“Can you help make our employees more creative please? We’d like them to take ownership and become more motivated!” These are the types of calls Karl Raats receives from companies trying sincerely to get from point A to point B in terms of their creativity. Karl, whose daughter, back when she was little, defined that “daddy teaches grown-ups how to have nice ideas”, helps these companies understand first and foremost that they need clarity on what getting to B even looks like and how they’ll know they’ve gotten there before they can develop strategies and act on them. And with his vast experience as a corporate creative thinking coach, moderator and workshop facilitator, he knows it’s often the managers and not just their employees who desperately need the training…

Creative isn’t something you are, it’s something you do, shares Karl, so you’re looking to develop this ability in people, rather than identifying those who are “the most creative ones”. And in terms of the environment, you’ll know you’ve created a space where people feel safe to try things – and make mistakes – if they can recall someone who’s made a mistake and ascertain where that person is now, whether they’re happy and whether they’ve since turned into a cautionary tale…

Join us for episode 25 of Let’s Clarify It, in which Karl shares:

What can civil engineers and vascular surgeons learn from one another and how can we all go from abstract to “bringing it into the room”?

What happened when Karl set out to become a living experiment in creativity?

And why we should all be asking ourselves: what is the horse’s ass in our organization, if we want to be innovating?

Curious? Let’s Clarify It!

Karl Raats

I was destined to become a rhinoceros. A secret I entrusted my brother with when I was five after our dad had slapped me on the wrist for playing in the dirt, again. A little later I redirected my efforts towards becoming a goalkeeper. Down in the dirt again, even more laundry but slightly more socially acceptable.
Eventually I become a journalist. And after that a business developer. And then a marketing director. And a teacher after that. Or, as a client of mine once reframed it, ‘Karl, you have the most astounding portfolio CV.’

And all of a sudden, there she was, the professional love of my life: creative thinking. Ever since that day I’ve been wallowing in corporate creativity’s horn of plenty, shamelessly, like a five-year-old that knows becoming a rhinoceros is the greatest possible good. Hands just as dirty, less laundry this time around.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlraats