Dr. Lisa Bélanger

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

• Make it Stick: The Science of Creating Lifelong Habits

  Turn the best of intentions into real action.

  We are the sum of our daily habits. Over time these seemingly small behaviours define our health and performance, and have a profound impact on helping us achieve our goals. In this talk, Dr. Lisa Bélanger establishes a research-based framework that people can use every day to drive towards their goals and design the life and career they desire.

  Drawing from psychology, neuroscience, and behavioural medicine, Bélanger introduces practical strategies to help audience members develop their desired habits, break bad habits, and ensure these changes stick — even when facing periods of stress and change. She’ll share insights into how to create an environment and social network, both at work and home, that will make cultivating successful habits easier. Together you will explore the impact of how these small changes help close the gap between what we intend to do and what we actually do.

  Audiences will walk away with the skills and an understanding of what habits have the highest return on investment for health, productivity, and performance that can be implemented immediately. Take control of your habits and take control of your life.

• Your Brain on Change

  Thrive in rapid change and uncertainty.

  Our brains are designed to function best with a delicate balance of monotony and change. This, of course, is not what work and life throws at us. So, how can we set ourselves and our teams up to thrive in periods of change?

  In this talk, Dr. Lisa Bélanger explores the behaviours we can implement to optimize our ability to think clearly, be productive, resilient, stay driven, and avoid being overwhelmed. Drawing on psychology, behavioural science, and neuroscience, she’ll walk you through how to set up your environment, community, and teams to perform well in high-stress situations and when under long-term stress; and how to use simple tools to increase mental strength and performance in periods of change.

• The Science of Daily Resilience: Practical Skills for Mental Strength and Agility

  One thing we can count on is that life is full of uncertainty, change, challenges, and many distractions. When times are hard, you may prioritize the well-being of others. This session is for YOU.

  Take control by learning about science-backed strategies and practical skills that you can use to stay focused and productive — even in chaos. Get more done in less time and improve your energy and stamina to power through. Learn how to incorporate habits into the busiest schedule and get the support you need to practice daily self-care.

• Pay Attention! The Science of Avoiding Distractions and Emphasizing Safety

  Have you ever driven home and not remembered making all the turns? Left the house and couldn’t remember if you turned off the stove? Started looking for something that was sitting right in front of you?

  Paying attention is the most important safety skill you can develop. What you pay attention to can be the difference between life and death. With practice, you can improve your skills to switch-on your conscious attention, so you stay focused, avoid hazards, and prevent injuries.

  In this practical keynote, Dr. Lisa Bélanger presents the latest research in psychology and neuroscience, in a clear and approachable way. She will share practices that will help anyone improve their ability to focus and, more importantly, how to ensure these practices become daily habits.

• Brains at Their Best: Behaviours for Peak Performance and Proactive Mental Health

  For many corporations, their greatest asset is the productivity, creativity, and innovation of their employees. What can we do to promote brain health and optimal performance? Our brains function best when they alternate between intense productivity and rest.

  In this keynote, Dr. Lisa Bélanger draws on psychology, behavioural science, and neuroscience to empower the audience to take control of their behaviours and daily practices to help cultivate the best conditions to think clearly, make better decisions, be more productive, build resilience, and have more energy.

  Bélanger will explain the most effective ways to manage short-term and long-term stress and provide practical exercises with a low investment of time, but significant gains in mental strength. Audiences will walk away with a science-based, personalized habit development plan, incorporating daily routines of small habits that can work for the busiest of schedules.

• Reimagining Work: Considerations, Skills, Habits and Work Design

  The way we work has fundamentally shifted. Questions we have been asking about the future of work are forced into our present. Companies, teams, and individuals have been offered an opportunity to reflect and redesign work. We will explore the questions and logistics you can be thinking through to make work more enjoyable, productive and meaningful.

  The last two years have emphasized that change is the only constant. As we approach, yet another large shift, Dr. Lisa Bélanger explores the behaviours we can implement to optimize our ability to think clearly, be productive and resilient, stay driven, and avoid being overwhelmed. Drawing on psychology, behavioural science, and neuroscience, she’ll walk you through how we can set up our environment, community, and teams to perform well in high-stress situations and when under long-term stress; and how we can use simple tools to increase our mental strength and performance in periods of change.

• Mental Health Inclusivity in the Workplace

  Support and include people with a differently wired brain.

  The national conversation around mental health is changing, catalyzed by the health, social, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we collectively recover from recent events, we are doing so with a more profound sense of empathy regarding the struggles of others. This keynote is about channeling that compassion into strategies to make the workplace more inclusive for neurodivergent people and those struggling with mental health challenges.

  Dr. Lisa Bélanger will connect the sciences of organizational management, social psychology, and neuroscience to illustrate how mental wellness is a function of both an individual’s brain and the environment that they operate within. With a touch of humour, the audience will learn why it’s in everyone’s best interest to support mental wellness and why the workplace is the perfect place to maximize the impact of these investments.

