Our Agenda

Our Speakers

Stephen Carpenter | Psychologically Safe Workplaces: What Are Your Rights and Obligations?

Psychologically Safe Workplaces: What Are Your Obligations And Best Practices?

Employers and workers play a contributing role in creating and maintaining a positive and respectful work environment. Workplace Harassment can take many forms, including verbal aggression, personal attacks, and other intimidating behaviours whether in person or online. A decade of national focus on Psychologically Safe Workplaces has led to greater awareness about the impacts of unsafe workplaces and led to the development of mandatory compliance. Effective July 1, 2020 Prince Edward Island employers must comply with new Workplace Harassment Regulations. Join Stephen Carpenter of the Workers Compensation Board of PEI for this unique opportunity to get up to speed on what’s happening in PEI, and in Canada with regard to harassment-free and psychologically safe workplaces.  Discussion includes what you need to do to ensure your workplace is ready to comply with new regulations.  Time will also be spent looking at the (voluntary) National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (the Standard) and the positive impacts implementation has had, and can have, in workplaces.

Stephen Carpenter is the Senior Legal Advisor for the Workers Compensation Board of PEI. Prior to joining WCBPEI, Stephen had a 15-year law practice in Charlottetown, focused extensively in labour and employment, acting as counsel in workplace arbitrations and mediations; conducting workplace investigations arising from workplace disputes and harassment complaints; and advising on and preparing workplace policies, manuals, discipline and harassment policies. Stephen is a Certified Workplace Psychological Health & Safety Advisor and a Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR).

Deborah Smith Cook | The 5 Key Elements of Effective Collaboration with Remote Teams

Working collaboratively is a challenge even in the best of circumstances.

With many of our teams working remotely, it is even more critical that we work together. The difficulty is that we often don’t know how to collaborate effectively. A new research study by ESI International reports that 65.5% of workers think team performance would increase if we collaborated more effectively. What are the top five elements for effective collaboration? Deborah will delve into a model of collaboration based on structure, communication, people, mindset, and finally, technology tools. She will share best practices for collaboration that are valid for on-site teams and remote teams.

Deborah has spent much of her career leading remote teams and as a remote worker in organizations such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Caliber Learning Network, and the University of Baltimore. As a Dean, Associate Professor, and Visiting Lecturer, she has taught strategic management and marketing at George Washington University, Texas A&M University, and Indiana University and. In 2017, Deborah founded Atheseus, a management consulting company helping remote teams become more engaged, collaborative, and accomplished.  Deborah’s clients have included government agencies, non-profits, and private sector ranging from start-up tech companies to Fortune 500 companies.

She is a Certified Facilitator in Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team and Everything DiSC as well as PROSCI Change Management.   Deborah earned a doctoral degree from Indiana University in Strategic Management and Organizational Behavior and an MBA from Michigan State University with concentrations in finance and marketing.  Deborah was a Fulbright Scholar to INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

A highly collaborative and energetic facilitator, Deborah delights her audiences with her knowledge, wisdom, and practical tips for remote team effectiveness. She can be reached at deborah@atheseus.com or on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-smith-cook-5a82a85/

Wendy MacIntyre | Re-Building Workplace Trust in the Aftermath of COVID-19

Have you ever been in a job where you have no one to trust? Have you ever tried to get a job done with a team but it feels like everyone has their own agenda? Have you ever worked with people who seem to think they are the only competent ones in the room? 

We are all now well aware of what PPE (personal protective equipment) is and why it is needed. But how do we protect and improve “team health”. As we start returning to work (or continue), we need to adopt innovative approaches to collaborating and ensuring psychological safety. Trust is an essential components. Without trust there are more accidents, missed opportunities, stagnation for some and departures of others. That means time and money.

 Maybe half of your workers were laid off while the other half continued, maybe employees are seeking different job opportunities now that there are a few openings, maybe your employees don’t want to return to work. In this session we will discuss these kinds of challenges and identify possible fall out with employees and employers as they face the return to work. We’ll talk about how to bring people back together when maybe we’ve seen a coworker not obeying the health guidelines or we don’t think a coworker has the team’s interests in mind. We’ll look at how to get back into the groove of working together after the chaos of the last couple of months.

Wendy is a Human Resources Consultant who brings experience, knowledge and ambition to every client. She has been practicing HR since 2003 in various capacities and started resolveHR in 2015. Her clients are primarily small to medium sized businesses from a variety of industries and sectors including IT, healthcare, automotive, education, manufacturing, retail, not-for-profit, etc. Wendy creates workshops and presentations on HR and management topics, delivering them across PEI and into Nova Scotia. Her work experience with clients ranges from workforce planning and hiring, to investigations and restructuring organizations.

Wendy is a certified Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR formerly CHRP) and has been involved in many small to medium sized enterprises, not-for-profits and start-ups primarily on a consultant-client basis. Wendy is experienced in conflict management, workplace investigations, training and development, workshop facilitation, policy development, etc. She is certified in Insights Discovery® facilitation and emotional intelligence assessment and coaching– powerful tools for engaging your teams.

Kirstin Lund | Best Practices for Preventing Conflict and Building Collaborative Workplaces

It’s a rare workplace that doesn’t have some level of conflict.

And that’s not a bad thing – collaboratively managed conflict can lead to positive change, innovation and strengthened relationships. When conflict is not effectively managed, however, it can lead to high levels of stress, poor communication, absence, sickness and departure from the workplace. Paramount among the hallmarks of a psychologically healthy workplace are collaboration, effective and respectful communication, and healthy work relationships. Join Kirstin Lund and a panel of participants in the recently delivered, and Workers Compensation Board of PEI sponsored, Building Collaborative Workplaces program, as they share best practices for preventing conflict and increasing collaboration. This will be an interactive session, with opportunity for co-creation of ideas and a conference wrap up reflection on the day’s learning.

Kirstin Lund is a mediator, trainer and conflict coach. Since leaving the practice of law in 1996, she has trained thousands of people to use workplace collaboration skills – in workplaces, university classrooms, online and at an outdoor ropes course.

Our Sponsors

This day long conference, hosted by collaborationschool.com, thanks to the generous support of Workers Compensation Board of PEI, will provide your team with the skills to build and strengthen collaborative workplaces.