attachment style—secure, anxious, or avoidant: it is the key to unlocking what’s working (and what’s failing) in your friendships.
Making new friends and deepening longstanding relationships is possible at any age—in fact, it’s essential. The good news: there are specific, research-based ways to improve the number and quality of your connections using the insights of attachment theory and the latest scientific research on friendship. Platonic provides a clear and actionable blueprint for forging strong, lasting connections with others—and for becoming our happiest, most fulfilled selves in the process.
Register today to learn more about how to harness the science of human connection to create cultures of belonging.
Date: Tuesday, July 28th 2026
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 PM CDT
Register here: https://libraryc.org/midlibrary/178126?uMarketingSource=_LSC_ME_06_2
Supervisor of Student Employees Certificate Program
Supervising students can be a rewarding, although challenging, proposition. The Office of Student Financial Aid Employer Resources provides support to supervisors of students, helping guide students on their journey to personal and professional success.
The new Student Supervisor Certificate Program is now accepting applications through August 10. The program is designed for professional staff who directly supervise student employees. The program consists of eight required classes, focused on High Impact Practices, the Dimensions of Wellness, recruitment and onboarding, technology, and much more!
https://studentjobs.wisc.edu/student-supervisor-certificate/
ForwardFest 2026 Line-up
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