Picture the healthiest team you've ever been part of. Did everyone always agree? Probably not. In fact, the healthiest teams tend to disagree quite often. They challenge ideas, ask thoughtful questions and look at problems from different perspectives. They respectfully debate different approaches before making decisions. What makes those teams healthy isn't the absence of disagreement. It's the presence of respect. Somewhere along the way, many organizations started confu

Welcome to the third instalment of the How Do You Eat an Elephant? series, where we're breaking down the 13 psychosocial factors in Canada's National Standard on Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (CSA-Z1003). If you've been following along, you'll know that the goal of this series is to make psychological health and safety feel less overwhelming. Rather than trying to tackle the entire Standard all at once, we're taking it one psychosocial factor at a time. L

Welcome to the second instalment of the How Do You Eat an Elephant? series where we're breaking down the 13 psychosocial factors (PSFs) in Canada's National Standard on Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. In my last blog post, I introduced the Standard and talked about how for many/most organizations, tackling psychological healthy and safety at work can feel overwhelming. There are policies to review, leaders to educate, workplace culture to strengthen and c

How do you eat an elephant? It's an old saying with a simple answer: one bite at a time. I can't think of a better way to describe Psychological Health and Safety management. When leaders first hear terms like psychological risks, psychosocial hazards and psychological safety, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. There seems to be so much to learn, so many moving parts and so many questions. So where do we even begin? The good news is that creating a psychologically healt

Every year around this time, something interesting happens in workplaces across the country. The weather improves. School is winding down. Vacation plans are finalized. Campgrounds are booked. Patios are busy. Calendars start filling with weddings, family gatherings and long weekends away. And somewhere around mid to late June, many leaders begin noticing a subtle shift in their teams. People seem a little more distracted. Conversations before meetings often revolve a

Most organizations say they want employees to speak up. They encourage “open communication.” They talk about collaboration. Leaders tell their team members their door is always open. They ask for feedback during meetings, engagement surveys and performance conversations. But psychological safety isn’t built through slogans, policies or occasional reminders to “come talk to me anytime.” It’s shaped in the everyday moments that happen after someone speaks up. In how leade

Resilience is one of those workplace words that sounds unquestionably positive. It gets used in leadership conversations, wellness initiatives, conference sessions and organizational messaging. We talk about building resilient teams, supporting employee resilience and helping people become more resilient in the face of change. On the surface, that all sounds reasonable. After all, most of us would agree that the ability to adapt, recover and keep going through difficult sea

Somewhere along the way, we started confusing burnout with dedication. Long hours became a badge of honour. Being “always on” became a sign of commitment. Exhaustion? That just meant you cared. We’ve built workplaces where being busy is celebrated, slowing down feels like failure and saying “I’m overwhelmed” can feel like a risk. But here’s the problem: Hustle culture isn’t a performance strategy. It’s a liability. What We Really Mean by “Hustle Culture” Let’s be c

We’ve all been there. You get a piece of feedback in a meeting or a one-on-one… and suddenly your brain goes into overdrive. Did I mess up? Are they upset with me? Is this a bigger issue than they’re saying? Are they questioning my abilities? Your body tightens. Your thoughts start racing. You replay the conversation over and over. And in that moment, it can feel uncomfortable… sometimes even threatening. But in reality, feeling defensive when you receive feedback doesn’t aut