The Physician Leadership Institute

This course will explore the challenges of leading teams that are inherited as well as those that are purpose-built. Discover strategies to foster team collaboration, motivate and engage. Using case studies and simulations you’ll gain practical skills to build and lead high-performance teams, effectively manage conflict and create a strong culture where every team member feels empowered to reach their potential.

This is a 2 day course accredited for 13 hours.

This course is delivered in virtual format.

Learning outcomes

• Discuss the goals and attributes of team leadership.
• Explore the attributes of a high-performing team.
• Discuss how to empower teams and build a team culture.
• Examine the special dynamics of inherited teams.
• Identify the challenges of leading inherited teams that are dysfunctional or high performing.
• Demonstrate skills to lead both dysfunctional and high-performing inherited teams.
• Diagnose conflict in a team.
• Explore skills needed to manage different kinds of conflict in a team.
• Practise providing timely, direct and constructive feedback to the team as a group and to individual team members.

Faculty

Janice Stein, PhD, FRSC, LLD, MOC

Effective management of conflict is critical in a high-stakes, dynamic environment like health care. Physicians and health care leaders who are skilled in navigating conflict can experience better decision-making and improved relationships, creativity and innovation and can enhance the patient experience.

During this course, you’ll learn how to successfully manage conflict, including using facilitation and resolution processes, to face the most complex situations and difficult conversations with confidence.

This is a 2 day course accredited for 13 hours.

This course can be delivered in either virtual or in-person format.

Learning outcomes

• Differentiate between types of conflict and conflict management styles.
• Discuss strategies for recognizing and managing conflict situations.
• Practise a model of creative collaboration to address conflict with individuals, teams and organizations.
• Develop strategies for managing constituencies and building coalitions.
• Prepare the steps required for providing constructive feedback.

Faculty Team

Janice Stein, PhD, FRSC, LLD, MOC

Scott Comber, BMEDS, MBA, MA, PhD

The world has experienced a collective trauma through the COVID-19 pandemic. The long-term impact to health care workers serving on the front lines is incalculable. Canadian physicians were demonstrating disproportionally higher rates of burnout, depression and suicidal ideation before the pandemic: they were already a traumatized workforce. Further mental health impacts and workforce shortages are predicted among health care workers after the pandemic. Medical leaders may be unaware of the role trauma plays at the individual, team and system levels.

This course develops leadership skills to foster recovery, build wellness and promote post-traumatic growth in the health care workforce. Delivered as an interactive workshop, it will facilitate a shift to a wellness-informed mindset and encourage you to apply key wellness-informed leadership practices at all levels.

This is a 2 day course accredited for 11.5 hours.

This course can be delivered in either virtual or in-person format.

Learning outcomes

• Explore the types of traumas experienced by physicians.
• Examine the impacts of trauma at the individual, team and system level.
• Reframe physician burnout through a trauma lens.
• Discover the principles of Trauma-Informed (TI) approaches.
• Recognize how TI principles apply at the system level to create trauma-informed teams and trauma-informed health care organizations.
• Develop an action plan to bring TI principles to your leadership practice with team/organizational metrics to measure culture shift.

Faculty Team

Jodi Ploquin, M.Sc., Certified Workplace Traumatologist

Jennifer Williams, BSc, MD, FRCPC

In any workplace, it can be challenging to dialogue and engage with people when they don’t feel psychologically safe to speak up to share their perspectives, especially when their opinions may differ. The cost of not speaking up may be high, impacting decision-making, patient safety and employee wellness.

Crucial Conversations© by Crucial Learning© helps you and your team achieve alignment and understanding on crucial matters through open dialogue. Learn to set good intentions, build safety, speak honestly and approach tough conversations in a way where everyone feels heard.

This is a 2 day course accredited for 12 hours..

This course can be delivered in either virtual or in-person format.

Learning outcomes

• Identify problems contributing to poor results and broken relationships.
• Keep composure when feeling angry, defensive or intimidated.
• Identify victim, villain and helpless stories you might be telling yourself to justify behaviour.
• Speak honestly and respectfully with colleagues even when you have differing opinions.
• Recognize when you’re at cross-purposes and take steps to bring colleagues back into dialogue.
• Cultivate mutual purpose with those who hold opposing viewpoints and move together toward action..

