Innovative solutions for your most complex challenges
We translate your complex challenge into a world children can understand, invite them to think along with creative, open minds, and translate their ideas back into professional advice. This breaks through fixed patterns and resistance — giving you fresh, innovative solutions you can act on right away.
A selection of our clients
Our unique proven approach
The strength of our approach lies in two unique translations.
First, we translate complex realities into something children can truly think along with — no matter how complicated the topic. Second, we translate the children’s inspiring ideas back into professional advice that fits the professional context.
Combined with our bonus sessions “Thinking Like a Child for Professionals” for colleagues and stakeholders, this makes the approach both unique — and tangible throughout the entire organization.
1. Exploring the question
Together with experts and key stakeholders from your organization, we efficiently explore your challenge and its context in a 1.5-hour session.
We define the scope, set the ambition, and establish the key parameters.
We quickly and thoroughly uncover dilemmas, challenges, wishes, and sensitivities — focusing on the most relevant information to shape the central question and engaging sub-questions.
In a concise outline, we distill the challenge to its core — presented in a structured and straightforward way for your review.
2. Translate into the world of children
We translate the essence of your challenge into a story children aged 8 to 12 can easily understand.
Told like a modern-day fairy tale, the story contains all the key elements of the professional challenge — and often sparks the first valuable insights.
Through these translations, children take on the role of external advisors, allowing them to look at your challenge from a fresh perspective — and making it possible to address even the most complex or sensitive topics.
3. Children join the thinking process
Several groups of upper primary school children work — under the guidance of an experienced ConsultingKids facilitator — with an illustrated version of the story.
The children generate ideas, practice their role as problem solvers, and learn valuable skills along the way. Colleagues and other stakeholders are invited to join these sessions, hearing firsthand what the children come up with.
At the end of the day, we collect all ideas, and the children are proudly appointed as Junior Consultants of ConsultingKids, complete with their own diploma.
In this way, we also bring our broader ambition to life: taking children seriously and giving as many of them as possible the chance to develop problem-solving skills — in a fun and inspiring way.
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4. From inspiration to professional advice
After the inspiring days with the children, we translate their creative input back into professional advice that fits the professional context.
In a clear and concise final report, we bring together the original challenge, the story, the children’s ideas, and a wide range of translated recommendations.
5. Refine solutions and spark action
During a final workshop of 2.5 hours, we share the results and encourage participants to build on the children’s ideas — under the motto “combine, associate, and create even more!”
Together, we select the most relevant and useful outcomes, then decide which ones to turn into real action. No endless visions or planning sessions — just focused, concrete steps forward.
BONUS: “Thinking Like a Child for Professionals” Sessions
In parallel to the ConsultingKids project, we organize multiple “Thinking Like a Child for Professionals” sessions for colleagues within your organization and other key stakeholders. These sessions can take place during project or program meetings, lunch sessions, team gatherings, offsites — or any other moment when teams come together.
Participants are challenged to view their own organizational challenges not through the lens of rules, meetings, and terminal seriousness — but through a completely different one.
The effect? It helps break free from workplace rigidity, offers fresh perspectives on complex issues, adds fun, sparks new ideas, boosts creativity, and — most importantly — inspires people to take action.
At the same time, this approach helps bring the main ConsultingKids challenge to life across the organization in a lighthearted and engaging way.
why ConsultingKids works
Our approach doesn’t just lead to surprising solutions. it also brings energy, engagement, and a sense of fun. These are the benefits our clients are most enthusiastic about:
Break through resistance
Children’s ideas come from a neutral, unbiased place — there’s simply nothing to disagree with.
That openness creates space for real change.
Refreshing and concrete
Children think with an open, creative mindset that adults often lose along the way.
Their fresh perspective inspires new solutions — translated into professional advice you can act on right away.
More energy in your team
Collaboration becomes fun again.
Employees rediscover joy and inspiration — instead of getting stuck in terminal seriousness.
Unique participation
An innovative and professional way to truly engage employees and citizens in tackling the most important challenges — no matter how complex.
This approach goes far beyond topics that directly involve children.
