In this video from our Reimagining Health Care Leadership event, Andrew Young, former Executive Director of Outward Bound Canada and current Executive Director of Georgian Bay Land Trust, shares his journey of discovering the transformative power of outdoor experiences, starting from a pivotal five-day outdoor education trip in grade five.

Andrew recounts his work at a community health centre in Ottawa, where outdoor activities helped mend relationships between young people and police. He also discusses his role at the Diabetes Canada, where outdoor camps fostered strong bonds between healthcare professionals and children.

Andrew emphasizes the potential of outdoor activities to level the playing field, build authentic relationships, and enhance leadership. He advocates for integrating novel outdoor experiences into professional practices to foster genuine connections.

You see it every day. That look in your emergency department nurse's eyes after another double shift. The resignation in your faculty member’s voice as they tell you they're scaling back their class load. The unexpected departure email from that promising young social worker you were certain would grow with your organization.

As a leader, you're carrying more than just organizational responsibilities. You're carrying the weight of watching the people you lead - talented, dedicated professionals who've committed their lives to health care - slowly burning out.

The reality is stark. Burnout rates have skyrocketed across all health care professions since the pandemic began. But while COVID-19 may have been the match, the kindling was already there.

Why are we here? Several factors have created this perfect storm:

• Rising patient complexity requiring more intense care coordination
• Administrative burdens that pull professionals away from direct care or teaching
• Systems designed...

Whether you're leading a health authority, running a regulatory college, or directing a school filled with future health care professionals, you're often caught between the relentless pressure for innovation and the very real constraints of professional standards, patient safety, and regulatory requirements. I see this tension in every strategic planning session I facilitate.

"I know we need to innovate, but..." This is how many conversations start when I work with health care leaders. 

And you know what? That hesitation is completely valid. Here's why:

• Professional cultures prioritize stability and proven approaches
• Patient safety and quality standards require careful validation
• Regulatory frameworks can seem to reward iteration over innovation
• Resource constraints make experimentation feel risky
• Multiple stakeholder interests need careful balancing

When asked to explain the difference between iteration and innovation, I frequently use a well-known piece of technology...

Exploring how creative practices reshape personal and cultural identity post-service through visual arts.

In this video from our Reimagining Health Care Leadership event, Dawson Wambolt, a psychologist who specializes in working with veterans with PTSD, discusses his vocational veterans’ rehabilitation program focused on training them in the visual arts. 

He shares his own military background, including the impact of losing colleagues and his subsequent struggles with mental health and career direction. After leaving the military, he transitioned to working with troubled youth and eventually pursued a career in psychology. 

With funding from the True Patriot Love Foundation, he developed a six-week intensive arts program, partnering with artist and veteran Jessica Wiebe and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. 

The program saw significant improvements in psychological well-being and personal growth among participants, with several veterans pursuing further...

Making others see the need for change when they either can't or won't is a significant obstacle for many executives. In this episode of Toughest Call, Luc Mongeau, President and CEO of eSolutions Furniture, talks about a tough call he made in a previous leadership role: tackling a massive strategic shift that few others saw the need for.

Weeks into his position as President of Mars Canada, Luc recognized several early indicators that the company was slipping into decline. But others didn't see the situation the same way and were resistant to change. What Luc shares in this episode is a masterclass on how to lead significant organizational change.

Luc Mongeau: We had a couple of tough discussions with customers where we were able to pass pricing, and the margin started going up. But most importantly, was the energy in the building, the way people were relating to each other.

Chaz Thorne: Welcome back, or welcome to Toughest Call, a podcast for organizational leaders where we...

‘Mission drift’ is a common affliction in many organizations.

It usually starts at the top and trickles down as you lose the plot of the story you and your colleagues are collectively attempting to tell about what your organization exists to do.

In his episode of the Toughest Call podcast, Rob Angel, the creator of Pictionary, talks about how staying on mission resulted in him and his partners turning down a lucrative licensing deal.

They defined their mission as “scaling the energy and fun of Pictionary” and viewed the offer in front of them as unlikely to contribute to that focus.

Given the massive dollars involved and that he was assembling the games by hand in a tiny Seattle apartment at the time, it was not easy to walk away. Though Pictionary would ultimately sell tens of millions of copies around the globe, its commercial success was not a given at the time. When faced with difficult decisions, staying ‘on mission’ is often incredibly...

How can organizational leaders prevent mission drift? In this episode of Toughest Call, Rob Angel, Creator of Pictionary, talks about how staying on mission resulted in him and his partners turning down a lucrative licensing deal.

Rob originally dreamed up what would become one of the best-selling board games of all time four decades ago. The demand on the small business they created to publish the game in 1985 grew rapidly. Rob was tired of eating ramen noodles and assembling games by hand in his tiny apartment in Seattle, so they started to explore licensing to a larger games company. And after their first candidate didn't work out, they found themselves presented with an even larger opportunity.

But along with the big bucks came a big sacrifice. What Rob ultimately faced with this extremely lucrative deal was something many organizational leaders confront: How do I ensure that I'm staying true to our mission?

Rob Angel: I don't think we said a word, the three of us. We all...

A leap is required whenever you start any new project, initiative, or business; you can’t possibly know everything before diving in. However, there are some simple ways to “look before you leap” to spot potential hazards with a small amount of upfront planning.

In 2010, I first discovered the concept and value of planning on a single page through the book “Business Model Generation” by Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur. It was in this book that the authors introduced the now well-known Business Model Canvas. 

Unlike typical text-heavy and overly tedious business plans, the Business Model Canvas represents a quick, thoughtful, and visual way to get the entire vision of a business on a single page. These features make the creation of a canvas a lot of fun. Whereas the same can seldom be said about the creation of a typical business plan.

The canvas consists of nine elements that allow you to quickly get an overview of what a business or initiative...

In this episode of Toughest Call, Izabella Roth, CEO of Infinity Healthcare Ltd., talks about how she boldly stepped into the creation of a new company at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. 

Izabella shares the many changes she embraced in her business-building journey that took her from the days of panicking about making payroll to presently expanding Infinity into new markets.

Izabella Roth: If it's scary, go and do it. You can't change unless you do things that you're scared of doing.

Chaz Thorne: Welcome back and welcome to Toughest Call, a podcast for organizational leaders, where we hear stories from your leadership colleagues about career-defining decisions. I'm your host, Chaz Thorne. 

In this episode, I'm talking with Izabella Roth, the CEO of Infinity Healthcare, about how she boldly stepped into the creation of a new company at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Presently, Infinity provides in-home health care to clients in Alberta and British Columbia...

How do you assess your organization’s change readiness?

One of my favorite books is “The First 90 Days” by Michael Watkins. Though it is positioned as the “onboarding bible” for executive leaders, the book also includes excellent insight into strategy formulation and implementation more broadly.

One of the frameworks Watkins puts forth is his STARS Model. In effect, the model allows you to get clear on the “lay of the land.” This clarity is essential because if you jump into proposing significant changes before doing this foundational analysis, you will likely encounter resistance from the individuals you are expecting to implement these changes.

Whether you have led your team for a while, were recently promoted or transferred internally, or are stepping into a new organization, STARS allows you to answer two key questions: 

1. What change am I being called upon to lead?
2. What type of leader must I be to lead this change?

STARS is an...