Various Faculty

Gillian Kernaghan, MD, CCFP, FCFP, CCPE

Monica Branigan, MD MHSc (Bioethics)

Louise McNaughton-Filion, MD CM, FCFP(EM), CCPE

Johny Van Aerde, MD, MA, PhD, FRCPC

How can health care leaders continuously improve patient outcomes? In today’s challenging landscape, it’s important to know how to monitor processes, analyze organizational structures and measure outcomes. A quality improvement (QI) framework can help.

Through lecture, small-group work and hands-on learning, explore the QI tools and methods required to lead system improvement and develop a plan to improve an area in your organization.

This is a 2 day course accredited for 14.5 hours.

This course can be delivered in either virtual or in-person format.

Learning outcomes

• Describe the theory and science of Quality Improvement (QI) in health care.
• Discuss common sources of waste in health care.
• Apply tools that reveal and explore patterns and processes within your system.
• Explain and apply the Model for Improvement in health care.
• Discuss techniques for identifying ideas for improvement/change in health care.
• Apply course content to creating or refining a quality improvement agenda in the context of your organization.
• Apply Creative Thinking techniques to QI work.

Faculty Team

Katherine Stevenson, BA(Hons), BScPT, MSc

Kishore Visvanathan, MD, FRCSC

Knowing how to work successfully across functions and cultures — and gain the commitment and cooperation of people inside and outside your organization — are essential to effective leadership and management within the health care system.

During this course, you’ll learn the core practical skills you need to successfully engage and influence others. You’ll also have access to the online leadership assessment tool Work Engagement Profile®.

This is a 2 day course accredited for 14.5 hours.

This course can be delivered in either virtual or in-person format.

Learning outcomes

• Define engagement and assess your and others’ engagement in the workplace.
• Describe a strengths-based approach to building engagement.
• Discuss strategies for motivating others and building trust.
• Distinguish dialogue from other forms of discourse.
• Practise powerful listening approaches to discover common ground and mutual insight.
• Prepare the steps required for providing constructive feedback.
• Describe the major principles behind coaching.

Faculty

Paul Mohapel PhD

Workplace politics exist in every leader’s world. How health care leaders navigate regular interactions with stakeholders — while maintaining autonomy, integrity and sanity — can either help or hinder their objectives.

In this course, you’ll gain the skills to influence at work, build alliances and achieve consensus to meet your objectives. You’ll learn how to craft clear, effective messaging, improve your advocacy skills and build confidence working with the media to impactfully deliver your message.

This is a 2 day course accredited for 13 hours.

This course is delivered in virtual format.

Learning outcomes

• Assess the health care environment.
• Work with matrices and networks as platforms of influence.
• Describe the nature of health care decision-making processes and influence at the local, provincial, territorial and federal levels.
• Navigate the points of entry into political environments.
• Demonstrate strategic advocacy skills.
• Present persuasive messages more effectively.
• Practise effective skills in working with the media and receive feedback.

Faculty Team

Janice Stein, PhD, FRSC, LLD, MOC

Peter Kuling, BSc, MSc, MD, FCFP, CCPE

In your professional life, you may face many obstacles, such as struggling to make meaningful change at work, conflicting with different personality types or feeling disengaged. The solutions ― all of which require creativity, innovative thinking and collaboration ― must start with self-awareness. In this course, you will begin to develop a profound sense of self through examining your personal vision and values, personality attributes, emotional intelligence skills and intrinsic strengths. These personal insights will help shape your leadership development plan.

This course is accredited for 30 hours.

This is a 6-week course that combines 3 to 4 hours of self led activities and a 1-hour webinar* per week

Learning outcomes

• Recognize the critical importance of personal mastery as a foundation for effective physician leadership.
• Achieve a more complete view of yourself as a leader — with respect to your personal values and principles, personality style, emotional intelligence and strengths.
• Develop strategies to leverage your strengths and manage your limitations.
• Establish a professional development action plan that includes setting personal leadership goals.

*We always recommend attending webinars live whenever possible however, should you be unable to attend a session live a recording will be made available to you. Please note webinar days are subject to change based on holidays and faculty availability.

