Stéphane Grenier

Speaking topics

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

• Mental Health: The New Workplace Pandemic

  Workplace mental health was a growing concern for leaders in all sectors for several decades prior to the start of the pandemic in March 2020. While most organizations have managed to adapt to this major disruption by leveraging technology to recreate the way business is conducted, the cumulative effects of social isolation, constantly changing public safety rules, and the inability for people to live what was once deemed a normal life are exacerbating people’s mental well-being in unprecedented ways.

  At the onset of the pandemic, the Prime Minister compared it to war. This resonated deeply with Stéphane Grenier. His 20 years of experience in workplace mental health as well as his multiple deployments in and out of war zones over the course of his 30-year military career, provides him with a unique perspective on what works. In a world saturated with research findings, best practices, complex clinical mental health concepts, and overwhelming amounts of social media posts, Grenier brings it all together in an easy-to-digest and easy-to-integrate approach.

  Life can be hard, and periods of high impact change and disruption only make things more difficult. Blending lived accounts, leading-edge research, and passionate arguments, Grenier provides pragmatic insight and tangible strategies for individuals and organizations to improve mental health outcomes by focusing on the PEOPLE.

  Key takeaways:

  • Gain self-awareness of self and others.
  • Learn how to preserve mental health in a remote work environment.
  • Become intentional about resilience and self care.
  • Understand how to support others.

  This presentation is also available as an interactive half-day workshop. Contact us for more information.

• Leveraging the World’s Largest Untapped Mental Health Resource: People

  In today’s modern workplace, mental health problems have become the leading cause of disability claims, accounting for 70% of workplace disability management costs in Canada.

  Stéphane Grenier knows the toll mental health problems can take on individuals and workplaces firsthand. Traditionally, mental health difficulties in the workplace have been principally viewed through two lenses: the performance lens and the clinical one. Clinicians treat symptoms and leaders manage behaviours.

  Anchored in decades of experience in improving the way large, public- and private- sector organizations support their employees, Grenier provides his audiences with pragmatic advice on how to support workplaces in developing corporate cultures of open, non-stigmatizing approaches to mental health and well-being.

  Blending lived accounts, case studies, and leading-edge research Grenier makes us ask ourselves, how did we miss the obvious? How did we miss our people?

  Key takeaways:

  • How to develop a new non-clinical lens to perceive mental health problems.
  • The importance of social support as a determinant of mental health.
  • How to redefine and challenge entrenched paradigms regarding workplace mental health.
  • A tangible framework for self care.
  • The various “zones” humans find themselves in when they experience significant change and/or challenges such as the ongoing pandemic as a way to reduce our judgment of others.
  • The importance of supporting someone else and how to do so by understanding recovery and the differences between sympathy, empathy, and compassion.

  Longer engagements are also available, where the following learning objectives can be achieved through a workshop-style session:

  • Understand how organizational culture impacts well-being.
  • Become familiar with innovative methods to measure and shape workplace culture.
  • Understand the building blocks of a successful peer support program.
  • Discover how peer support acts as a catalyst for organizational wellness.
  • Measure your organization’s readiness for a peer support program.
  • Become familiar with the nationally endorsed Standards of Practice for peer support.
  • Conduct a preliminary assessment of your workplace against the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace.

• Workshop: Breaking Down Mental Health Strategy for Senior Leaders

  This workshop includes 2.5 hours of highly interactive strategy-building conversations. It was developed to help senior leaders and managers demystify the complexity of mental health strategies into tangible, meaningful thinking.

  Participants will leave empowered to make informed decisions when shaping the mental health culture of their organizations.