Mental Health at Work Isn’t Just About You. It’s About Your Culture.
We talk a lot about mental health in the workplace. And while these conversations are important, they often focus on the individual: how someone could build their resilience, manage their stress, or ask for accommodation. The problem with this approach is that it implies the problem is you. What people report experiencing at work — […]
Why Wellbeing at Work Is an Organizational Problem — Not an Individual One
In most workplaces “wellbeing” means something like: the individual employee is coping adequately with the conditions of their work. Wellbeing at work isn’t just a nice-to-have or a soft priority. Canadian organizations are facing a growing crisis of disconnection which affects the bottom line. The Scale of the Problem: Burnout and Disconnection in Canadian Workplaces […]
Why do Collaborations Fail?
Collaboration in the workplace is not only necessary, it is paramount. Especially as we are collectively finding our way back to hybrid or in-office working in new ways. That said, many folks find collaborating pretty darn frustrating, and frankly, it’s not uncommon for these processes to go sour. I’ve been privy to quite a few […]
Want Better Collaboration? Start With Workplace Culture
Want to improve collaboration on your team? Or collaboration between teams? Before diving into those team building exercises, or buying everyone donuts (and I do love a good donut…), you might want to take a step back and think about workplace culture. Why Workplace Culture is the Foundation of Collaboration The where and how things happen at work can cultivate […]
How do I make creativity my job? (And Should I?)
Quite a few people have shared with me that they long for creativity to be their central, sustaining effort. My sense is that folks are feeling transactional and burned out in their current employment. Much of traditional work, and employer-employee relationships more generally, aren’t working for them. They’re looking for something more balanced, respectful, human-centred, […]
How and where to start writing
A client once shared with me that when she thinks about writing something new she feels dread. (yes, DREAD!) As a seasoned professional, internationally renowned with decades of experience under her belt, she uses writing as a regular part of her work – grant writing, project proposals, website copy, among so many other things. And […]
Some Thoughts on Leaving Academia
Possibilities on The Other Side I get a lot of questions from folks considering leaving academia about what work will be like on The Other Side. The crux of what they seem to be asking is: “Will I continue to be independent? Will I have agency?” When I was contemplating leaving, these were some of […]
Calling it Quits?
Some thoughts on decision-making, grit and knowing when to quit Quitting often gets a bad rap. We usually associate greatness with grit, stick-to-it-iveness, persistence. And of course, grit can be useful. But we often overlook the importance of knowing when and how to shift gears and steer towards a new path. Public thinker and former […]
Burnout is not an individual problem: it’s cultural
The way we think and talk about burnout needs to change. As individuals we feel it. And we often think the solutions need to be individual too (more resilience training, anyone?). But it will take a cultural shift to really address burnout, and create sustainable workplaces that are integrated and even connected parts within our […]
Arts & Culture must be central in Canada’s COVID reality
COVID-19 has brought incredible social unrest and change, as well as personal disillusionment, and feelings of overwhelm. Many of us feel like we’re lurching from one task to the next, drowning in overwhelming inequities exposed by COVID and the realities of juggling multiple-roles and tasks simultaneously. This is why, my friends, arts and culture must […]