Dr. Caroline Brookfield is a Reluctant Creative. She is a veterinarian, author, speaker, entrepreneur, comedian, and mom. A long time ago, faced with a false ultimatum between art and science, she chose science. Eventually, Caroline’s creativity demanded attention, like a cat at dinnertime. She learned how to integrate her creative and scientific sides for the best of both worlds.
Caroline received honors for her veterinary degree from the Ontario Veterinary College, is a level 2 Creative Problem Solving facilitator, and holds a Certificate of Professional Management from the University of Calgary. She earned an Innovation Award at Nestle Purina for creative gamification of scientific.presentations to audiences and key customers across Canada. Caroline is published in many peer-reviewed scientific publications for her scientific research on shock and wildlife rehabilitation, and is the author of “The Reluctant Creative: 5 Effortless Habits to Expand your Comfort Zone.”
Entrepreneurial efforts included two online businesses. Stand up comedy allows Caroline Brookfield to use her inside voice on the outside since 2018. She is always up for a challenge, like learning guitar, skiing, rock climbing, getting her kids to eat vegetables, surfing, and selling fake wigs at a fair in Australia. Her late diagnosis of ADHD gives her a unique perspective on finding success as a professional with neurodiversity, as well as distilling complicated concepts into understandable and actionable takeaways.
Caroline is passionate about challenging norms and conventions, and delights in helping others to find and share their originality. She lives in Calgary, Alberta, where her lectures go unheeded by her family. The dog listens, if treats are involved.
Ignite a Creative Mindset for Ingenious Results
Challenge your comfort zone, find your mojo, herd cats, and develop ninja level problem solving skills with a creative mindset. Most people dream about how things could be different without actually thinking differently. The only way to chart a new course is to recognize that you are stuck, then imagine new possibilities. It’s time to make a change, to build agility and to solve problems with new solutions. Just like that tape roll, it can be hard to find the right place to start.
Start a creative shift with simple acts like making a meal, building a pivot table, or sneaking vegetables in smoothies. Research says that people who use their everyday creativity have better well being, superior leadership skills, cat-like agility, and epic complex problem solving prowess. Organizations who have creative employees lead in employee retention, profitability, engagement, and innovation. Embrace a creative mindset for success with 5 simple habits every day.
Audience takeaways:
– How “non creatives” can embrace their own creativity (no arts & crafts required).
– Implement one simple secret that will instantly ignite creative solutions.
– Engage 5 effortless habits every day to build a creative mindset.
– Explain how to leap over obstacles to creative expression.
Creative Leadership for Competitive Advantage and Agility.
In today’s fiercely competitive business world, innovation is the key to success. While most companies claim to prioritize innovation, only 18% of employees feel empowered to take creative risks at work. Organizations that equip their leaders and teams with the tools and environment to foster creativity outperform their competitors. Sadly, leaders suffer silently from the “leader dilemma”, an unconscious bias against creativity.
Foster a creative culture, and empower an increase of 50% of employees who feel empowered to innovate. From a front line employee who enthusiastically shares a process improvement that cuts expenses in half, to a manager who develops employee recognition strategies that decrease turnover, creativity is the fuel for effective problem solving. Not only does creativity drive innovation at every level, it keeps employees engaged and connected to their work and each other. The best part? You don’t need to build a fancy office full of bean bag chairs and foosball tables. or recruit an elite outside team – creativity is accessible to everyone with the right ingredients. And, despite creative thinking being the #2 skill in the WEF Future of Jobs 2023 report, training for creativity is barely a blip on the radar. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the opportunity, for those willing to blaze the trail (and yes, data shows that creativity skills can be trained.)
Innovation can be a daily reality, which will transform the way your organization approaches challenges, and drive exceptional results, by animating creative potential at every level.
In this “light delivery, deep message” keynote, discover the essential habits (DANCE) to spark creativity in every team member. No arts and crafts required.
Audience takeaways:
– Identify simple techniques to foster creativity in teams.
– List 5 effortless habits (DANCE) to unlock creativity in every team member.
– Recognize and overcome common mistakes that block team performance and creativity.
– Explain the “leader dilemma”, why leaders have an unconscious bias to creativity.
– The surprising role of AI for creative ideation.
Find the Joy in your Originality with a Creative Mindset
Remember the days when you loved to twirl in the sun and play in the grass? A time when you could imagine new adventures with confidence and get your hands dirty with delight.
Children have a creative mindset that allows them to charge into uncertainty, learn from mistakes and rebound and start again. You can regain that creative mindset and still keep the knowledge and skills you have collected over your career.
Launch your creative coup with simple acts like making a meal, building a pivot table, or sneaking vegetables in smoothies. When we identify as creative, we are more engaged, productive, and satisfied with our jobs. A creative mindset helps you to build resilience, by facing fear of judgement, risking failure with determination, and by sharing your originality with the world.
Learn how to effortlessly engage a creative mindset in only a few minutes a day. Creativity is a human, elemental skill that is ready to help you grab life by the horns. We don’t need more robots. We need originality, passion, and creativity. Then, we change the world (cue dramatic and inspiring music).
Audience takeaways:
– Engage 5 effortless habits every day for creativity (even “non creatives”).
– Describe creativity’s influence on tolerance of ambiguity, resilience and happiness.
– Explore how to surmount the fear of judgement to proudly brandish your originality.
– Discover the instincts that hold us back in an outdated attempt to keep us safe.
Looking for a break in the program or after lunch to lift up the energy? This 60 to 90 minute fun and engaging workshop will encode the 5 habits to engage creativity with thoughtful and integrated exercises in groups. Attendees will practice each of the 5 habits in the DANCE framework with group exercises. Curated exercises will engage collaboration, engagement and networking among participants. Laughs guaranteed!
Audience takeaways:
– Practice each of the 5 habits in the DANCE framework.
– Movement breaks to increase energy and mood and engagement.
– Encode the theory of the DANCE framework with kinesthetic exercises.
– Foster collaboration, networking and collaboration with others.
Embed and practice the skills of creativity within teams. In a 90 to 120 minute session, we will practice the foundational criteria to support creative approaches within teams, without the chaos. Creative Problem Solving exercises and principles will guide the workshop content and format. Attendees will practice the essential principles to lead team members for a creative mindset. Hands-on exercises that can be used immediately will allow managers to structure and lead a productive meeting to drive inclusive discourse and meaningful innovation.
Audience takeaways:
– Establish Divergent and Convergent conditions for success to lead meetings for more effective idea generation and problem solving.
– Apply creative principles to meeting agenda development to increase engagement and safety within meetings.
– Apply a systematic approach to idea generation in order to identify feasible and innovative strategies for everyday challenges.
Show More
Contact us to get Caroline Brookfield's fees and availability for your next event
One of our consultants will get back to you soon