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Carla Johnson

Innovation Architect, Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker

Companies that buck the status quo redefine what innovation means. Carla Johnson’s spent decades working with leaders, researching and writing books to teach people how to make innovation everybody’s business. Fusing visionary creativity with pragmatic innovation strategies, Carla helps create cultures that welcome offbeat perspectives while also experiencing unprecedented growth.

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Bio

It used to be that the status quo was the way to go. It kept your company running. And it kept you employed. But in a world that changes at the speed of a TikTok, standing still makes you a sitting duck. Volatility lurks around every corner. Startups have become rock stars. Founders are celebrities. Customers are fickle. Employees are leaving. Disruption is inevitable. But if anyone’s going to disrupt your industry, your company, or your team, shouldn’t it be you?

As the world’s leading Innovation Architect, Carla Johnson’s been breaking the status quo all her life. In 20 years of working with leaders, she’s learned that the safest bet is often the riskiest move. Through years of research and authoring numerous best-selling books, she’s developed frameworks and processes that teach people how to redefine what innovation means in their company, and then equips teams to make innovation everybody’s business.

Carla’s approach transforms organizations by fusing visionary creativity with pragmatic innovation strategies to inspire teams to think bigger and bolder so they can bust out of the status quo. The result is a company culture that becomes a playground of limitless potential while also experiencing unprecedented alignment and growth.

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2021 RE:Think Innovation: How the World's Most Prolific Innovators Come Up with Great Ideas that Deliver Extraordinary Outcomes

Keynotes

Featured Keynote

RE:Think Innovation
People think innovation is expensive, time-consuming, and complicated. That it takes special skills, special titles, and special budgets. Are we doomed to a life of status-quo thinking and underperforming results? Of wistfully dreaming we’re the golden unicorn who comes up with fantastical ideas at the drop of a hat?

What if, instead of struggle and frustration, there was a proven framework for consistently developing the great ideas that drive bottom-line impact? And what if everyone in your organization could learn it?

Audience Takeaways...
- Reimagine the role innovative thinking plays in how teams and organizations get work done.
- Understand why most groups fail at innovation even though they say it’s a key competitive priority.
- Learn a proven, 5-step process to consistently come up with ideas for any situation that has a bottom-line impact.
Ideal for...
- Demystifying how innovative icons deliver time and again.
- Understanding why true innovation can come from anywhere in an organization and lead to measurable results in days, not years.
- Learning how to introduce a new culture of innovation where people are excited to develop new ideas, make good ideas better, and support a mindset of innovation by everyone.

Applied Curiosity
Applied Curiosity
The world around us is moving faster than ever before. While efficiency, productivity, and AI are the de rigueur of the day, teams are struggling to keep pace with change. What if, instead of being a time-consuming distraction, curiosity is the ultimate competitive advantage that’s right under our noses?

It’s time we understand the true fundamentals of curiosity and how to apply them so that we can not only do more, better, and faster, but also find a way to connect on a deeper human level. All while finding a renewed sense of excitement about the future and our collective contribution to it.

Audience Takeaways...

Discover the two fundamental criteria necessary for curiosity to flourish.

Learn the three ways of thinking that makes better results come faster.

Ignite a movement that values questioning, experimentation, and collaboration to elevate outcomes everywhere.

Ideal for...

Cracking the curiosity code and learning how to build your team’s curiosity muscles from the ground up.

Creating an ecosystem that ensures that the way we work is inspired, educated, collaborative, psychologically safe, and grounded in care and intention.

Building a shortcut to smarter innovation, deeper trust, and monumental growth. Teams that can instantly deploy curiosity will be the ones that thrive in the future of work.
The Muse and the Machine: How Human Creativity Propels an AI World Forward
The Muse and the Machine: How Human Creativity Propels an AI World Forward
While technology and Generative AI have exploded, the ability to think creatively is the one core human truth that will remain relevant in this brave new world. Instead of defaulting to using technology to think for us, do for us, and succumb to its dominance, it’s critical that we reawaken our childlike sense of possibility.

Gone are the days when we can compete by having a few innovative thinkers lead the collective. It’s more important now than ever to equip every individual, team, and department in your organization with the skills and tools to develop, champion, and execute on high-quality, highly relevant ideas in any situation.

Audience Takeaways...

