Eric Leo Blais, MDes
Grief Coach
Are you or your colleagues having difficulty moving forward because of grief or loss?
As an ICF-certified, Solution-Focused coach, I can support you as you navigate and manage grief and loss. I can help you imagine a future beyond loss, set tasks, identify needs, and move forward with respect for where you are in your personal grief journey.
I’ve also completed Shapes of Grief, an online 40+ hour grief training program, and co-facilitate grief groups with Bereaved Families of Ontario - Toronto.
Why a Grief Coach? Have a read.
Solution-Focused Coach and
Innovation Consultant
Is your innovation team stagnant or not performing to its full potential?
I can help.
I am a newly accredited International Coaching Federation (ICF) Associate Certified Coach (ACC) and an experienced professional innovation consultant with a Master’s degree in Design: Innovation and Strategic Foresight.
As an Innovation Coach, I can help you and your team members create and navigate change by gaining clarity, perspective, direction, and decision-making, while fostering accountability and planning.
As an Innovation Consultant, I can design, review, manage, and facilitate your innovation research, process, and practice.
Book
Surviving Grief is a heartfelt and honest guide born from Eric’s deeply personal journey through loss. Inspired by his volunteer work co-facilitating grief groups with the Toronto chapter of Bereaved Families of Ontario, Eric opens up about the profound losses of his partner of 24 years, Rod, and his mother, just 11 months apart.
In sharing his story, Eric reveals how connecting with others—sharing experiences and listening to theirs—can ease the pain, bring comfort, and remind us that we’re not alone. Yet, not everyone has access to grief support or knows where to turn after losing a loved one. This book aims to bridge that gap.
Grief is a profoundly individual experience, shaped by your relationship with the person, your culture, personality, and life journey. With raw honesty and vulnerability, Surviving Grief offers practical tools, personal insights, and compassionate guidance to help you navigate your own path through loss.
Whether you’re grieving the death of a spouse, partner, parent, close friend, or even a beloved pet, this book is here to offer hope, understanding, and ideas to help you move forward.
Available at Type Books, 883 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M6J 1G5. (https://typebooks.ca/)
Available on Amazon:
Canada:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0DX28K2PP
United States:
https://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Grief-memoir-Eric-Blais-ebook/dp/B0DX28K2PP
United Kingdom:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Surviving-Grief-memoir-Eric-Blais-ebook/dp/B0DX28K2PP
And on all other Amazon markets, search: Surviving Grief Eric Blais
Also available on Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/surviving-grief-8
Solution-Focused Coach (Innovation & Grief)
Coaching can also help when facing challenges with identity after retirement, making tough life decisions, navigating interpersonal relationships, finding motivation, setting goals, coping with job loss, managing grief, or dealing with a cancer diagnosis—I can walk alongside you and help you get through it.
As a certified Solutions-Focused Coach, I focus primarily on innovation and change management leaders as well as adults navigating grief and loss.
Through a carefully crafted structured conversation, I can help individuals on innovation projects or those integrating change reach full potential and peak performance. I can also help bereaved individuals move forward with the outmost respect for where they are in their grief journey.
Our conversation can occur in person, via Google Meet or over the phone, whichever you prefer.
If you're ready to take the next step, use the contact form below and let's have a conversation!
Coaching Testimonials available on my LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/ericleoblais
Innovation Consultant
What I Do
As a consultant, I’m here to help innovation leaders and long-term strategists make sense of the future and turn big ideas into something tangible and meaningful. Whether creating a new product, planning for what’s ahead with tools like trend analysis and scenario planning, navigating the twists and turns of the innovation process, or driving business development, I’ll work with you to design, manage and facilitate your project. Together, we’ll build strategies that prepare you for what’s coming and help you grow and thrive in a constantly changing world.
Here’s a snapshot of the skills I bring to the table:
Innovation committee management
Innovation project management
Innovation project fundraising & grant writing
Innovation research
Product or Service Procurement
Prospecting
Scenario planning
Trend research and analysis
Workshop facilitation
My Mission
To empower leaders to confidently navigate the future by turning ideas into impactful realities, fostering innovation, and driving meaningful growth in an ever-evolving world.
My Brand
My brand is all about blending sharp research with a sense of humor, because tackling big questions doesn’t have to be boring. I dive headfirst into the tough stuff, helping leaders face challenges with clarity and courage. At the same time, I’m always energized by what’s new—whether it’s fresh ideas, emerging trends, or the next big opportunity. It’s about making the complex approachable and the hard work rewarding, with a little fun along the way.
Client List and Consulting Testimonials available on my LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/ericleoblais
Strategic Foresight Course
Published Work
Coaching Article on Medium.com
Innovation Article on Medium.com
Top Trends Impacting Leaders in 2024/25 on Medium.com
The Evolution of Hybrid Work - From Where and When to Who and How
Mastering Change with Strategic Foresight and Innovation (SFI)
Trend Decks
Published Work
OCAD U: Decrypting the Medium - A Report on the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Market (Winter 2022)
OSCA Today: Reimagining Education: Our Schools, Post-Pandemic (Fall, 2020)
Rethinking Media - Broadcast dialogue
Rethinking Media: Meet Broadcast Dialogue’s newest contributor Eric Blais (August 29, 2019)
Rethinking Media: Is content still king? (September 26, 2019)
Rethinking Media: It’s all about the experience (November 22, 2019)
Rethinking Media: Combating ‘groupthink’ in the broadcast industry (January 27, 2020)
Rethinking Media: The Litany Against Fear (February 21, 2020)
Rethinking Media: How unpacking social systems can help your sales process (September 4, 2020)
Rethinking Media: Applying Design Thinking to Misinformation (October 30, 2020)
Rethinking Media: Innovation, Adaptive Leadership and Work Avoidance (February 2, 2021)
Rethinking Media: New Beginnings, Time for Action (June 22, 2021)
Speaking Engagements
March 11, 2025 - CP24 - Promote Surviving Grief (Book)
October 23, 2024 - Volunteer Canada - Looking into the Future with Data: The Strategic Foresight Approach
August 9, 2023 - University of Toronto Mississauga, Department of Language Studies, Innovating in 2023
August 16, 2022 - Volunteer MBC - CADC Strategic Foresight Introduction
May 10, 2022 - Circadian Wellness / Eons - Strategic Foresight Session
July 15, 2021 - Points of Light Conference - Future of Volunteer Engagement, Using design thinking and future studies concepts
May 13, 2021 - TAVA May Workshop - Towards a Bright Future
February 11th, 2020 - Foresight Essentials - Change Makers - 2021 JOINT CONFERENCE with TAVA & Volunteer Toronto
November 19th, 2020 - A Strategic Foresight Primer - COVID-19 Forum - Volunteer MBC
March 28th, 2019 - The Politics of Innovation - Guest Speaker - Course: Design Thinking Incubator: from problem into prototype - University of Toronto
March 26th, 2018 - Strategic Foresight in the Wild - Guest Speaker - Course: Strategic Foresight Lab - OCAD U