Facilitators: Holly Harris, MA; Sophie Soklaridis, PhD

Engaging patients in co-production enhances the quality, relevance and impact of initiatives by incorporating their lived experiences and aligning efforts with the real-world needs of the communities served by health systems. When patients are meaningfully involved, their insights help shape programs that are more responsive, inclusive and effective. However, many efforts to engage patients fall short due to a lack of collaborative infrastructure and clear guidance for physician leaders. Patient engagement often becomes an afterthought, with patients brought in to support predetermined agendas rather than being involved as true partners from the outset.

This workshop explores the value of engaging patients as equal partners and introduces practical strategies for fostering sustainable, collaborative relationships. Participants will learn about distributive leadership, which shares power and fosters shared decision-making and multidirectional learning, where all team members co-create knowledge and empower diverse voices. Drawing on lived experiences, research and best practices, the workshop will guide participants through reflexive exercises to develop these approaches in their own work.

Learning objectives

• Articulate the value of patient engagement in health research, education and programming.
• Apply distributive leadership approaches to foster shared decision-making, accountability and ownership within patient engagement environments.
• Apply multidirectional learning in collaborative environments to mitigate power imbalances, empower all members to shape outcomes and explore new possibilities that come with diverse perspectives.

Facilitators: Ruth Vilayil, MD, FRCSC; Erica Phelps, MD, FRCSC; Ariella Zbar, MD, CCFP, MPH, MBA, FRCPC

Healthcare leaders face significant challenges that could benefit from strategic thinking, yet few healthcare trainees/leaders receive any structured leadership training. This affects equity within their organizations, as the complex, interconnected health inequities they encounter are often compounded by leaders lacking the tools to apply an equity lens or recognize implicit biases when making strategic decisions.

In the book Strategic Intelligence: Conceptual Tools for Leading Change the authors describe a systematic approach to strategic intelligence for healthcare leaders. It is a leadership philosophy with four main components – Foresight, Partnering, Visioning and Motivating. Developing our leadership philosophy empowers our behaviours and decisions to remain consistent with core principles, perspectives and values that can elevate our impact to align with values such as promoting health equity.

Learning objectives

• Identify the main components of strategic intelligence as it relates to healthcare leadership as defined in the book Strategic Intelligence: Conceptual Tools for Leading Change.
• Conduct a personal gap analysis of strategic intelligence as a healthcare leader.
• Use an implicit bias tool to increase awareness of personal cognitive bias.
• Describe how principles of strategic intelligence could be applied to fostering equity in healthcare for maximum results.

Facilitators: Amanda Brisebois, MD, Med., MMgmt (IMHL), PPC (ICF), AoDI

Physician leaders are being asked in an increasing capacity to advocate for issues they are facing in the workplace. Advocacy alone will not result in high-level outcomes, as without influence we are unlikely to see proactive change.

This workshop guides participants through a structured process commonly used in negotiation and mediation, focusing on the clear presentation of issues, clarification of interests and identification of goals. Participants will learn to apply this process to create high-level briefing notes, a valuable tool for advancing issues within the healthcare system.

The workshop will also introduce processed communication strategies designed to enhance influence in the workplace. Using real-world examples relevant to diverse healthcare leaders, participants will gain practical insights they can adapt to their own experiences. To reinforce learning, a pre- and post-workshop survey will be provided to help solidify new knowledge and skills.

Learning objectives

• Develop an understanding of gaps experienced by physician leaders when trying to influence healthcare change.
• Apply process to successful advocacy and influence based on negotiation and mediation principles.
• Develop a structure to integrate negotiation principles into briefing notes for successful outcomes.
• Create specific learning SMART-E action plans based on the application of negotiation principles to problem-solving.

Facilitators: Gary P. Ernest, MD, CCFP, FCFP, MBA, EDBA Candidate; Catherine Loughlin, PhD

This workshop will introduce the audience to the concept of calling orientations and how they can either predispose physicians to burnout or offer protective effects for physician leaders against it, including a review of the current evidence-based literature on the potential association between different calling orientations and physician burnout.

