Event: International Conference on Physician Health (ICPH) 2026, “From insight to impact: sustainable strategies for a healthy and fulfilling medical career”
Hosts: British Medical Association, Canadian Medical Association and American Medical Association
Session: The Leader Who Stopped Asking, an interactive keynote-workshop on curiosity in leadership
Date and venue: 30 September 2026, ICC Olympia, London
Audience: Physicians from Canada, the USA, the Netherlands and the UK

The Context

ICPH brings together doctors, medical leaders and researchers focused on keeping physicians well across long and demanding careers. The 2026 theme centred on moving from insight to practical, sustainable action.

I was invited to open day two with a session on curiosity in leadership. The brief came with a real-world challenge: an 08:15 start, at a busy international conference, for an audience of clinicians who are often tired, time-poor and used to being the person with the answers. The session needed to earn attention quickly, feel energising rather than demanding, and leave participants with something they could use back at work.

The Approach

The Leader Who Stopped Asking explored what happens when leaders, under pressure, trade curiosity for certainty, and how to get it back. Rather than a lecture, the hour was built around experience and play:

A poem to open — with National Poetry Day the following day, the session began with a poem about wonder, setting a reflective tone from the first minute.
Personal storytelling — I shared my experience of head-first skydiving as a way into risk, fear and stepping into the unknown.
Polaroid memories — participants used Polaroid photographs to notice, recall and reflect on moments that mattered.
Word tiles on the tables — letter tiles invited people to build the words that captured their thinking: REFLECTION, QUESTION, WHY and LIFE were left on the tables.
Something to take home — poetry cards and a Curiosity Experiment worksheet so ideas could be captured and tried back at work.

In the Room

Despite the early start, the session drew a full room of physicians from four countries, and the energy was high from the opening poem onwards. The tables told the story of the hour: letter tiles, poetry cards and worksheets, with participants spelling out the ideas that mattered to them.

The Impact

Strong turnout at the earliest slot — around 20 physicians from four countries at an 08:15 session.
High engagement — participants were involved throughout, with the skydiving story and Polaroid memories standing out as favourites.
Ideas made visible — tables ended the session covered in participants’ own words, showing curiosity being practised, not just discussed.
Something to take away — every participant left with a Curiosity Experiment to try in their own teams.

Why It Worked

Curiosity is hard to teach by telling. This session worked because it let senior clinicians experience curiosity directly — through a poem, a story, a photograph and a handful of letter tiles — before connecting it to how they lead.

The same day I went on to launch The Curious Leader Series with NHS Leadership Academy North East and Yorkshire, taking the same curiosity-led approach from an international stage into NHS leadership development.

---

To book me as a speaker for your conference or event, get in touch or visit Speaker Events.