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Bas Warmerdam - <p data-start="229" data-end="382">Bas Warmerdam helps professionals solve complex challenges through the surprising power of childlike thinking and creativity.</p>

Bas Warmerdam

Bas Warmerdam helps professionals solve complex challenges through the surprising power of childlike thinking and creativity.

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Netherlands

5.00 of 5

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5 of 5

A fun, refreshing, and creative approach that makes you look at and think about the challenges we deal with daily in a completely different way. It literally shifts your perspective. It’s amazing to start with a blank slate and approach the topics we usually write reports about and debate over. And now, to tackle them openly and freely using Bas’s method.

Hindrik Jan Knot

Director Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate policy

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Why book Bas Warmerdam for your next event

  • Interactive keynotes packed with practical tools that help teams solve complex challenges with creativity and simplicity.
  • Founder of ConsultingKids, trusted by organizations like Shell and Philips to inspire innovation and new ways of thinking.
  • Combines strategy consulting experience with the curiosity and openness of children to spark collaboration and change.

Non-binding request for Bas Warmerdam

Think Like a Child to Unlock Innovation and Fresh Perspectives

Bas Warmerdam inspires organizations to break free from rigid thinking patterns and rediscover creativity through the power of thinking like a child. As founder of ConsultingKids and a former strategy consultant, he helps professionals tackle complex organizational challenges with fresh perspectives, playful thinking, and practical tools. His interactive keynotes engage audiences from start to finish and leave participants with ideas they can immediately apply in leadership, innovation, collaboration, and change management.

 

Book Bas Warmerdam for Your Event

Bas Warmerdam is one of the most refreshing voices on innovation, creativity, and organizational thinking. As a former strategy consultant and founder of ConsultingKids, he has spent more than a decade helping organizations solve complex challenges through the surprising and powerful perspective of children.

His philosophy is simple: adults often overcomplicate problems, while children approach challenges with openness, curiosity, and creativity. By learning to “Think Like a Child,” professionals can unlock new ways of collaborating, innovating, and leading.

Bas delivers interactive keynotes that challenge conventional thinking and inspire audiences to look at their work from an entirely different angle. His sessions combine humor, practical exercises, real-life examples, and immediately applicable tools that participants can bring back to their teams the very next day.

Whether speaking to leadership teams, conference audiences, or employees navigating change, Bas creates engaging experiences that energize people and encourage action.

 

The Power of Thinking Like a Child

What makes Bas Warmerdam stand out is his ability to translate the natural thinking patterns of children into practical strategies for organizations and professionals.

Through his work with more than 15,000 “little consultants,” Bas discovered four refreshing thinking mechanisms that help organizations move beyond rigid structures and fixed assumptions. Children naturally ask unexpected questions, challenge routines, and see possibilities where adults often see limitations.

During his sessions, Bas demonstrates how these childlike qualities can become valuable tools in modern organizations:

  • Breaking through ingrained thinking patterns
  • Encouraging creativity and innovation
  • Simplifying complex organizational challenges
  • Improving collaboration across teams
  • Strengthening leadership and adaptability
  • Creating a culture of curiosity and openness

His approach is playful yet highly effective. Audiences do not simply listen to a keynote, they actively participate, experience, and reflect. The result is a session that feels energizing, memorable, and genuinely useful long after the event ends.

 

From Strategy Consultant to ConsultingKids

Before founding ConsultingKids, Bas worked as a strategy consultant, where he experienced firsthand how organizations often become trapped in terminal seriousness and overly complex processes.

This inspired him to explore a different way of thinking. By involving children in real organizational challenges, Bas discovered that their perspectives often led to remarkably creative and effective solutions. Children had not been shaped by corporate habits, management jargon, or rigid frameworks. Their honesty and imagination opened completely new directions.

That insight became the foundation of ConsultingKids, an international organization that now operates in more than six countries. Through ConsultingKids, children help organizations tackle real-world issues related to innovation, sustainability, leadership, and organizational change.

Bas has worked with a wide range of organizations, including multinational companies like Shell and Philips, as well as governments, healthcare institutions, and non-profit organizations.

 

Interactive Keynotes That Create Impact

Bas Warmerdam is known for delivering sessions that combine inspiration with practical value. His keynotes are highly interactive and designed to engage audiences of all sizes.

Rather than focusing on abstract theories, Bas gives participants concrete tools and techniques they can immediately apply in their own work environments. He encourages audiences to step outside traditional corporate thinking and embrace experimentation, curiosity, and simplicity.

