Planners’ Picks — August 25, 2026
Let’s negotiate, get unstuck, and do hard things this week with the resources enclosed within.
:: Image of the Week
:: CSN’s Book of the Week
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It―Unlock Your Persuasion Potential in Professional and Personal Life
Life is a series of negotiations, and essential negotiation skills are at the heart of collaboration―whether you are a business executive, a salesperson, a parent, a community leader, or a spouse. As a former FBI hostage negotiator, Chris Voss gives you the tools for effective persuasion in any situation: negotiating a business deal, buying (or selling) a car, negotiating a salary, acquiring a home, renegotiating rent, deliberating with your partner, or communicating with your children. Taking the power of tactical empathy, active listening, and intuition to the next level, Never Split the Difference gives you the competitive edge in any difficult conversation or conflict resolution scenario. This book is a masterclass in influencing others, no matter the circumstances.
After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a hostage negotiator brought him face-to-face with a range of criminals, including bank robbers and terrorists. Reaching the pinnacle of his profession, he became the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator. Never Split the Difference distills the Voss method, revealing the communication skills that matter most when it comes to achieving your goals in both your professional and personal life.
Step-by-step, Voss shows you how to:
- Establish Rapport
- Create Trust with Tactical Empathy
- Gain the Permission to Persuade
- Shape What Is Fair
- Calibrate Questions
- Transform Conflict into Collaboration
- Spot Liars
- Create Breakthroughs by Revealing the Unknown Unknowns
Never Split the Difference is your definitive source for defusing potential crises, winning people over, and achieving your goals at work and at home with proven negotiating strategies.
:: TED Talks
Why curiosity gets you farther than ambition
Comedian Drew Lynch explores the idea of living curiously vs. living ambitiously, and how a shift in that perspective has gotten him farther in his professional career and personal relationship with stuttering. Comedian and Actor Drew Lynch is one of the most beloved voices in comedy. He initially captured the hearts of America in 2015 with his Golden Buzzer performance on Season 10 of America’s Got Talent (NBC), where he finished in second place. Since then, Drew has amassed a following of millions on social media and has been touring the country nonstop performing standup to sold out audiences of dedicated fans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow-0P3SyZpM
:: Self-Leadership Development
The Cycle of Resistance in Leadership: How the Inner Work Fuels Outer Impact
Most leadership problems have nothing to do with strategy or capability. They’re self-leadership problems.
And here’s what makes that so hard to accept: turning inward feels more uncomfortable than looking outward. Focusing on external circumstances — the team, the market, the pressure from above — feels easier, even when it’s not working. Because at least out there, we have something to point to.
But the most powerful leadership move isn’t the one that’s most visible. It’s the one that requires the most bravery: turning the lens on yourself. Because you are the only thing you can actually control — how you show up, how you respond, how you lead when things get hard.
That’s the work. And the reward is real.
Nicole goes on about this in the link below.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cycle-resistance-leadership-how-inner-work-fuels-bianchi-csp–0gjec
The Hidden Rules Keeping You Stuck
The rules you’re living by might not be real, but they might be running your life.
Amy and Ashley have another “Not Sorry” podcast with a powerful conversation about permission, identity, and the invisible rulebooks that keep high achievers, people pleasers, and perfectionists stuck. Together, they unpack how self-imposed rules show up in careers, relationships, entrepreneurship, and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are allowed to become.
From leaving behind old definitions of success to recognizing when busyness, people-pleasing, or perfectionism are actually protection mechanisms, Amy and Ashley challenge listeners to pause, question the rules, and start choosing action over overthinking. This episode is a call to stop living by scripts that no longer serve you and begin rewriting your life with more courage, clarity, and power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLJ9nk_fzng
“He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.” – Epictetus
Showing Up Unstuck
Somewhere along the way, a lot of leaders (including us) got stuck.
This week on LinkedIn Live, Jen Marr sits down with Rosie Ward, Ph.D., author of Future-Proofing Leadership, organizational behavior expert, and certified trainer in our Showing Up programming.
Rosie has a gift for connecting the dots and pulling the pieces together. She helps leaders understand what is really happening beneath the surface and how to move from fear, overwhelm, and old patterns into courage, connection, and action.
