Event Details
This workshop is for Management in newcomer-serving organizations, Executive Director and senior leaders.
Workshop Description
Settlement sector leaders are navigating sustained pressure—funding instability, staffing shortages, and rising client complexity—while being asked to maintain safe, responsive, and equitable workplaces. This session introduces Workplace Psychological Health & Safety (PH&S) as a leadership and system issue—not simply an individual wellness concern—and situates it within recent and emerging legislative expectations.
The first portion provides a concise overview of PH&S, including the shift in MB toward shared responsibility, the role of psychological safety in public-facing work, and what recent legislative changes mean in practice for leaders.
The majority of the session focuses on where leadership practice meets day-to-day reality. Drawing on 'conscious leadership' principles and psychological safety research, participants will explore how leadership behaviors shape whether concerns are raised early, how teams respond under pressure, and how trust and clarity are maintained in constrained environments.
Through structured reflection and small-group dialogue, leaders will examine their own patterns under stress, identify practical ways to strengthen team communication and responsiveness, and share strategies already working within the sector. The session intentionally creates space for peer exchange and recognition of existing strengths, while offering a grounded framework for moving forward.
This is not a technical or compliance session. It is a practical, leadership-focused conversation about how to sustain teams, support staff, and maintain service quality when conditions are stretched.
Key Learning Objectives:
- Explain PH&S as a leadership and organizational responsibility, including key implications of recent and emerging legislative changes.
- Recognize how psychological safety operates within teams under pressure, including how workload, urgency, and resource constraints shape whether concerns are raised, heard, and acted upon.
- Apply core elements of conscious leadership—including self-awareness, emotional regulation, and response patterns under stress—to support more effective team functioning.
- Identify practical, team-level actions that strengthen communication, trust, and responsiveness, and commit to 1–2 immediate shifts in their leadership practice.
Presenter: Geoffrey Thompson, MFL Occupational Health Centre
Geoffrey is an Occupational Health Nurse and workplace psychological health and safety (PH&S) specialist with over 20 years of experience in public health, organizational development, and team-based leadership. He leads strategic PH&S initiatives at the Occupational Health Centre in Manitoba, focusing on prevention, leadership capacity, and how workplace conditions influence staff well-being and performance.
His work emphasizes the connection between psychological safety, trust, and the quality of information that moves through teams—particularly in high-demand, public-facing environments. Geoffrey works with leaders to strengthen decision-making conditions, support staff under pressure, and build practical, sustainable approaches to team functioning.
He brings a grounded, non-prescriptive approach that integrates occupational health, leadership practice, and real-world operational challenges.
Logistic Notes:
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This is an online event. You will need to have access to a computer/ laptop or other devices with a webcam & microphone, as well as an internet connection.
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Accessibility accommodations are available on advance request. If you have any questions, concerns or inquiries, please send us an email at info@mansomanitoba.ca or call 204-272-0872.
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For more details, and for information about our cancellation and/or reimbursement policy, please see our Professional Development Policy.