Faculty

Paul Mohapel, PhD

Physician engagement is vital to the success of Canadian health reform. However, external barriers and internal motivation can impact a physician’s ability to take the lead and move forward with quality improvement initiatives. Culture, organizational structure and politics can also significantly impact engagement.

In this course, you’ll examine evidence-based physician engagement strategies that apply to any workplace in primary, hospital or community care. You’ll review the enablers of engagement, explore strategies to improve workplace connection and develop a personal action plan with opportunities to cultivate workplace relationships and foster collaboration.

This is a 2 day course accredited for 14.5 hours.

This course can be delivered in either virtual or in-person format.

Learning outcomes

• Explore the ‘relationship dynamics’ of physician engagement and why it is essential for high-quality service to patients, families and citizens.
• Examine how physician engagement differs in a variety of contexts (i.e., self, organization, system).
• Comprehend how physician leadership can contribute to designing sustainable physician engagement.
• Recognize how physician engagement is compromised by lack of well-being, psychological/cultural safety and trust.
• Critically analyze personal, social, and organizational/systemic enablers and barriers to physician engagement.
• Explore and identify leadership interventions to remove personal, social, and organizational/systemic barriers, and leverage enablers to physician engagement.
• Engage in discourse with peers and course content to develop and employ a personal learning activity relative to understanding the dynamics of physician engagement in their workplace.
• Use peer-coaching for some of the discourse particularly for conversations related to the individual action plan development.
• Present proposed leadership interventions to improve physician engagement, in different contexts, to peer-participants.
• Design a plan of action — relative to the challenge of physician engagement — to be employed upon return to their workplace post-program.

Faculty Team

Johny Van Aerde, MD, MA, PhD, FRCPC

Graham Dickson, PhD

In a fast-paced health care environment, the ability to effectively manage change is critical. Yet implementing change, even on a small scale, can be difficult. You may encounter challenges, such as fear and resistance from colleagues and administrators.

In this course, we will draw on evidence-based research and explore the levers that impact organizational change. We’ll look at how to garner support for your change initiative and prepare your organization, department or team to successfully execute and sustain change.

This is a 2 day course accredited for 13.5 hours.

This course can be delivered in either virtual or in-person format.

Learning outcomes

• Develop and apply a systematic approach to analyzing and addressing change challenges and opportunities.
• Identify organizational design impediments and enablers to change and to influence organizational culture.
• Apply tactics to minimize resistance and influence stakeholders.
• Identify networks of relationships and discuss how to build and maintain partnerships when leading change.
• Anticipate, accept and learn from failure as part of leading change.
• Reflect on your leadership style and develop the ability for resilience in leading change.

Faculty Team

Mamta Gautam, MD, MBA, FRCPC, CPDC, CCPE, CPE

Scott Comber, BMEDS, MBA, MA, PhD

Brian Golden, MS, PhD, FCAHS

Joshua Tepper, MD, FCFP, MPH, MBA

Paying attention to culture when leading change initiatives and implementing strategy is an often-neglected yet critical aspect of leadership.

This course will reveal how organizational culture impacts most aspects of leadership and targets physicians or health care professionals in formal or informal leadership roles. You’ll learn to assess and impact organizational culture and explore strategies to design and shape the culture in more intentional directions, while managing the risks of culture dynamics. You’ll also examine leadership skills and processes that cultivate healthy cultures and promote innovation in a variety of contexts.

This is a 2 day course accredited for 12 hours.

This course can be delivered in either virtual or in-person format.

Learning outcomes

• Discuss how the (physician) leader connects strategy, culture and leadership.
• Lead change initiatives through a cultural framework that identifies the current and ideal future states.
• Leverage culture to enhance workplace relationships and promote innovation.
• Create a culture sustainment strategy to align the system, build (leadership and front-line) capability, integrate a culture measurement system and manage misaligned behaviours.

Faculty Team

Paul Mohapel PhD

As health care continues to evolve at an accelerating pace, health care practitioners continue to be confronted with numerous dilemmas, or polarities, that need to be managed. Balancing standardized practices while meeting the individual needs of the patient. Implementing new technologies while protecting the personal touch that is so important to patient care. Striving to maintain stability while embracing the change needed to move forward. Many of these dilemmas are an inherent part of the system’s structure. Polarity Management™ is both a method and a framework that supports individuals and teams to effectively identify and manage these naturally occurring polarities.

