Carla Johnson

Carla Johnson Speaking Topics

• The Muse and the Machine: Supercharging Human Creativity in the Age of AI

  As AI becomes more powerful and more pervasive, leaders are stuck asking the wrong question: What can AI do instead of us? But the real magic lives in a bolder inquiry: What can we now imagine because of AI?

  In this electrifying keynote, Carla Johnson reframes AI not as a threat to human relevance, but as a partner in our deepest creative potential. Drawing from her acclaimed TEDx talk and decades of work with innovation-driven organizations, she shows how the best ideas don’t come from handing our work over to AI. Instead, they come from clearly defining our partnership with AI and identifying the truly human part that only we can own.

  This isn’t about using AI to automate the old. It’s about tapping into it to imagine the never-been-done. Through provocative stories, practical hands-on AI demonstrations, and a reawakened sense of possibility, Carla equips audiences to reclaim our creativity as a strategic advantage. And to see AI not as a replacement, but as a reverent reminder of what makes us beautifully human.

  Audience Takeaways...

  • Reframe AI as your team’s ultimate thought partner. One that amplifies curiosity instead of replacing it.
  • Learn how leading organizations are unlocking breakthrough thinking by pairing AI tools with human intuition, imagination, and inquiry.
  • Walk away with a roadmap for cultivating a culture of creative confidence, where AI accelerates your team’s ability to dream, disrupt, and deliver.

  Ideal For...

  • Crafting a mindset shift on AI: from resistance to reverence, from fear to fuel.
  • Readying teams to innovate beyond automation and using AI to spark bold, original thinking.
  • Seeing how to balance the power of tech with the irreplaceable magic of human thought.

• Applied Curiosity: The Secret Weapon for Teams to Outthink the Future

  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. They’re optimizing what already exists instead of discovering what’s possible.

  What if curiosity isn’t a distraction from performance but a catalyst for it? What if the most powerful driver of growth, innovation, and momentum isn’t another process, tool, or technology but a way of thinking that’s already hiding in plain sight?

  Organizations that thrive in uncertainty don’t just execute better, they question deeper, observe differently, and explore possibilities others miss. In this fast-paced keynote, Carla Johnson teaches audiences how curiosity works and how to apply it to drive smarter decisions, faster innovation, stronger collaboration, and deeper human connection. The result is powerful momentum that unlocks new ideas, elevates performance, strengthens trust, and reignites excitement about the future.

  Audience Takeaways...

  • Discover the structure for what makes a question ‘curious’ and how to apply it.
  • 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.

• Rethink Innovation: Ignite an idea-driven culture that sparks opportunities, tackles problems and inspires change

  People think innovation’s only for a select few. The ones with the right title, the right degree, or the right budget. It sounds expensive, time-consuming, and way too complicated for the rest of us. So we settle for status-quo thinking, underwhelming results, and the occasional flash of brilliance we hope will magically appear when we need it most. Are we doomed of wistfully dreaming we’re the golden unicorn who comes up with fantastical ideas at the drop of a hat?

  But what if innovation wasn’t a mystery or a miracle?

  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?

  Based on her bestselling book "RE:Think Innovation," Carla Johnson reveals a scaleable, teachable framework that turns everyday employees into extraordinary innovators. No guesswork. No gimmicks. Just a clear, proven method that the most successful and prolific thinkers use to consistently generate great ideas that move the bottom line big time.

  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 how the Innovation Flywheel will empower you to consistently come up with inspired ideas for any situation that delivers a bottom-line impact.

  Ideal for...

  • Demystifying how innovation icons break through status-quo thinking with less friction and less risk.
  • 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.

• The Innovation Factory

  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 the 5 irrefutable steps to innovation that will empower you to consistently come up with inspired ideas for any situation that delivers a bottom-line impact.

  Ideal For...

  • Demystifying how innovation icons break through status-quo thinking with less friction and less risk.
  • 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.