Bust the belief that you’re ‘not the creative type’ and AI’s the answer.

Learn how to reignite your latent creative genius by bringing a renewed sense of fun, playfulness, and imagination to your work.

Discover how creativity fuels alignment, adaptability, and collaboration, creating the ultimate environment for greater growth and performance.

Ideal For...

Discovering why imaginative thinking is your ultimate competitive advantage in the world of AI.

Learning why rethinking the status quo is the least risky route to revenue growth.

Catalyzing your personal creative muscle, executing on your imagination, and knowing when and how to take smart risks with avant-garde ideas.
The Six Faces of Innovation
The Six Faces of Innovation
People think to be innovative, you need to maximize your tech and your processes. They focus on KPIs, OKRs, and stacks of technology. The tools aren’t the answer, it’s the people using the tools that create sustainable impact. Processes and technology without the human connection just create bureaucracy and organizational silos. The result is that your efforts toward innovation actually stymie growth, rather than encourage it.

What if we gave the same time, attention, and detailed consideration to the human elements of innovation as we do the processes and technology? The real opportunity for growth lies in human integration.

Audience Takeaways...

Learn the six types of innovative thinkers and how they show up in the world.

Master the ability to identify why teams get stuck delivering uninspired work, and quick shifts that turn into original outcomes.

Increase collaboration, trust, and adaptability of teams as everyone rediscovers the joy of the work they do and the people they work with.

Ideal For...

Knowing and understanding the drivers of each member’s superpowers to allow teams to unlock and unleash the potential of everyone’s ideas.

Creating an ecosystem that draws on your team’s broader pool of expertise.

Building teams that solve bigger, more complex problems with greater creativity, faster execution, and better outcomes.

Topics

Artificial Intelligence Trending
Business Growth Strategies & Trends Trending

Innovation & Creativity Trending
Leadership Trending

Sales Trending
Thought Leader

Carla possesses a unique ability to create an environment that sparks innovation. Her passion for fostering creativity was not only evident but contagious, inspiring our team to think beyond traditional boundaries and embrace a truly innovative mindset. Carla's workshop was a catalyst for change, instilling in us the confidence to approach challenges with a fresh perspective and the tools to turn ideas into action.

Ajay Bhatia, Director of Global Marketing, Oncology, Astellas Pharma

Innovators' are often viewed as rare, even mythical beings. When we believe innovation is only for a select few people, our organizations stagnate. Carla's perspective on how anyone can be an Innovation Architect was refreshing and exciting. At a time when businesses are struggling to fill job openings, she gave a step-by-step plan on how to foster an innovative culture. Most importantly, Carla gave everyone permission to innovate. Carla was lively, authentic, and kind. In our conversations leading up to the event, she wanted to know about our community, our audience, and what we were trying to accomplish. Carla took time to listen and then implement what she heard in her presentation. I appreciate the time Carla took with our sponsors. It is invaluable to us that she engaged in conversations with them. What I valued most was that we didn't feel like 'just another stop' on a speaker's tour. I believe Carla genuinely wanted to be at Valley Business Keynote as much as we wanted her. Carla's presentation resonated with our audience. More than one attendee said she was their favorite speaker in the last 10 years of our event. Between her knowledge, stage presence, and her personable interactions, Carla has raised the bar on what we want from speakers in the future.

Andy Vanhook, Valley Business Keynote

Carla's keynote was the perfect way to kick off our innovation forum. Her use of real-world examples helped make abstract concepts tangible and memorable. The presentation inspired fresh perspectives and left the audience energized to think about applying lessons to their own businesses. Carla is a compelling storyteller whose engaging delivery make her a standout speaker for any organization seeking to embrace innovation.

Brooke Ybarra, Senior Vice President, Innovation & Strategy, American Bankers Association

Carla brings a level of polished professionalism that kept the audience leaning in the entire time she presented her keynote. And her workshop was one of the most interactive experiences I have been a part of with a guest speaker. The time and care Carla spent preparing for the day with us helped her step seamlessly into our world, and gain the buy-in and permission of the team to engage deeply with them. Since Carla came and worked with our teams, they've been sending me chats around ideas and how to present them. By leaving them with a call to action to demonstrate their new skills with finding and presenting ideas, she's already had an impact.

