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13 ways to move from Ideation to Innovation

Deb Cohen 

Chief Operating Officer, Health Workforce Canada 

At Health Workforce Connects, our first pan-Canadian action symposium, we brought together a panel of people from organizations across the country who are engaged in strategies to address a variety of health workforce challenges.

We asked them about their approach to innovation, what’s been working and what they’ve learned so far. Here are 13 takeaways about the key ingredients for success in moving promising ideas toward tangible solutions, to create a supported and sustainable health workforce for the future:

  1. Set the table for innovation. Build relationships and trust first – don’t assume trust is there from the start.
  2. Put the right people at the table. Include those at the right level of leadership and also make sure the right groups and voices are heard.
  3. Be open-minded to where change can occur. Innovation can come in the form of systemic transformation or it could be incremental change. Look for opportunities to do both.
  4. Be prepared to go on a learning journey. Make mistakes, listen, learn and pivot if you need to. Don’t expect the perfect plan or solution right away.
  5. Start on the ground. Listen to those who work in the system – they know the problems and often have the solutions.
  6. Just start. Be courageous, be bold and take action. A combination of small changes can add up to big impact.
  7. Pull the levers you have access to. Don’t just wait for others to pull their levers. We have to pull all levers to create sustainable change.
  8. Innovate in strategy and in culture. Both are required for successes that stick.
  9. Question the things that no longer make sense. Recognize the dinosaurs and be prepared to put them to rest.
  10. Leadership matters. Be available, be humble, be brave.
  11. Include patient and caregiver voices. Patients and caregivers have a vested interest in everyone’s success and often see problems, needs and solutions that others in the system do not.
  12. You are not alone. We are stronger together and collaboration is key.


    And my own personal take away from the whole event:

  13. Persist. Persist. Persist. Anything difficult takes time and tenacity. Be prepared for challenges. Be prepared to problem solve. Never give up.

Thank you to the panelists who provided this important advice:

Linda Dempster, Vice-President Professional Practice, Quality, Learning and Research, at the Fraser Health Authority

Jonathan Dewar, CEO, First Nations Information Governance Centre

Karima Velji, Assistant Deputy Minister of Health and Chief of Nursing and Professional Practice, Ministry of Health, Ontario

Jennifer Zelmer, President and CEO, Healthcare Excellence Canada.

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that we live and work on the traditional territories of many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples. We recognize and celebrate the strength and resilience of Indigenous health workers and we embrace the opportunity to work closely together to advance cultural safety for those who provide care and those we care for.

Health Workforce Canada is a new, independent organization established by an Interim Steering Committee, supported by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), and funded by Health Canada. It has been created in recognition of the need to bring together health workforce experts and those in the health care field to learn from each other and strengthen health workforce data and planning to help ensure health workers are there to provide the care people in Canada need.

We are committed to engaging with a broad spectrum of stakeholders as we chart the path toward new approaches to health workforce planning.

© Health Workforce Canada 2024