Caroline Brookfield Speaker Biography
Creativity and Ambiguity Expert
Dr. Caroline Brookfield is a creativity and ambiguity expert, through her multiple roles as veterinarian, author, speaker, entrepreneur, and award-winning innovator. 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.
Honors
Caroline received honors for her DVM from the Ontario Veterinary College, is a level 2 Creative Problem-Solving facilitator, an Accredited IAM Ambiguity Assessment Facilitator and holds a Certificate of Professional Management from the University of Calgary.
Publications
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.
Ambiguity
Entrepreneurial efforts include two online businesses – an ecommerce jewelry business and an employment agency for temporary staffing in veterinary clinics. Working with hundreds of veterinary clinics around the world, she regularly leads unfamiliar teams through challenging situations, requiring quick assessment and decisive action, while juggling interpersonal demands with clinical rigor while providing exemplary customer and patient care. Many of these clinics are amid a major transition, such as leadership change, merger or acquisition, or high staff turnover, which challenges the cohesion of teams in uncertainty.
Creativity
Stand up comedy allows her to use her inside voice on the outside, and she is always up for a challenge, like learning guitar, stand-up comedy, 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.
Caroline Brookfield Speaking Topics
Navigate the Riptide: Leading through Change and Ambiguity
The world is changing faster than ever, creating unprecedented levels of ambiguity that impact on our decision-making, leadership, and performance, often leaving us ill-equipped for the future of work and wondering why our results are lackluster. This constant change and ambiguity prevent us from moving into the future with confidence, with outdated instincts that unconsciously keep us stuck in the status quo. Over 80% of companies identify innovation as a key priority, but only 3% are ready to deliver on those goals. Our desire for certainty and instinctive protective response in ambiguity leads us astray and blocks creativity and damages wellbeing in our leaders and teams. We instinctively try to reduce ambiguity with more directives and guidelines, going deeper into never ending rabbit holes, believing that's the path to success. The reality is that change is the only constant. The true solution lies in changing our response to ambiguity and uncertainty. Instead of fighting ambiguity, we need to develop the skills to thrive within it. Tolerance of Ambiguity, is a critical skill that we must develop across organizations to navigate into the future with clarity, confidence and optimism. In a proprietary 3 step approach, learn the critical elements to navigating uncertainty to find creative solutions. In this fun and actionable keynote, attendees will learn how to take off the blinders to ambiguity, to see a bright future where anything is possible. In this engaging and interactive keynote, Dr. Brookfield will guide leaders to: • Transform Uncertainty into Opportunity: Shift from change exhaustion to excitement, fostering a thriving culture that embraces ambiguity and creativity. • Empower Teams to Excel: Equip teams with the 3-step approach to navigate change with confidence, make bolder decisions, and manifest creative potential. • Build a Resilient & Innovative Culture: Cultivate a workplace where teams are empowered to take small risks, and solve their own problems, leading to increased employee engagement and breakthrough solutions.
Beyond Burnout: Ignite Creativity to Thrive in a Changing World
The relentless pace of change in today's world is pushing even your top performers to the brink, leaving them feeling overwhelmed and unprepared for the future. When 80% of US employees feel at risk of burning out, it calls for immediate action. It's time for a new approach that empowers your teams to not just survive, but thrive, with an optimistic mindset. In a world obsessed with productivity hacks and AI shortcuts, we've overlooked a simple but effective tool for our wellbeing, creativity. Research shows that creativity isn't just about boosting innovation. Creativity is an essential foundation for adaptable, resilient teams who discover and take ownership of new solutions to complex challenges amidst uncertainty. When we bring creative practices to the individual, high performance and ownership is created from the ground up, and the future becomes more attainable than ever before. • 70% of teams in creative cultures feel empowered to innovate (compared to 20% in traditional organizations). • Employees who tap into their creativity are half as likely to seek new jobs. • Creative teams rebound faster from stress and setbacks and find more solutions to business problems. • Creative Expression (like making a meal) and Ambiguity Tolerance work together to protect against burnout. In this insightful and actionable keynote, Dr. Caroline Brookfield will provide a guide to move from surviving to thriving. Drawing on her unique experiences in high-stakes, unpredictable environments in veterinary medicine and entrepreneurship, combined with the peer reviewed evidence in creativity research, she uses her standup comedy background to explore: • The Benefits of Everyday Creativity: Explore research linking creativity to ambiguity tolerance, employee experience, and performance. • Actionable Strategies: Apply 5 immediately actionable strategies to foster a creative mindset in any team member, in only a few minutes a day (DANCE). • Empowering Your People: Describe methods to build a creative culture where employees take ownership of their ideas and drive positive change. • Cultivating Resilience: Incorporate habits to develop everyday creativity, to foster wellbeing, build confidence to navigate ambiguity, adapt to challenges, and bounce back from setbacks. This isn't about arts and crafts; it's about fostering a resilient culture where creativity thrives, leading to reduced burnout, higher retention, and breakthrough innovation and performance.
Caroline Brookfield Books
The Reluctant Creative: 5 Effortless Habits to Expand your Comfort Zone
Purchase BookCaroline Brookfield Videos
Caroline Brookfield Articles
Caroline Brookfield Speaker Testimonials
Caroline was amazing from start to finish. Very responsive and easy to talk to, professional yet approachable, thorough, knowledgeable, funny, and interesting. The perfect mix of presenting information to the listeners and leading the audience in some fun breakout exercises.
- Amy M.Pavlock, VMD, MS Director, Global Health Economics and Reimbursement (GHER) | Transcatheter Mitral and Tricuspid Therapies (TMTT) Edwards Lifesciences
Her ability to adapt to the group's needs ensures every attendee leaves inspired. Beyond her professional excellence, she's a wonderful person to know.
- Mary Reed, Director of Events | The Beyond Collection
Dr. Brookfield was an absolute pleasure to work with. Her responsiveness and professionalism made the planning and coordination process seamless, allowing us to focus on other aspects of the event with confidence.
- Terra Shastri, Chief Experience Officer | Ontario Veterinary Medical Association
One of the most inspiring experiences I’ve ever had. The session was so engaging that I wished for more time to explore her ideas.
- Navpreet Kaur- Business Account Manager | Mainstreet Credit Union