Topics often include:

  • Innovation and creative thinking
  • Leadership and organizational culture
  • Collaboration and communication
  • Change management
  • Breaking fixed mindsets
  • Future-focused thinking

His energetic style, combined with humor and relatable examples, makes even complex organizational topics accessible and engaging.

Participants leave with fresh energy, new perspectives, and practical ideas that help them approach challenges differently.

 

Author, Researcher, and International Speaker

In addition to his work as a keynote speaker and consultant, Bas is the author of the book Kleine Consultants, where he shares his experiences and insights on the power of childlike thinking in organizations.

His academic background is equally impressive. Bas studied Biopharmaceutical Sciences in Leiden and conducted research in gene therapy and comparative genetics in London. He later completed his Executive MBA at the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University, supplemented by international experiences at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Johannesburg.

This unique combination of scientific research, strategic consulting, and creative innovation gives Bas a distinctive perspective on organizational challenges and human behavior.

 

A Refreshing Perspective for Modern Organizations

Organizations today face increasing complexity, rapid change, and constant pressure to innovate. Bas Warmerdam helps teams and leaders cut through that complexity by returning to something surprisingly simple: curiosity.

His sessions remind audiences that creativity is not reserved for a select few, it is something everyone can rediscover. By thinking more openly, asking better questions, and approaching problems with fresh eyes, organizations can unlock new possibilities for growth and collaboration.

Whether you are planning a leadership event, conference, innovation day, or employee workshop, Bas delivers an inspiring and unforgettable experience that leaves a lasting impact.

Book Bas Warmerdam for your event and discover how thinking like a child can help professionals solve even the most complex challenges with creativity, clarity, and a smile.

Customer Reviews

5 of 5

A fun, refreshing, and creative approach that makes you look at and think about the challenges we deal with daily in a completely different way. It literally shifts your perspective. It’s amazing to start with a blank slate and approach the topics we usually write reports about and debate over. And now, to tackle them openly and freely using Bas’s method.

5 of 5

Good exercise to simplify problems to the core and it also provided valuable insights into the challenges to bring affordable and qualitative healthcare to more people without access to medical services. If we continued to ‘think like a child’ as adults, the world would only know solutions.

5 of 5

This approach makes it playful, surprising, and brings very creative new ideas. As adults, we tend to do things the same way over and over again, and this offers completely different perspectives. It’s wonderful to look at serious problems with such a fresh outlook. Highly recommended!

Rated 5.00/5 based on 3 customer reviews

Keynotes

Keynote by Bas Warmerdam:

The Playful Edge: How to Solve Complex Challenges With Bold & Fresh Thinking

Fresh solutions rarely come from old ways of thinking. Bas Warmerdam has turned more than 300 complex organizational challenges into breakthrough results using a radically simple idea: strip away the biases, fear, and rigidity that block innovation.

Replace them with curiosity and bias-free thinking. Drawing inspiration from how children approach problems without limits, Bas shows leaders how to unlearn outdated approaches, spark creative breakthroughs, and navigate change with agility and confidence.

Take aways:

  • Break free from “terminal seriousness” that kills innovation.
  • Solve complex problems with radical simplicity.
  • Lead with curiosity in disruptive times.
  • Build a culture of joy, resilience, and bold thinking.
Request a quote: Bas Warmerdam The Playful Edge: How to Solve Complex Challenges With Bold & Fresh Thinking

Keynote by Bas Warmerdam:

Thinking Like a Child in Change Management: A Refreshing Breakthrough Method

Change often seems heavy and complex, but that’s mostly because of how we perceive it. Bas Warmerdam helps you tackle organizational challenges with the fresh perspective of a ten-year-old—making them lighter, more playful, and more effective. In this interactive session, you’ll learn how to break through rigid patterns, simplify complexity, and take action with a smile.

Request a quote: Bas Warmerdam Thinking Like a Child in Change Management: A Refreshing Breakthrough Method

Keynote by Bas Warmerdam:

Thinking Like a Child About Strategy & Innovation: Finding Simplicity in Complexity

Strategy and innovation aren’t about more models and frameworks—they’re about fresh thinking and smartly handling complexity. Bas Warmerdam guides you through a session where you’ll discover how childlike curiosity can remove the rigidity from complex challenges, unlock unexpected ideas, and truly drive innovation—while having fun.

Request a quote: Bas Warmerdam Thinking Like a Child About Strategy & Innovation: Finding Simplicity in Complexity

Bas Warmerdam | Showreel | Thinking like a Child for Professionals

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