  Audiences will learn the strategy of how to increase workplace inclusivity for people with a differently wired brain, using examples of simple changes that could be implemented to support people with ADHD, burnout, depression, and anxiety.

• Change Starts from the Top: Lead Through Rapid Change and Uncertainty

  Change is almost always met with resistance, fear, and the attempt to avoid the unknown. Change in a workplace starts from the top down. With a lack of leadership “buy in”, communication, and modeling, many change programs are destined for disaster. As senior leaders or middle management, how do you effectively lead through change and uncertainty?

  Dr. Lisa Bélanger shares key techniques leaders can use to inspire and facilitate corporate change and provides case studies on how leaders who model behaviours at work (virtual, hybrid, or in person) have a direct, positive impact on an organization’s bottom line.

  Beyond personal influence, this talk explores how to set up a physical and social environment and culture to support the desired change. Bélanger will lead you through what questions to ask, how to develop a clear strategy, and understanding your role in implementing sustainable, meaningful change for teams and organizations.

• Leading with Empathy

  Empathy and well-being are cited as the top skills for leaders to develop. Neither are taught in most formal business or leadership education. Each one has a profound influence on both our personal and professional lives. Each is a learned skill developed over time.

  In theory, we know empathy is a positive trait. However, it is much easier to talk about than to put into practice, especially under pressure. Learn how to lead with empathy, while still driving towards business metrics of success. Discover how to express empathy when your world is filled with stress, rapid change, and uncertainty.

  Well-being, while not rocket science, can be the first thing dropped during periods of stress. We are told to practice self-care — to which Dr. Lisa Bélanger asks: “WHEN?” There are effective ways to recover from stress and work when you only have minutes a day between meetings, family, friends, and other commitments. Leverage the science of micro-breaks to create a sustainable, meaningful impact on your mental wellbeing and performance, and allow yourself to slow down to bring empathetic leadership to work.

• Burnout for Leaders

  Facing burnout as a leader while trying to support teams and individuals also experiencing burnout is an impossible feat. Burnout affects everyone, and leaders are no exception. How do you care for yourself and your team when the work keeps coming and the future is ever changing? How do you make fundamental changes that prevent burnout from causing more damage in the future?

  Dr. Lisa Bélanger will explore how to develop a strategic plan for addressing burnout within leaders and their teams. Topics include:

  • The contributing factors to burnout unique to leadership.
  • Creating a daily recovery plan specific to leaders.
  • Fostering a workplace culture for proactive mental health and resilience.
  • How to be proactive and prevent burnout within your organization and team(s).

  This presentation is geared towards leaders and administration looking for practical science-based strategies on how to prevent and recover from burnout for both themselves and their teams.

• Workshop: Burnout Prevention and Recovery

  This is a four-hour in person/virtual workshop.

  We all exist somewhere on the spectrum of peak performance to burnout. Burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and detachment from work/inefficiencies, and can have a profound impact on executive function such as decision making, self control, and communication. It results in uncontrolled stress.

  Physicians were reporting almost two times the burnout rates of other professions prior to the pandemic, with preliminary data demonstrating that the pandemic has amplified workplace stress and burnout.

  Burnout prevention is proactive, and recovery is a hands-on process, yet we are rarely taught how to properly do either. The good news is that there are skills, habits, and work designs that aid in recovery from burnout and facilitate burnout prevention.

  Based on psychology, neuroscience, and behavioural medicine, we know a shift in mindset, developing social and environmental systems in work and beyond can allow for a more effective approach to work. This session focuses on building a personalized guide with practical application and skill development.

  Learning outcomes:

  • To explain the signs and symptoms of burnout.
  • To identify the six contributors to burnout.
  • To describe the impacts of burnout on the body and mind.
  • To describe how to mitigate stress to optimize recovery.
  • To identify how systems, companies, and teams impact burnout.
  • To formulate a proactive plan to reduce the risk of developing burnout within yourself and within your team.

  This course is for physicians looking for practical science-based strategies on how to prevent and recover from burnout.

• Workshop: Burnout for Leaders

  This is a two-hour person/virtual workshop.

  Facing burnout as a leader while trying to support teams and individuals also experiencing burnout is an impossible feat. Burnout affects everyone, and leaders are no exception. How do you care for yourself and your team when the work keeps coming and the future is ever changing? How do you make fundamental changes that prevent burnout from causing more damage in the future?

  This workshop focuses on step-by-step, strategic plan development for addressing burnout within leaders and their teams. Participants will walk away knowing how to:

  • List, understand, and identify the contributing factor to burnout unique to leadership.
  • Describe your own daily recovery plan specific to leaders.
  • Identify your role and influence on creating a culture for proactive mental health and resilience.
  • Formulate a proactive plan to help prevent burnout within your organization and team(s).

  This workshop is geared towards leaders and administration looking for practical science-based strategies on how to prevent and recover from burnout for both themselves and their teams.