Research shows that high-performing organizations perform well because, in part, they have created systems and processes that help them manage polarities well. Effective leaders are both clear and flexible, and high-performing organizations both centralize for coordination and decentralize for responsiveness. It’s not about either/or, it’s about both!

This course is designed to help you effectively identify and manage naturally occurring polarities in your life, practice and/or organization and use adaptive leadership to make your strategies a reality.

This is a 1,5 day course accredited for 11 hours.

This course can be delivered in either virtual or in-person format.

Learning outcomes

• Identify context factors driving transformation in our organizations.
• Explore and apply the construct of Zooming In and Zooming Out in systems, from the tactical to strategic and on to the systemic domains.
• Assess your personal leadership agility orientation.
• Differentiate between problems to solve and polarities to manage.
• Examine and apply polarity thinking at the micro, meso and macro levels in social systems, see polarities in different contexts, map polarities on a polarity map.
• Identify various resources for deepening capacity in polarity mapping.
• Implement a process for assessing polarities in a group setting.
• Manage polarities by identifying early warning signs of over-focusing on one polarity to the neglect of the other.
• Develop your own polarity maps at work at the micro, macro and meso level.
• Identify how to use polarity thinking when addressing conflict.

Faculty Team

Johny Van Aerde, MD, MA, PhD, FRCPC

Phil Cady, CD BSW MA (Leadership) DSocSci (Cand)

Physicians (and many other health care workers) act as experts — not only because of their training, but also because the structure and culture of the health system force them into the expert role. These experts can struggle to lead in the volatility, uncertainty and ambiguity of a complex system such as the Canadian health care system.

In this course, we demystify systems to help you gain a deeper understanding of how to navigate and influence individuals within a large, complex system. Through an organizational simulation, reflective exercises and conversation, you’ll build empathy and understanding as you explore the worlds of the Tops, Middles, Bottoms and Customers (Patients), develop strategies for working in your organization and within the health care system, and identify leadership opportunities to address systemic challenges.

This is a 2 day course accredited for 15 hours.

This course can be delivered in either virtual or in-person format.

Learning outcomes

• Describe the concept of VUCA [Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity] and apply it to the Canadian health system.
• Practise sense-making to guide decisions in simple, complicated, complex and chaotic systems.
• Reflect upon and practise strategies which help leaders and teams to improve their functioning in systems with little certainty and/or agreement.
• Identify, reflect upon and discuss hidden possibilities and actions that can be taken in a seemingly chaotic simulation of a virtual ER overload on a late Friday afternoon.
• Apply skills to influence underlying archetypes and social systems patterns causing resistance to systemic changes.
• Describe the discipline of systems thinking as a resource for managing organizational change.
• Develop take home ideas and solutions to apply to real situations in the participants’ work systems.

Faculty Team

Johny Van Aerde, MD, MA, PhD, FRCPC

Phil Cady, CD BSW MA (Leadership) DSocSci (Cand)

The culture of health care tends to view leadership as “solving problems.” But the conventional wisdom of fixing weaknesses (i.e., find what’s wrong and try to correct it) has been shown to be limiting and ineffective in the long term. It can lead to uninspired individual and organizational performance and contribute to decreased motivation and stress. Focusing on what works and paying more attention to what intrinsically energizes people is a much more effective approach.

This interactive course will help participants accurately identify their personal strengths and leverage them using pragmatic strategies. It also offers ways leaders can identify and leverage the strengths of their people and teams to increase work engagement and well-being and drive innovation.

This is a 2 day course accredited for 13 hours.

This course can be delivered in either virtual or in-person format.

Learning outcomes

• Recognize the value of a strengths-based approach to leadership.
• Complete a strength-based assessment to uncover your unique strengths, talents and gifts and those of your team.
• Describe how strengths-based approaches can facilitate improved engagement of health care professionals, reduce burnout and lead to better team and patient outcomes.
• Examine strategies to build a strengths-based culture that values the unique gifts that everyone brings to the team and fosters a culture of engagement, diversity and inclusion.
• Create a development plan to build on your strengths, while managing around your blind spots.
• Identify and encourage strengths-based approaches in peers and teams.

Faculty

Paul Mohapel PhD