Dorte Nielsen
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We are all creative

Just not in the same way.

Dorte Nielsen is a creativity expert, author and keynote speaker. She helps organisations, leaders and schools train creative thinking, the way you train a muscle.

Book a keynote Play the connection game
Portrait of Dorte Nielsen
M.Sc. in Creativity
Cannes Lions+D&AD+Epica+London International Awards+British Television Awards+Campaign Poster Awards+Creative Circle (London)+Midsummer Awards+Kinsale Advertising Awards+AD Spot Award+ ++++++++++
10books
11languages
65countries
30+years of creativity

Creativity isn't just for creatives

Do spectacular ideas just happen, or can they be manufactured?

Thinking creatively is a skill, and skills can be taught. Dorte has taught creativity and creative problem solving since 1993, in companies, at universities and in higher education, and she is a sought-after keynote speaker. Every keynote and workshop is shaped around your audience and your challenge. These are the themes she is booked for most often, in English or Danish.

The secret of the highly creative thinker

Highly creative people see connections others miss. Dorte busts the myth that creativity is a talent for the few, and uses brain science and hands-on exercises to show how anyone can get better at it.

What kind of thinker are you?

We are all creative, just not in the same way. With thinking profiles, teams discover their preferences in the creative process and learn to turn their differences into strength.

Creative problem solving

From understanding the problem to ideas, development and action. Tailor-made workshops and facilitation for leadership teams facing a real challenge.

Creativity in schools

How to make creative thinking a subject in its own right. Experience from Danish public schools, and plenty of exercises teachers can take straight into the classroom.

Keynotes, workshops and longer programmes, all tailored to you.

Dorte teaches

  • The Creative Process
  • Creative Problem Solving
  • FourSight
  • The Thinking Skills Model
  • Creative Ability
  • Creative Behaviour
  • Enhancing Your Inherent Talent
  • Tools and Techniques
  • Thinking Skills and Styles
  • Conceptual Thinking
  • 117 Ways to Have an Idea
  • Idea Hunting
  • Inspiration
  • Originality
Two mismatched red knitted slippers

Highly creative people are good at seeing connections. By enhancing your ability to see connections, you can enhance your creativity.

Dorte Nielsen

The connection game

Highly creative thinkers connect things that seem to have nothing in common. Try it yourself: connect the dots and say what links them. The further apart the ideas, the more points you score.

You can train your brain

Ten books, games and thinking tools for grown-ups and children, published in 11 languages and used in classrooms, agencies and boardrooms around the world.

The Secret of the Highly Creative Thinker

A bestseller, published in many languages

The Secret of the Highly Creative Thinker

Dorte Nielsen and Sarah Thurber, BIS Publishers

How to make connections others don't. Theory, technique and a 21-exercise boot camp grounded in neuroscience. Picked by Inc. as one of the “44 Favorite Books of High Achievers”.

Read more about the book
Creative Thinker's Exercise Book
Creative Thinker's Rethink Book
Little Creative Thinker's Exercise Book
Little Creative Thinker's Connection Dominoes
Odd Socks Memory Game
Brand Vision Cards

Plus Idébogen, Inspired, Grundbog for Art Directors, the Divergent and Convergent Thinking Book and the Connection Memory and Crazy Connections games. See every book and game at Creative Thinker

From classroom to boardroom

In 2016 Dorte helped make creative thinking a subject for every pupil from year 0 to 9 at a Danish public school. Schools report more engagement, less absence and better classroom dynamics. Today she shares the approach with schools and educators around the world.

Ask about school programmes

Move your cursor across the dots

Dorte Nielsen in the studio

A creativity nerd on a mission

Dorte Nielsen, M.Sc., has devoted her career to helping others become better creative thinkers. Born in Denmark, she studied at the Graphic Arts Institute of Denmark and later at The School of Communication Arts in London, and spent most of the 1990s working as an art director in London.

Back in Denmark she taught and researched creativity and creative thinking at the Danish School of Media and Journalism. There she founded and led Creative Communication, a bachelor programme for art directors and conceptual thinkers, which under her leadership became one of the most award-winning advertising programmes in the world. She later took her creativity teaching into primary schools.

She has written many books and articles on creative thinking, among them Idébogen (The Idea Book), tools and techniques for generating concepts and ideas (2001); Inspired, on how creative people think, work and find inspiration (2005); and Grundbog for Art Directors (The Art Director's Handbook), rules to follow or to break. She also works as a creativity consultant for businesses, offering fully tailored workshops, training and facilitation in Creative Problem Solving.

  1. EducationThe Graphic Arts Institute of Denmark and The School of Communication Arts, London.
  2. 1990sArt director in London, with work recognised at Cannes, D&AD, Epica, the British Television Awards and the London International Awards.
  3. 1999Founds and leads Creative Communication at the Danish School of Media and Journalism.
  4. 2007Chair of Creative Circle, the Danish society for the creative industries (2007 to 2009, and again 2015 to 2026).
  5. 2010Starts working with FourSight and founds FourSight Denmark.
  6. 2012M.Sc. in Creativity from the International Center for Studies in Creativity in Buffalo, New York, and the Firestien Family Creative Achievement Award, shared with Sarah Thurber.
  7. 2016The Secret of the Highly Creative Thinker is published, and creative thinking becomes a subject for every pupil from year 0 to 9 at a Danish public school.
  8. 2017Founds the Center for Creative Thinking in Copenhagen.
  9. 2020Alumni Achievement Award from ICSC and Creative Achievement Award from Creative Circle.
  10. 2021Launches Our Sustainable Future, in which children and young people worldwide make films and posters about the Sustainable Development Goals. Today it is Creative Circle's international award.
  11. 2026Steps down as chair of Creative Circle and stays on the board. Co-leads World Creativity and Innovation Day in Europe.

Awards and recognition

Dorte Nielsen's creative work has won international recognition at, among others:

Celebrating creativity in Denmark

Creative Circle

Creative Circle is the Danish society for the creative industries, representing art directors, copywriters, strategists, photographers, film directors, graphic designers, digital designers and illustrators, with the shared aim of raising the level of creativity in Denmark. It holds the biggest creative award show in Scandinavia and arranges lectures, conferences and meetings.

The society began as an association for the creative departments of Denmark's advertising agencies. As chair, Dorte led the creation of a new vision: how might membership be broadened to include all the creative industries, and raise creative standards across Denmark? A new name, concept, visual identity and campaign followed, and the board was opened to people from design, web and advertising.

The new union was celebrated at the Creative Circle Award 2008, where more than 800 creative people, the press and Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen gathered. That evening Dorte discussed the impact of creativity with the Prime Minister. “I guess it was one of the biggest moments of my life. Creativity was set on the map!”

Dorte chaired Creative Circle in 2007 to 2009 and again from 2015 to September 2026. She remains on the board and is responsible for Our Sustainable Future, Creative Circle's international award.

Visit Creative Circle Our Sustainable Future

What kind of thinker are you?

We are all creative, just not in the same way. Dorte has worked with FourSight since 2010 and brought the research-based FourSight Thinking Profile to Denmark. The profile shows where you have the most energy in the creative process: when you clarify, ideate, develop or implement.

FourSight Denmark offers the profile, coaching, keynotes, certification and master classes. The next certification is at the CREA conference in Italy in April 2027, together with Gerard Puccio.

Read all about FourSight Denmark

“A visible, genuine and creative beacon in the industry.”

Dansk Markedsføring on Dorte, M-listen 2021

Let's
connect
the dots

Tell Dorte a little about your event or challenge, and she'll get back to you.