Conversations With Impact: Recent Episodes
Sarah Jenner
Conversation is a powerful tool and when we create safe environments to ask hard questions and remain thoughtful, open, and curious about the answer, we hold space to learn together.
Join Sarah Jenner from Mindful Employer Canada and Mary Ann Baynton from Workplace Strategies for Mental Health, as they chat with a new expert speaker each month about different workplace challenges and how to overcome them.
Our mission for these monthly live events is to share insight and solutions to challenging topics, have a positive impact on our guests who attend, and also support a charity that's doing incredible work.
On this episode Sarah and Mary Ann chat with Ryan Adams, the Director of Impact Programs & Partnerships at Benevity. Benevity is a Calgary-based company that provides charitable donation-management and grant-management platforms.
Mary Ann, Sarah and Ryan discuss:
- What corporate social responsibility (CSR) is and how it impacts psychological health and safety
- How CSR has evolved into a company-wide sense of corporate purpose
- The benefits of engaging your staff and stakeholders in the conversation
- Steps to take if you're starting your journey and mistakes to avoid.
This month the charity we’re highlighting is Food Banks Canada. Food Banks Canada is a national charitable organization dedicated to helping Canadians living with food insecurity. They support a network of Provincial Associations, affiliate food banks, and food agencies that work at the community level to relieve hunger. Their work is focused on maximizing collective impact, strengthening local capacity, and reducing the need for food banks. If you haven’t had a chance yet, after listening we encourage you to visit foodbankscanada.ca/ to donate what you can.
This month, Mary Ann and Sarah sat down with Mandy Balak, CEO and Founder of The ACE Collective to talk about creating work environments where our employees feel:
- Safe showing up as the best version of themselves
- Accountability isn’t something to be feared
- Hard conversations are celebrated
- We’re constantly making deposits in our culture bank account
If you're listening to this chat, we ask that you make a donation to Art With Impact (AWI). AWI promotes mental wellness by creating space for young people to learn and connect through art and media. They are committed to a future where artists are revered as cultural icons of courage and change, enabling young people to communicate freely and fearlessly about their mental health.
This month’s topic was all about dealing with change.
Some of the highlights from Mary Ann and Sarah’s chat with Dr. Carlos Davidovich, an expert in neuromanagement were:
- Common mistakes leaders and organizations make when it comes to announcing change. Example, waiting until the last minute to announce change so “people don’t panic” is EXACTLY what will cause people to panic.
- How we should leverage as many senses as possible when we’re introducing change. Not surprising considering how impactful calling on our senses is as a grounding technique.
- Three steps we can use to reduce fear, uncertainty, and help conserve our energy when experiencing change. Ps. Government's leverage these all the time.
If your listening to this recording, we ask that you make a donation to support Crisis Services Canada. CSC is a national network of existing distress, crisis, and suicide prevention line services. They are committed to supporting any person living in Canada who is affected by suicide, in the most caring and least intrusive manner possible.
Join Mary Ann and Sarah as they chat with Sarika Gundu, Director, Canadian Health and Welfare Benefits at BMO Financial Group about Speaking Truth to Power. Some highlights of the conversation include:
- Exec’s are just people too and probably more relatable than you think
- The importance of combining stats and stories
- Recognizing pain points and relieving them
- Your voice matters. We’ll say this one again. YOUR VOICE MATTERS.
If you're listening to this episode, we ask that you consider making a donation to Movember. The goal of Movember is to "change the face of men's health." By encouraging men to get involved, Movember aims to increase early cancer detection, diagnosis and effective treatments, and ultimately reduce the number of preventable deaths.
Listen in as Mary Ann and Sarah chat about grief with Deborah Davison, Family Therapist with Canuck Place Children’s Hospice.
Some of the topics they discussed include:
Understanding that we change after loss, and how we reintroduce ourselves to life
How we battle the complex feelings associated with grief like shame, guilt and relief
The importance of showing up as a “supporter” rather than a “comforter” when others are in their grief journey.
Mindful Employer Canada asks that if you listen in, you make a donation to Canuck Place Children's Hospice. Canuck Place is British Columbia’s pediatric palliative care provider for children with life-threatening illnesses and the families who love them. Their team of physicians, nurses, counsellors, therapists, staff, and volunteers provide medical respite care, pain and symptom management, art, music, and recreation therapy, end-of-life care, grief, loss, and bereavement counselling. All at no cost.
In this Conversations with Impact discussion, Mary Ann and Sarah chat with Christine Hildebrand, VP of Health & Ability Strategy for Canada Life about:
- Some of the blunders we each experienced while leading a hybrid team
- Ways to create organic connection between team members who work in different places
- The benefits that can come from offering employees flexibility and autonomy.
Mindful Employer Canada asks that if you view this video, you make a donation to reBOOT Canada.
In this Conversations with Impact discussion, Mary Ann and Sarah chat with Lauren Bernardi from Bernardi Human Resource Law about:
- Managing office disputes around COVID, vaccine mandates, masks, etc.
- Whether employees could refuse work if they feel they are at risk of contracting COVID.
- Supporting staff who have been on the frontline the entire time.
Mindful Employer Canada asks that if you view this video, you make a donation to the Indian Residental School Survivor Society.