Graham Dickson is Professor Emeritus at Royal Roads University in Canada.
Currently, he is working as the Senior Research Advisor to the Canadian Society of Physician Leaders (CSPL) and the Canadian Health Leadership Network (CHLNet). He is a member of the LEADS Collaborative (including CHLNet and the Canadian College of Health Leaders, [CCHL]), an enterprise established to develop leadership within the health sector in Canada. Graham was a principal investigator in a cross-Canada research project on LEADS in a Caring Environment capabilities framework. LEADS is now endorsed by health authorities in ten provinces, and by most national health organizations, as well as abroad.
Graham also consulted with Health Workforce Australia on the creation of Health LEADS Australia, and the New South Wales Leadership Framework (similar to Canada’s LEADS). Dr. Dickson’s research work includes as PI for a four-year Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Michael Smith Foundation’s Partnership for Health Systems Improvement grant-funded national project; PI for two studies on physician leadership and engagement for the CSPL, and recently, with Doctors BC, exploring the leadership needs of Medical Association Executive in BC hospitals.
Graham has authored, in collaboration with Bill Tholl, a book entitled Bringing Leadership to Life in Health: LEADS in a Caring Environment, first published by Springer in 2014. A second edition is being published in the spring of 2020. He has been co-editor—with Dr. Karen Owen, former CEO of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (RACMA) in Australia–of three special editions Emerald Journals, dedicated to medical leadership (the latest was published in the spring of 2018). Graham has had peer-reviewed articles on leadership published in many journals, including the Canadian Physician Leadership Journal, Longwoods, Leadership in Health Services, Healthcare Management Forum, and HealthManagement.org—the Journal. In 2018, Dr. Dickson was commissioned by the Mental Health Commission of Canada to write a report showing how the LEADS Framework can be used to implement the MHCC’s psychological workplace standards (The Standard).
Graham is the principal in LEADS Global, a not-for-profit enterprise that works closely with the Canadian College of Health Leaders to enable countries outside of Canada to use LEADS for leadership development. LEADS Global also works with the Activation Services and International Accreditation arms of the Health Standards Organization, to design and deliver leadership programs to their international partners. He has designed and delivered programs in partnership with HSO to clients in the Philippines, Nicaragua, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Health in Bahrain, and InterHealth Canada in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
To learn more of LEADS Global’s work, and about the second edition of Bringing Leadership to Life in Health, go to https://www.leadsglobal.ca/ (going live on April 1, 2020).
Over the past five years Dr. Dickson has delivered leadership workshops for multiple groups across Canada and in Australia; worked with the Canada-India Innovation Society (CINS), and provided consulting services to online program development also for RACMA. Recently Graham worked with the PAQS organization in Belgium to assist them in building clinical leadership and governance into their quality and safety programming. In the past three years, Graham has delivered leadership programs for the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management in the UK, the Uganda Alliance of Patient Organizations (UAPO), and the Apollo hospital in Mumbai.
Graham teaches two leadership programs—Strategic Thinking for Results, and Leadership Strategies for Physician Engagement—for the Physician Leadership Institute. He has co-authored, with Dr. Van Aerde (on behalf of the Canadian Society of Physician Leaders [CSPL]), a White Paper entitled Accepting Our Responsibility: A Blueprint for Physician Leadership, which is currently being used to generate dialogue around the future of physician leadership in Canada. Graham is also doing work with Sanokondu and the World Federation of Medical Managers, two international collaborations that are promoting physician leadership and developing leadership curriculum for residents based on the LEADS framework.
Graham helped to develop the Master of Arts in Leadership (Health specialization) for Royal Roads University and was the founding Director of the Centre for Health Leadership and Research.
