Caroline Brookfield

The world today is moving faster than it ever has before and as a result, we’re often feeling left behind, exhausted, and unable to do our best work. Yesterday's best practices may not be today’s best solutions, and the future doesn’t seem as bright or exciting as it once did. We need to find a way to ensure that we not only get to where we need to go, but thrive along the way. But, in rapid change, how do you plan without a clear destination? 

The answer is creativity, and the magic key is how to reconnect with this universal human skill.

The problem is that most organizations think that innovation and creativity are actions that happen at a company level. The truth is that if we bring creative practices to the individual, that high performance and ownership is created from the ground up, and the future becomes more attainable than ever before.

As someone who has studied and incorporated creativity for high-performance for the last 20+ years,  Dr. Caroline Brookfield has developed her Future Forward Framework, a proprietary, actionable, and understandable methodology that helps everyone from the floor to the corner office navigate ambiguity, develop resilience, and apply ingenuity every day.

When people hear Dr. Brookfield’s inspiring, actionable, and surprisingly fun keynotes, they leave with the concrete tools they didn’t know they needed to act on their creative potential to perform at their best, resist burnout, and navigate whatever the future may bring.

"Authentic, energizing – deep message – light delivery" -- Attendee comment

People are your most valuable resource.  Cliché? Perhaps. Yet, cultures focused on conformity stifle that potential, leading to robotic results and a disengaged workforce. By fostering everyday creativity in every employee, you empower your teams to overcome the fear of judgment and become the collaborative, engaged, and ingenious problem-solvers essential for building a workplace where innovation thrives.

A veterinarian who speaks on creativity?!

As a veterinarian who is passionate about entrepreneurship, stand-up comedy, and speaking, I was afraid my unconventional interests would be judged.  But a surprising pattern emerged – when I unapologetically embraced what made me different, I inspired others to rediscover their own hidden passions.  This same principle applies in the workplace. Creativity empowers everyone (even those who think they're "not creative") to find innovative solutions, navigate ambiguity, and build the resilient mindset essential for success today.

The Power of Everyday Creativity

You already know the importance of unlocking potential, and maybe you feel like you've tried it all. Have you tried creativity?

Gallup found that creative companies empower a whopping 70% of their workforce to innovate, compared to 20%. 

Yet only 18% of employees feel that they can take a chance to be creative at work. 

Through engaging presentations with humor, I'll lead attendees through the essentials for creative thinking.

Benefits

Research has shown that a creative mindset has the following benefits:

• Boost Retention: Creative Employees are half as likely to leave, and are more engaged at work.
• Build Resilience & Adaptability: Thrive in an Unpredictable World. Creativity lifts our mood and gives us confidence in ambiguity, which fosters resilience in times of stress.
• Transform Outdated Processes with Breakthrough Innovations. Creative employees solve problems. Simple.
• Foster a Culture of Collaboration and Psychological Safety. Creativity requires safety to share ideas, to be comfortable and authentic and bring our whole selves to work. 
• Effective Leadership. A creative leader faces ambiguity with confidence,  and rebounds from failure with vulnerability to foster a human centric culture.

More about Caroline

"With her interactive approach, she truly engaged the audience and created a memorable experience for all in attendance. A one hour session didn’t do justice to the level of enthusiasm shown by the attendees towards Caroline’s approach for igniting the creative spark in ourselves". --Event Planner, Financial Services

Caroline is the author of "The Reluctant Creative," holds a DVM (Hons) from the Ontario Veterinary College, a Certificate of Professional Management from the University of Calgary, and is a Level 2 Creative Problem Solving Facilitator. An international speaker and professional member of CAPS, she has performed  stand-up comedy across North America,  has been interviewed on CBC Radio, and featured in print publications such as West Coast Veterinarian magazine, and VET Magazine>Also featured on numerous podcasts, as well as published in peer-reviewed articles in medical journals.

"Extremely engaging and entertaining, creative in her presentation, comical and full of energy, Caroline brings the audience to life.  Her high energy brings simple concepts that we don’t think about often enough to life." --Iris Meck, Director of Conferences, Glacier Farm Media.

