Facilitators: Emma McDermott, MD, BSc, MGA, MD, PGY3; Owen Dan Luo, BHSc, MDCM, PGY3; Connor Brenna, BSc, MD, PGY5; Casey Cohen, BSc, PhD, MDCM candidate

Environmental sustainability is increasingly recognized as a core component of physician leadership, given its direct connections to population health, healthcare delivery across settings and professional ethics. Medical trainees across Canada are at the forefront of this work. In this learner-led workshop, participants will hear rapid-fire presentations highlighting planetary health quality-improvement (QI) projects from EARTH and Project Green Healthcare cohorts, followed by small-group case discussions.

Participants will explore practical opportunities to reduce healthcare’s environmental footprint, learn strategies for co-creating QI initiatives with learners and discover how intergenerational collaboration can drive meaningful and sustainable system change.

Learning objectives:

• Critique the environmental impact of healthcare operations and identify opportunities for sustainable QI initiatives.
• Design a learner-led QI project that integrates planetary-health principles into clinical or operational settings.
• Engage learners as collaborators in sustainable care initiatives through effective mentorship and leadership strategies.
• Evaluate the outcomes and sustainability of learner-led QI interventions using metrics and feedback loops.
• Integrate planetary health considerations into existing QI and leadership frameworks to foster enduring institutional change.

Facilitator: Mamta Gautam, MD, MBA, FRCPC, CCPE, CPE

Civility and kindness are increasingly recognized as essential dimensions of effective medical leadership. Civility reflects a courageous commitment to respectful conduct even in high-pressure situations, while kindness embodies a leadership approach rooted in empathy, inclusion, and moral integrity. This workshop examines how kindness-based leadership can enhance workforce retention, foster equity-oriented care and strengthen organizational resilience. By framing civility and kindness as core competencies rather than optional virtues, the session highlights their central role in redefining leadership – ensuring that courage and compassion remain foundational to a healthy medical culture.

Through storytelling, discussion, case scenarios and practical skill-building, participants will reflect on their own organizational cultures and learn strategies to foster respect, inclusion and compassion. The session also highlights how kindness-based leadership supports system-wide improvement.

Learning objectives:

• Define the constructs of civility and kindness within the context of medical leadership and organizational culture.
• Analyze the relationship between civility, kindness and courageous leadership in promoting psychological safety and team effectiveness.
• Examine how kindness-based leadership practices align with the Canadian Society of Physician Leaders’ four strategic pillars – optimizing health human resources, aligning social accountability, addressing planetary health and rebuilding the healthcare system.
• Apply evidence-informed strategies to foster cultures of respect, inclusion and compassion within healthcare organizations.

Facilitators: Marshall Cheng, MD; Angela Tecson, BScN

Health-system transformation requires leadership grounded in clinical insight, data and collaboration. Fraser Health Authority’s Physician Quality Leader (PQL) program moves physicians from QI training participants to embedded system leaders who influence quality, innovation and redesign across the organization. Spanning 13 hospitals and four major clinical programs, PQLs are integrated into governance structures and co-lead high-impact initiatives such as accreditation readiness, patient safety and system redesign. Through formal roles, leadership development and engagement strategies, Fraser Health has built a sustainable model that elevates the physician voice and fosters a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

This workshop presents the PQL model’s structure, process and impact, offering practical approaches to replicate or adapt it in other health systems. Participants will explore governance integration, leadership development, engagement strategies and outcome measurement, gaining tools and frameworks to embed physician leadership effectively and strengthen collaboration, accountability and system-wide improvement.

Learning objectives:

• Describe Fraser Health’s process of evolving QI-trained physicians into embedded leaders supporting system-wide transformation.
• Identify the contracting, governance, accountability structures and funding strategies that sustain physician leadership and engagement.
• Apply a practical framework to build capacity and capability, and effective strategies for leadership development, evaluation and alignment with organizational quality priorities.
• Identify the measurable impacts of PQLs on leadership collaboration, physician engagement and safety culture.
• Apply lessons from the PQL model to design or scale physician-led quality structures in other health systems.

