Margie Sills-Maerov, CHE is highly involved in shaping ways to improve the culture of healthcare. Margie is the Founder and Senior Director of Strategy and Coaching at Thoughts Architects, an Agency Trainer for Cognitive Coaching at the University of Alberta Office of Lifelong Learning, and the Chair of the Board for the Coalition for Regenerative Work. Since high school, Margie admits that she always knew she would end up working in the healthcare industry and after exploring several disciplines, she received her Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy. Margie explains that her training as an Occupational Therapist framed her thinking and knowledge in many ways, such as “how systems work, the complexity of people, the deep need for balance in life, and how we are all impacted by our internal state, the groups we work with, and the environment.” While completing her MBA, Margie further deepened this knowledge while working with the late Dr. Brenda Zimmerman at the Schulich School of Business as one of her first students in the Health Industry Management Program. Dr. Zimmerman’s “teaching around complexity theory, change, clinical microsystems and quality improvement shaped the second half of my career.”
Margie’s education, experience and drive to explore have led her to have a fulfilling career from working as an operational manager in a hospital, a government policy and quality improvement leader, and now to her current role as a coach, an educator and a facilitator. In her career, Margie strives to create positive workplace cultures in healthcare. “Healthy, engaged, and connected healthcare providers are the key to enhancing the patient experience and outcomes. Healthcare is all about people.”
To positively impact the culture of work in healthcare, Margie’s company, Thought Architects recently partnered with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec to study the impact of teaching coaching skills to physicians. Together, they discovered that “by using a personalized learning approach to teach physicians the skills of coaching, the level of burnout in work decreased significantly. The skills fulfil the deep desire to show compassion clinically, as leaders, and with peers, without the burden of “fixing” another person.” This research was presented at the Institute of Coaching at Harvard and was incredibly well received.
Margie has been highly involved with the College through her local chapter, Southern Alberta. She explains that when working with her chapter, her main goal is “about contributing to the learning of others so that they can become better leaders, coaches, and clinicians.” Through Margie’s experience and expertise, she helps to build a personalized learning approach that can support members to consider and explore a different way of working, thinking and interacting. “I deeply believe in the capacity of people and will continue to give to the chapter to help build that capacity in ways that improve the culture of healthcare.” In recognition for her contributions to her chapter, Margie was selected by the Southern Alberta Chapter as the recipient of the 2024 Chapter Award for Distinguished Service.
To learn more about the research project of Thought Architects and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec, visit this link > https://www.thoughtarchitects.ca/cinhcresearchposter
