“The biggest mistake is assuming change has to be massive to matter”: MScSM team wins 2 awards in BMO Systems Innovation Challenge
Embedding mental health into everyday life is crucial and a key factor towards generating social impact, according to Shuchita Das, Mallory Furlong, Kaitlin MacDonald, Anne Mayengo, and Siobhan Mehrotra from IMI’s Master of Science in Sustainability Management (MScSM) program. The five MScSM students applied the fundamental belief—that mental health and social sustainability are interconnected— into their preparation for the 2025 Systems Innovation Challenge hosted by BMO and Innovation North at Ivey, where they won two awards worth $8,000: one for having the most creative solution, and a second award for scalability, as their solution had potential applications across industries and sectors.
The team says the challenge was unlike any other case competition they’d seen before, and they were delighted with the opportunity to find a creative approach to mental health and wellness in the workplace using a systems thinking approach.
“The challenge unfolded in three phases,” says Mayengo, with the team kicking off the competition submitting a proposal on student absenteeism. From across Canada, there were 66 submissions, whereupon the MScSM team and selected others received invitations to the second stage. For this round, the team focused on postpartum loneliness – a presentation which garnered them a spot in the final round. “The final stage,” says Das, “was to integrate wellness into BMO’s workplace in a way that is meaningful, accessible, and sustainable. Many wellness programs struggle because they…don’t reach the employees who need them most.”
The team’s winning solution harnessed a model that embedded wellness into “workplace structures, communication, and daily routines,” says Das, with the ultimate goal being “to transform wellness from a program into a workplace norm.”
Mehrotra outlined the team’s innovative “Be MOre Campaign,” involving wellness as a part of daily routines, taking proactive steps, strengthening employee & manager connection, and thinking outside the box. “Our solutions were practical,” she says, “without making it feel like extra work.”
The team credits both deep knowledge and group synergy with their success. “We prioritized our [own] individual and collective wellbeing,” says Furlong. “When you’re surrounded by kind, passionate, and supportive people, you can’t go wrong.” MacDonald adds: “our skills were naturally transferrable to systems thinking...and we recognized how sensitive an organization’s structure and operations can be.” Most importantly, she notes, “We embedded mental health and wellness into our own work processes by offering help and checking in on each other during difficult weeks.” Das concluded, “Collaboration was our biggest advantage.”
The team’s biggest takeaways are profound. Mayengo brings up how “when we hit tough spots in the challenge, I realized that being honest about our struggles is actually a strength, not a weakness. It taught me that real progress comes from accepting our imperfections and relying on the people around us for support.”
“Our solutions were small tweaks rather than large overhauls,” says Das. “They had ripple effects that could reshape employee experience and company culture over time.”