We’ll talk about what keeps leaders stuck, what it takes to lead in this new era, and why future-proofing leadership begins with becoming more human, not less.
Listen in for a practical, honest, and energizing conversation about getting unstuck and leading forward.
https://www.linkedin.com/events/7469849416070221824/theater
We Can Do Hard Things
We can do hard things.
And when we do hard things, we change.
On the other side of the chasm, the dark tunnel, the belly of the beast, is a return to the normal world… but changed.
I keep going back for more: for more hard things.
Because they are intoxicating.
On the other side, at least.
When you sit down, task complete, and realise you did it – you faced it down, the feeling is quite something.
Particularly if you’ve been on an adventure with friends, some of the best friends a man could hope for, and got through it together.
We can do hard things.
Not only that, but we should.
See Robert Swale’s story here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/we-can-do-hard-things-robbie-swale-nlice/
:: Work Culture & Team Development
Motivation is something people do for themselves
You don’t install motivation. You build the conditions for it. Edward Deci put it simply: Motivation is something people do for themselves.
Pay fairly, add autonomy, support mastery, connect the work to a purpose. Then get out of the way.
We featured Dan Pink’s DRIVE back in 2019 with the Campus Supervisors Network at UW-Madison. It’s definitely one of the major influences on my leadership style; this was how I wanted to be led, and it’s, for the most part, how I nurtured and developed the team that I work with.
Allowing the autonomy to explore, be curious, and participate in more ways to solve the challenges the team sees creates more buy-in and dedication. Enjoy Dan’s full review of his classic book below.
You Can Dislike Someone But Still Care About Them
A core responsibility of leadership is to care about people regardless of whether you like them. Simon Sinek, Brené Brown, and Adam Grant discuss on The Curiosity Shop…
Recorded in Stockholm at the Brilliant Minds Foundation conference.
Creating Teams that Flourish
Daniel Coyle, bestselling author of The Culture Code, joins Kim Scott to discuss his new book, Flourish. They explore why command-and-control leadership kills team performance, how 33 Chilean miners survived by surrendering control, and what traffic engineering reveals about self-organizing systems. Coyle argues that flourishing — joyful, meaningful growth shared — starts with relationships, curiosity, and creating space for connection.
https://www.radicalcandor.com/podcast/daniel-coyle-8-13?_hsmi=31610249
“You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to DO…Try to do some BAD work—the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell—you are not responsible for the world—you are only responsible for your work—so DO IT.” – Sol LeWitt
:: Trust, Psychological Safety & Belonging
Recognize the Signs of “Fake Ownership Culture”
Have you ever been told, “You own this project,” only to have your boss overrule your very first decision, pull people into the project without talking to you first, and demand a three-page status report every week?
Most of us don’t set out to be micromanagers. We struggle to give away ownership for quite human reasons. Maybe it’s perfectionism, that nagging feeling that if it isn’t done exactly how you envisioned, then it’s not good enough. Or perhaps it’s the quiet whisper of imposter syndrome, the pressure to be the expert with all the answers. If your team can function independently, you might feel a sudden, jarring sense of being “unnecessary.” It could be simply that you know your organization is still built on command and control, so if you want to be successful, you had better demonstrate precisely that.
To manage these human reactions, we unintentionally promise ownership but never actually deliver it.
See this post on one of the 36 anti-patterns in the book The Octupus Organization (CSN’s Summer Book Club Topic!!) in the link below:
https://link.hbr.org/view/654a7671fe5aeb7c2e87714b6a0734f82a61110419994520/6c434750
:: Upcoming Events
CSN Presents Leadership Improv
CSN will once again host a Leadership Improv presentation for a fun exercise of practicing our “in the moment” responses to curveballs and unexpected comments during this highly interactive training.
Using techniques first exercised in improv theater training, we will correlate the similarities to leadership readiness during this fun training.
Date: September 16, 2026
Time: 2:00-3:15 pm
Location: Morgridge Hall, WARF Centennial Terrace – 7th floor (outdoors) – Weather permitting
(Alternate location will be shared closer to the date if the forecast does not favor an outdoor gathering)
Register here: https://go.wisc.edu/t4d016
“Things are not getting worse — they are getting uncovered.” — Adrienne Maree Brown