Facilitators: Constance LeBlanc, MD, CCFP(EM), MAEd, MBA, CCIP; Victor Do, MD, FRCPC, MSc

Physician well-being is a leadership imperative. When providers are well, patient outcomes, safety and system performance all improve, yet wellbeing initiatives often falter without intentional, values-based leadership. This workshop positions well-being as a core leadership competency, grounded in the LEADS in a Caring Environment Framework and the Okanagan Charter, which calls on organizations to embed health into all aspects of culture and leadership. Participants will receive a concise overview of the evidence linking leadership practices to well-being, supported by an annotated bibliography for continued learning.

Through real-world leadership cases and guided activities, participants will identify behaviours across the LEADS domains that promote individual and team well-being and use the TRIZ method to surface common pitfalls that inadvertently undermine it. Small-group discussions, reflective exercises and a structured commitment process will support leaders in translating insights into practical actions. By linking LEADS with the Okanagan Charter, the workshop offers an actionable, equity-informed model for health-promoting leadership – one that recognizes the interconnected well-being of individuals, teams and organizations, and positions leaders as catalysts for system-wide culture change.

Learning objectives:

• Integrate evidence on physician and team wellbeing into leadership approaches aligned with the LEADS Framework and the Okanagan Charter.
• Apply LEADS dimensions to identify leadership behaviours that support wellbeing and organizational health.
• Analyze and mitigate personal and systemic behaviours that undermine wellbeing using TRIZ-based inquiry.
• Design and implement at least one wellbeing-promoting leadership strategy each week for three weeks to catalyze culture change.

Facilitators: Scott McLeod, MD, MPH, MPA, CCFP, FCFP, CCPE; Dawn Hartfield, MD, MPH, CCPE

Organizational change is one of the most complex challenges facing senior health system leaders. This workshop highlights a three-year transformation addressing a substantial backlog of complaints – an issue that threatened public trust and patient safety, and examines how leaders in diverse roles can collaborate to increase the likelihood of successful change. Using a blended approach that combined project management, quality improvement, and change management, leaders redesigned workflows, created specialized teams, leveraged legislative tools and enhanced transparency, resulting in sustained improvements in key performance indicators and overall experience.

Central to this transformation was the understanding that systems change is ultimately human change. Culture emerged as the most critical factor, requiring psychological safety, relational leadership and shared accountability to take root. This workshop will explore the interpersonal dynamics, leadership challenges and courageous conversations essential for meaningful transformation. Through storytelling, structured reflection and practical tools, participants will gain insights applicable to their own leadership contexts and system-level change efforts.

Learning objectives:

• Understand the roles and responsibilities of team members and leaders at various organizational levels in cultivating a psychologically safe culture.
• Apply strategies to shift team culture toward greater continuous improvement while concurrently focusing on greater civility and wellness.
• Identify barriers to change and co-design collaborative practical solutions.
• Utilize tools and frameworks that support addressing complex organizational challenges requiring transformative change.

Facilitators: Marc Bilodeau, MD; Nicole Boucher-Larrivière, M.Sc

This workshop examines the transformative impact of courageous and kind leadership through the Proximity-Based Health Management Model implemented by the CISSS de l’Outaouais. In response to workforce shortages, fragmented partnerships and challenges in access to care, leaders in the region adopted a renewed approach grounded in shared governance, community engagement and decisions made closer to the point of care. Participants will explore real case studies illustrating how proximity-based leadership strengthens trust, improves care pathways and builds a culture of belonging and empowerment among health professionals and community partners.

The workshop will demonstrate how aligning leadership practices with values of courage and kindness can drive meaningful system change – improving quality, access and continuity of care while enhancing workforce sustainability. It offers practical insights and a replicable blueprint for leaders seeking to create more responsive, equitable and resilient healthcare environments.

Learning objectives:

• Analyze how courageous and kind leadership practices can address systemic challenges in healthcare delivery.
• Design proximity-based strategies that foster psychological safety, equity and inclusion within healthcare teams and communities.
• Apply principles of shared governance and proximity-based decision-making to strengthen workforce sustainability and patient-centred care.
• Evaluate the impact of community engagement and intersectoral collaboration on healthcare outcomes and organizational culture.