Participants will get the opportunity to engage with the presenters and each other through broad dialogue, small group discussion and case studies to learn further about the potential effects of physician calling behaviors on burnout in physician leaders. Workshop participants will have completed a brief survey in advance to identify their own calling behavior pathways and will be grouped accordingly for the small group breakout sessions. The emphasis will be on case studies and on real-life examples brought up by the workshop participants themselves.

Key themes throughout the workshop will include the importance of equity, incivility, diversity, connectedness and inclusion within the physician leadership community, as well as promoting physician leader support and resilience. The workshop’s structure will ensure ample time for dialogue, fostering personal growth and knowledge acquisition and will conclude with a summary of key learning points that can be applied both personally and organizationally.

Learning objectives

• Assess your own calling orientation when it comes to leading in medicine.
• Gain insight into how others with similar calling styles are dealing with individual and organizational stressors in medicine and their experiences with burnout.
• Identify what the evidence-based literature suggests about potential links between these different calling orientations and physician burnout.
• Articulate and apply the potential utility of understanding the interaction between different calling pathway orientations and physician burnout.

Facilitators: Andrea Lum MD, FRCPC, CCPE, FCAR; Kelly McShane, PhD, CPsych

Disrespectful behaviour by physicians is increasingly recognized as a significant issue in healthcare, contributing to a toxic culture, decreased well-being, poor team dynamics and compromised patient safety. Traditional regulatory approaches often treat these behaviours as isolated incidents, rather than acknowledging them as workplace hazards. We propose a new framework that treats incivility and disrespect as psychosocial workplace hazards, applying occupational health and safety principles to develop more systematic prevention and management strategies that offer better protection for physicians as workers.

The framework introduces four paradigm shifts: recognizing physicians as key partners in occupational health and safety, identifying psychosocial hazards, conducting root-cause analysis and establishing a hierarchy of interventions. This workshop will delve into the “Feedback Friction” case from Wolfe, Hoang & Denniston, providing a detailed examination of how psychosocial hazards manifest in organizational settings. Participants will engage with various techniques for root-cause analysis, learning to trace issues to their source and develop targeted, impactful interventions.

The workshop will also cover the concept of a hierarchy of interventions, emphasizing how to prioritize actions based on their potential impact and feasibility. Participants will explore common obstacles to implementing these frameworks, such as resource limitations and workplace constraints and discuss actionable strategies to address these challenges effectively.

Learning objectives

• Describe psychosocial hazards and their impact on the health and wellness of physicians.
• Apply root cause analysis to a case study to clarify root vs. proximate causes of incivility.
• Apply a hierarchy of interventions to address incivility and disrespect.

Facilitators: Anne McNamara, MBChB, FRACP, FRCPC, CEC

Many medical leaders face challenges in building meaningful connections and mutual understanding with colleagues in different roles, often leading to leadership roadblocks. This workshop invites participants to reflect on these challenges, share their experiences in small groups and explore the impacts on their leadership. Through these discussions, participants will also visualize their leadership ecosystem, identifying potential impacts of the above relationship.

Grounded in the allyship framework by Eric Spencer, Morag Barrett and Ruby Vesely, the workshop offers a concise introduction to this powerful tool. Participants will engage in group discussions, uncover actionable insights and explore strategies to address assumptions, biases and a lack of clarity in conversations. Practical tools and provocative practice questions will support leaders in shifting their conversational styles from competition and persuasion to collaboration, curiosity and understanding.

The session concludes with participants identifying and committing to one meaningful change they can implement to foster more effective leadership conversations.

Learning objectives

• Develop awareness of your interactions, intentions, purposes and assumptions in relation to those within your leadership ecosystem. (Awareness)
• Reflect on how a framework of allyship might change your approach to others in your ecosystem and their approach to you. (New knowledge)
• Practise using curiosity to support relationship-building conversations. (Growth, connection, belonging, empowerment)
• Create a plan to support your specific intention for purposeful change(s) in your leadership connectivity. (Future growth and practice)
• Build connection with other leaders by sharing relevant stories and ideas. (Belonging)