Chad Dyer, Enablement Leader, OnDeck

Carla's a very innovative thinker and an extraordinary marketing professional. She skillfully facilitated the discussion with our executive leadership team and methodically provided a framework for us to challenge our biases and assumptions and really focus on the future. Based on the Sales and Marketing results over the past 10 months, without reservation I provide a very strong recommendation for Carla and her team. She is a true partner.

Dr. Cedric Alford, Vice President, Numeric Analytics

Carla shows how teaching everyone in an organization innovative thinking leads to greater trust, better work and phenomenal results.

Eduardo Conrado, President, Ascension Healthcare System

Carla's energy on stage was my favorite part of working with her. It's absolutely contagious! She got the whole audience up, laughing, feeling positive, and energized. She made her concepts funny so everyone could identify with them. Then she backed them up with stories and examples that made them hit home. I'm 100% having her back at my next conference!

Emma Roborgh, Founder, B2B Marketing Leaders Forum

Our team had a real (and understandable) skepticism about our offsite topic – “build” – particularly around driving meaningful innovation. Several people felt (1) burned by not having their past ideas adopted, (2) resigned to the perception that only ideas from the CEO move forward, and (3) uncertain about how they could bring things to the table. But my team walked away from Carla's innovation workshop feeling excited, optimistic and empowered. There was an “a-ha” moment during the experiential portion of the workshop where everything clicked. All of a sudden, the origin story Carla presented during the intro synced with the process they were doing. And people understood why successful innovation pitches started differently than they expected, and ended with building stories that sell. Since Carla's workshop there's been a renewed enthusiasm for ideating and presenting new ideas across my team. Of course, that was the hope when we asked Carla to come in and share her work with us. But the quantity and quality of ideas has vastly exceeded my expectations. Her workshop helped to overcome known objections (e.g., tech can't execute on anything) and new one's that I wasn't fully aware of (e.g., not confident about pitching / selling new ideas). Carla helped shift our team's innovation into high gear. She's an engaging presenter who connects with her audience on a genuine level. She's a skilled facilitator who builds a fun, trusting workshop environment. I appreciate Carla's willingness to tailor her topic to the specific needs of our team. I'm so glad that I invested in her!

Josh Levy, Vice President of Portfolio Operations, Inspirato

Carla did an amazing job kicking off our conference. Her thought-provoking content gave our attendees a glimpse into what's possible if you don't let the status quo hold you back. The feedback we received from attendees was overwhelmingly possible and she couldn't have been any easier to work with. I would highly recommend her for any conference, and we may even bring her back ourselves!

Mark Wilensky, Board Chair, Marketing Association of Credit Unions & Vice President, Tower Federal Credit Union

Carla's presentation, tailored for our executives and distinguished scientist, centered around the theme of curiosity. While the concept may seem elementary, Carla adeptly illuminated its complexity, particularly in our day-to-day endeavors where the pursuit of specific goals often overshadows the importance of curiosity amidst numerous constraints. Her discourse served as a poignant reminder of why nurturing curiosity is paramount. Through a meticulously crafted framework, Carla demonstrated how embracing curiosity can catalyze innovation across various facets of our professional landscape. What truly resonated with our team was her adept storytelling, which seamlessly conveyed actionable tactics to foster curiosity long after her presentation concluded. The vivid examples she shared brought her message to life, leaving a lasting impression. I firmly believe that companies characterized by a culture of curiosity are not only financially robust but also culturally vibrant. Thus, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Carla for reigniting our collective passion to embrace curiosity in our daily pursuits, wherever they may lead.

Shilpa Khanna, Global Innovation Insights, Clorox

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Carla Johnson

Bio

Keynotes

RE:Think Innovation

Topics

Carla shows how teaching everyone in an organization innovative thinking leads to greater trust, better work and phenomenal results.

Let's find your perfect speaker!

Explore

Quick Links

Keep Up To Date

Carla Johnson

Bio

Keynotes

RE:Think Innovation

Applied Curiosity

The Muse and the Machine: How Human Creativity Propels an AI World Forward

The Six Faces of Innovation

Topics

Carla shows how teaching everyone in an organization innovative thinking leads to greater trust, better work and phenomenal results.

Let's find your perfect speaker!

Explore

Quick Links

Keep Up To Date