Doug Miron's parting challenge: 'How come we're not more innovative?'
By Louise Kinross
Doug Miron (second left in photo) is retiring this week after a 32-year career at Holland Bloorview. Many know him for his most recent work in organization development, where he coached hospital leaders to make strategic decisions, manage change, and develop staff. But Doug has a rich history that began as a recreation therapist at our old Bloorview site, where he enjoyed helping youth work on leisure skills in the community. “We’d go on outings everywhere—Jays games, movies, shopping,” Doug says.
For me, Doug has always been the face of our volunteers. Early on, he went back to school to study volunteer management and, at the tender age of 30, became director of the hospital’s volunteer program. “What happens if I’m not here?” a potential volunteer might ask. “Don’t think about what happens if you’re not here,” Doug recalls saying. “Think about what happens if you’re here. A child gets to go swimming tonight.” We spoke about the joys and challenges of his many roles.
BLOOM: How did you get into this field?
Doug Miron: My mom was a professional figure skater, and one of my first volunteer opportunities was working in a program she started with our local treatment centre in Sudbury, where children with disabilities learned to skate. I was about 13, and that sparked my interest. As a student, I toured Bloorview Children’s Hospital and was really impressed with what I saw. I was also very familiar with Hugh MacMillan Medical Centre and their innovative work, especially in augmentative communication. I thought it would be a wonderful place to work and make a difference in the world.
BLOOM: You will always be “Mr. Volunteer Resources” to me, I think because early on we both had offices close by at the Bloorview site. You had an incredible passion for your work.
Doug Miron: The director of volunteer resources and our vice-president mentored me to pursue volunteer management as a career, and provided tuition assistance. I wanted to increase the number of our volunteers, to enhance the client’s experience. A key element of our program was that volunteers would always have staff supervision, and would be met and greeted on every shift. Part of my role was to enhance the skills and leadership of the staff, so they could create a safe environment for everyone.
The exciting thing that happened was that we grew to have volunteers aged 16 to 80-plus years, who spoke from 60 to 75 languages, and came in from 8 in the morning to 8 at night, seven days a week. Twenty years ago, that was an incredibly diverse group of individuals. Since then, Barb Donald and Lise Quirin built on that to completely enhance the experience for volunteers and the hospital.
BLOOM: What did you love most about running our volunteer department?
Doug Miron: It was matching really wonderful people with incredible opportunities to make a difference in the lives of children. That was only made possible because we had such engaged staff—they created an environment where the work they were doing was so cool that others wanted to come and work beside them, to help make it happen.
BLOOM: What was the greatest challenge?
Doug Miron: Time. I was working many 12-hour days and evenings and weekends. If you had a request that a child needed a volunteer, you wanted to make sure that happens.
BLOOM: What qualities did you need in that role?
Doug Miron: You had to have a good understanding of strategy, strong people skills, and administrative skills. You needed to be good at adapting to change, and flexible and empathetic to all the people who are involved. You also had to have a good systems perspective of what was happening across the organization, so you could understand where future volunteer needs would be, and how to support staff with the exciting programs they were dreaming about. You had to be ahead of the curve. I also got to teach for eight years in the volunteer management program at Humber College, where I’d been a student.
BLOOM: What was your most recent role here?
Doug Miron: I work in organization development as a senior consultant and director. We’re responsible for leadership strategy, change management and talent management. What I enjoy most is working with leaders to prepare them to be the best they can be. I want our leaders to know that I have their back, and am there to support them as they make challenging and rewarding decisions. Recently we’ve been using the LEADS Framework. It guides leaders to make strategic decisions based on leading themselves, engaging others, achieving results, developing coalitions, and transforming systems.
BLOOM: In your many decades here, what are you most proud of?
Doug Miron: Being part of the design team for our new building—especially for the main floor and the reception and family resource areas.
We took the time to meet with families about what their experience was like coming into the organization.
They shared with us the anxiety they have when they come for an appointment. First, just getting their child ready, and getting here, and then the uncertainty of what will happen here. We asked them ‘What do you need to have happen when you arrive?’ They said they needed practical things and experiential things. They wanted to have a big window at the front so if they dropped their child off, and the child had to wait, they could see the child. They needed a place to sit as soon as they came in, because they were tired. They needed friendly reception staff to be there as guides and to give directions.
They needed a sense of calm. That’s why, in working with the architects, we lowered the ceiling at the entrance, and used all natural wood. It creates an incredible calming effect. The rehab experience is about making choices, and when you come into our building, you only have three choices: you can go straight, or left or right.
We had a volunteer—often a former client—who would be there to assist families if they needed it. Clients and families told us they wanted a place to sit right in the main reception area. What we found, later, was that designing it that way also enhanced the experience for our employees and potential employees. We’ve heard, time and again, from HR staff and managers, that people say that they decided they wanted to work here based on their experience waiting for their interview.
BLOOM: Because they were right in the centre of things, and could see everything happening around them?
Doug Miron: Yes, that’s how we designed it. You have a choice to walk into the larger atrium, which is a beautiful open space that naturally flows into the ravine, and the family resource centre is there to provide support and resources in a relaxed environment. The counters at reception are low, so when you first come in things are accessible, and we always have two people on reception so someone is free to help families.
It was designed because of the evenings we spent with children and families, having conversations about their experiences here. That helped shape my future work when I got to become the change consultant as we moved forward with client- and family-centred care. I worked with Susan Brown, Lily Yang, Laura Williams and now Aman Sium to engage families in what they wanted the future of care to look like here.
BLOOM: Why are you retiring now?
Doug Miron: After 32 years, I decided it was time to continue to work with others outside of Holland Bloorview. I’ve joined the faculty of Organization Development and Change at the Schulich School of Business. I’m really enjoying that work—helping mid-career practicum students to apply organization development skills to a variety of industries across Canada.
BLOOM: What kind of industries?
Doug Miron: Everything from Apple to Purolator to Ryerson to health-care. I want to take some of the stuff I’ve been doing here, especially in organization development, but also through the Centre for Leadership and Innovation that Kathryn Parker and I led, and share it with others. I especially enjoy the idea of coaching leaders across industries. I’ll be starting a leadership consulting and coaching business.
BLOOM: You’ve seen so many changes over your time here. Does one stick out as being particularly dramatic?
Doug Miron: Our engagement with families, as true partners in care.
BLOOM: If you could change one thing about Holland Bloorview, what would it be?
Doug Miron: I think we can continue to tap into this tremendous resource of people that we have working with us: 7,000 children and young adults who are so full of ideas about the future of the world; thousands of passionate families; 500 students and trainees that are at the forefront of education and learning in Canada, and the world; 1,000 volunteers that come from all walks of life, that have a real passion for helping others; and then our staff, who represent all of the traditional health disciplines, as well as therapeutic clowns, artisans and child-life specialists.
With this incredible combination, how come we’re not more innovative?
You name me a place in the world that has that mix of talent, with a single mission to enhance the lives of children with disabilities. I don’t think it exists. And if it does, we should be partnering with them, too. Let’s all work together to change the world.
