Robert Barrett, PhD

"Rob asks the important questions that drive change and understanding".

/  director, royal college of physicians & surgeons of canada  /

Dr. Robert Barrett has spent much of his life studying behaviour, group dynamics, and organizational culture, and is the recipient of twelve major academic awards for his contributions to the way we perceive and remedy deep conflict. Rob’s primary focus is on why we do the things we do and how individuals and teams can reach top performance. Rob’s experiences are truly diverse. He has traveled to rural Nigeria to interview recruiters and leaders of death squads on how they indoctrinate fighters, he helped build Canada’s first ever Patient Safety Officer program for Canadian hospitals, was on the committee that introduced Canada’s first Operating Room Checklist, was core faculty for the Canadian Patient Safety Institute’s incidence response team, helped develop new fatigue countermeasures for the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, lectured on intercultural negotiation for senior Canadian Forces officers deploying to Afghanistan, and was lead researcher on a unique program designed to investigate ways to mitigate astronaut crew conflict in space for future Mars missions. Rob’s work on motivation and team dynamics is also supported by 13 years of competitive cross country skiing and a Canada Games gold medal. Rob has written for the Huffington Post and has appeared more than 50 times on national television and radio. He is an international airline Captain with over 15,000 hours of flying experience.

RECENT KEYNOTE TALKS

High Performance Leadership | University of Alberta Graduate School

The Empowerment Gap | The Western Association of College and University Business Officers 2019 Annual Conference | Vancouver

Effective Team-Building II | University of Alberta Graduate School

Effective Team-Building | University of Alberta Gradulate School

Leadership | University of Alberta School of Public Health

Command Leadership | University of Alberta School of Public Health

High Reliability Organizations | General Surgery Group, Calgary

High Performance Safety | Shell Oil

Flight Operations Human Factors | Airline (confidential)

Why Hospitals Should Fly | University of Calgary School of Medicine

Handover: Is there a problem here? (co-facilitated workshop) | UofC

Change and Performance | Canmore (oil and gas client)

Fly as You Learn and Learn as You Fly: Lessons from Aviation for Medical Simulation | Toronto co-facilated | RCPSC Sim Summit

Crew Resource Management: Applications for Patient Safety | Canadian Patient Safety Institute

Change, Conflict, and Safety Cultures | Canadian Patient Safety Institute Guest Lecture

Leadership for Highly Effective Organizations | FMC Law

Delivering Patient Safety | Guest on Prof. James Reason’s DVD Series | London, UK

Terrorism in Alberta? | Manning Centre | Calgary

Drones: Revolution in Security Affairs | Toronto

The Hidden Element: The Role of Culture in a Globalizing World | Calgary

Inteviewing Killers: Why People Join Deadly Groups | Calgary

High Performance Safety | Calgary

Improving Organizational Culture | Calgary

CRM and Checklists | Toronto

Organizational Change and Conflict | CPSI, Toronto

Intercultural Negotiation | Canadian Forces Staff College, Toronto

Leadership for Highly Effective Organizations | Calgary (law firm)

Building a Safety Culture: Group Dynamics, Conflict, and Resistance to Change | CPSI, Toronto

Afghanistan Briefing | Calgary (security conference opening)

Borrowing from Security Strategy: Accelerated Preparedness for Interpersonal and Intergroup Challenges in Extended Space Flight through the Use of Red-Teaming | New Orleans

CRM Touches the OR: ORM Takes Flight | Orlando

Understanding the Challenges of African Democratization through Conflict Analysis | Seville, Spain

Where is the West? Dominant Western Attitudes Toward Ethnic Conflict in Africa | Nigeria

Composite Diplomacy: Canadian Foreign Policy for Modern Intrastate War | Calgary

Composite Diplomacy: Innovation Amidst Uncertainty | Calgary

Fueling Terrorism: The Misalignment of Western Intervention Policy in a Democratizing World | Toronto

Peer-Reviewed Publications

The Potential Role of CRM in the Neurosurgical OR | Annals of Neurosurgery Conference Proceedings

Interviews with Killers: Six Types of Combatants and Their Motivations for Joining Deadly Groups | Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Vol.34:10

Borrowing from Security Strategy: Can Red Teams Help Astronauts Prepare for Crew Conflict in Space? | Canadian Military Journal, Vol.9:4

CRM Touches the OR: ORM Takes Flight | Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, Vol.73:3

China, Iran, Israel, and Al Qaeda, Russia and the West: Odd Bedfellows Doth the Curse of Oil Make in Nigeria, Middle East Times | Oct.5,2009

Where is the West? Dominant Western attitudes toward ethnic conflict in Africa, In Olayemi Akinwumi, Ed. 2006. New Trends in Inter-Group Relations in Nigeria, Makurdi: Aboki Academic Publishers

Composite Diplomacy: Canadian Innovation Amidst Global Uncertainty | Innovations: A Journal of Politics, Vol.5

Welcome to Nigeria: A Land of Paradoxes, Centre for Military & Strategic Studies. Sept\Oct. 2005

Online Publications

The Stress from Political Polarization is Killing Us Slowly | Huffington Post

Beware Syria, Here's Why Ceasefires Fail | Huffington Post

Occupy Wall Street is Not the Arab Spring | Huffington Post

Is Nigeria Ready for al Qaeda? | Huffington Post

NATO's Future is America's Dilemma | Huffington Post

Is Yemen the Next Afghanistan? | Huffington Post

Libya: Should We Stay or Should We Go? | Huffington Post

Secure Oil is the Real Alberta Advantage | Calgary Herald

Four Wars on the Verge of Erupting: The Niger Delta | Mark News

Understanding the Challenges of African Democratization through Conflict Analysis. IACM 18th Annual Conference Proceedings | Spain

Television and Radio Commentary

CBC Radio Canada | Rebel Capture of Tripoli

CTV News | Aerospace

Posmedia | Syria

CTV News | Libya and NTC recognition)

CTV News | Mumbai Attacks)

CBC Radio | Libya and North Africa Security

U Magazine

Postmedia | North Africa

Postmedia | Libya

CBC Television | Arab Spring and Oil Markets

CBC Television | North Africa

CBC Radio World Report | Egyptian revolution and oil

CBC Radio | Libya No-Fly Zone

CBC The National | Egypt and oil implications

CBC News Calgary | Egyptian protests

CBC News Calgary | Egyptian issue

CBC Radio | Global oil security

CTV Power Play | Terrorism

CTV News Channel | Homegrown Terrorism

CTV News Calgary | Terrorism

CTV News Channel | Radicalization

CTV Power Play | Boston Bombings

CTV News Channel | Homegrown terror

CTV News Channel | Terrorism

CTV Power Play | Terrorism

CTV Power Play | Terrorists within Canada

CTV News Channel | BC Terror Plot

CBC Radio | Yemen evacuation and AQAP