Her diverse experience, from medical research to clinical medicine, teaching, non-profit, corporate roles, and entrepreneurship, allows her to see the big picture, while also understanding the challenges in a wide context.  Caroline can relate to people in all levels of an organization. She has a knack for considering multiple points of view, with a critical eye and a honed BS detector.

Caroline is always up for a challenge, like learning guitar, rock climbing, getting her kids to eat vegetables, surfing, meditation retreats with sniper rifles, and gardening in the tundra of Calgary. She has learned to step into uncertainty, despite fear, to summit mountains, backpack solo around SE Asia for 18 months, stand-up comedy, and perform surgery on lions and rattlesnakes (oh, my!).  She lives in Calgary, Alberta, where her lectures go unheeded by her family. The dog listens, if she has carrots.

Keynotes

1. Preventing Burnout and Increasing Performance: How to Master Creativity and use it as your Competitive Advantage

In this insightful and engaging presentation, learn how a creative mindset helps us to navigate change, collaborate at a higher level, and bring more enthusiasm to the rampant uncertainty we’re faced with every day. Learn 5 habits to engage a creative mindset in only a few minutes a day with the DANCE Framework.

2. Empower your People, Expand your Future: Cultivating Creative Resilience and Navigating Change with Optimism.

To better navigate and lead through uncertainty, we must master creativity and our self awareness so that we can bring a unique approach that is tailor-made to better navigate the future.

Workshops

1. DANCE Steps to the Future: Put the concepts of the DANCE framework into practice, with energetic, partner and group based exercises curated for your audience.

2.What’s the Point?:  Inspire a culture of creativity and collaboration in your team, one meeting at a time.

Frequently anticipated questions

"What will people do differently after the presentation??"

"I realized that I was creative, but did not label it as creativity. I was associating creativity with arts. You kind of democratized creativity.  I'm less stressed and I'm able to think more deeply.  I'm much more at peace with myself and I'm a better human". --Anne-Marie Levasseur, ACAS

"Dr. Caroline Brookfield's comment linking curiosity and creativity--I solved a problem within minutes of her presentation by looking at it from a different angle." -- Attendee, ATB Financial

"Ok, but is she wasy to work with?"

"In addition to her remarkable speaking abilities, Dr. Brookfield was an absolute pleasure to work with. She was approachable, accommodating, and displayed an unwavering commitment to delivering an exceptional experience for our conference participants". --Terra Shastri, Chief Experience Officer, Ontario Veterinary Medical Association

"I  want people to leave feeling inspired and optimistic about the future".

"Since I attended your conference, I’ve been asking myself…. Why not? I can try, fail, and try it again. Now I feel more engaged with my thoughts and I think heaven is not even the limit… The limit is in my mind".

--Dianne Rivera Mateus, Sales Manager, Fairmont Winnipeg

"Is the information credible?"

Your session was very engaging, fun, and really made us think about moving through our barriers to be the most agile we can possibly be.  I found the information compelling as it was backed by rigor and data...which spoke to the researcher in me!" -- Dr. Raeleen Manjak, DM/OL, ΔϺΔ, CPHR

"Will it be boring? Will it appeal to a broad audience?"

• Caroline’s passion bubbled through in her presentation and it was hard not to get excited about being more creative at work :)
• This was an amazing presentation, interactive , the speaker was engaging and passionate. I loved that the information in the presentation can be utilized in both my personal and work life.

--Attendee comments  

"What is an example of an outcome after one of Caroline's events?"

After a workshop with Lisa Genovese's team -  Président, BottomLine 

"We recently completed a workshop with our team that Caroline facilitated and it had a significant impact, particularly with one quite shy team member who now speaks up in meetings when she used to not share. I've also noticed our team seems to be smiling and having fun together more often than they used to..

Here is my promise: I will work tirelessly with you and your team, with professionalism and timeliness, to deliver a performance that is engaging, relatable and pertinent to your business and organizational challenge. And, I am optimistic that we'll also have a blast.,

Now what? Contact me.

Please reach out and let's have a discussion, no obligation, about your goals and your event, to see if we are a good match. 

Thank you for reading this far! And, if you read to the end, here's a quick joke as a gift:

"If you can't change your mind, are you sure you still have one?" - Unknown source