Impact for kids
Children develop problem-solving skills they’ll carry with them for life.
They feel proud, taken seriously, and combine learning with a truly unique experience — often also the children of your own colleagues.
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Minimal effort, complete support
The effort required from your organization is minimal.
Our ConsultingKids team takes care of almost everything from start to finish — and our process brings nothing but energy along the way.
Certainly no a childish issues
We translate complex challenges into a world children can relate to. They explore these topics with a fresh, open mind and we turn their ideas into professional, surprising advice, no matter how complex the issue.
Here’s a glimpse of recent themes. Definitely not child’s play, yet resulting in clear, actionable insights translated back for the professional context.
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A unique experience — and now moving forward with three concrete recommendations.
For the Airspace Renewal Program, our ambition was to communicate goals and facts in an honest and engaging way, so that citizens and politicians could form well-informed opinions and make thoughtful decisions.
ConsultingKids translated this complex challenge in a brilliant and fitting way, making it possible for children to think along. It was impressive how quickly they managed to realize this — within just six weeks before the summer break.
The energy and liveliness in the classroom were a unique experience for many colleagues, and it was fantastic to see the ideas that emerged and how ConsultingKids translated them back into professional advice.
We’re now actively working on three of those recommendations and have shared the results with the children as well. The entire process was a special experience, and the kick-off with the “Thinking Like a Child” workshop laid a strong foundation to involve more colleagues from the very start.
An absolute recommendation!
I love it!
Your sessions completely, lifts the room, and it also opens the floodgates to communicate with each other. There's a whole different culture spreading amongst the audience. A complete flow of energy and everyone loves it.
An awesome concept!
I think it’s a really great instrument — it makes you look at problems and possible solutions in a completely different way.Above all, it’s just really fun!
Let's connect
Schedule an introduction and discover how we translate your complex challenge into surprisingly simple and actionable insights — powered by the creative thinking of children.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here you’ll find answers to the most frequently asked questions about our approach, method, and way of working. Can’t find your question? Feel free to get in touch — we’re happy to help.
Because we translate the issues into a world that children understand, we can use their unique brainpower on every issue — regardless of complexity.
This works well even with sensitive themes. In our process, we place children in the role of 'external advisor'. This creates a conscious distance: they don't have to say what they would do themselves, but can freely share what they see and think is good for the main characters in the translation. This thus protects the space from being called anything they want.
We work with primary school upper classes (groups 6, 7 and 8), with children aged 9 to 12.
The schools we work with are located in the client's work area — this can be a neighborhood, municipality, region, the whole of the Netherlands or even international.
We always tailor the precise definition to the wishes of the client.
Recruitment takes place via the ConsultingKids network, by actively approaching schools and making smart use of the client's network. We often also involve classes with the children of colleagues or important stakeholders in the issue, which makes it extra fun!
We take care of the entire recruitment from ConsultingKids, so that you are completely unburdened.
We strive for maximum care.
What we need from you:
- 2 hours from a few experts at the start, to feed us well with knowledge about the issue.
- 2.5 hours at the end of key stakeholders, to discuss the results and refine them together.
In addition, we cordially invite you to join the classes. There, we will show how we have translated the issue and take you into the children's world of thinking.
We also ask for one contact person who can coordinate some things on a project basis, such as planning the sessions and identifying who wants to go to classes.
That's it — we'll do the rest.
We often work with project and program managers, policy advisors, innovation managers, communication managers, strategists, environmental managers, middle management and C-level.
Our clients come from both the business community and the (semi) public sector.
The average duration of a ConsultingKids process is 2 to 3 months — from the kick-off to the delivery workshop. Faster is also possible if the assignment requires it.
Two factors mainly determine the speed:
1) How quickly you, as a client, can gather the right people to feed us content (at the start) and to take the results further during the delivery workshop.
2) The number of school classes you want to involve. The more classes, the more organization and processing time is required.
For sufficient content input, 4 to 5 classes are usually sufficient. However, many clients choose to involve more classes — for example one or more per neighborhood, municipality or province — to give children from different areas a role, to offer as many classes as possible this unique learning experience, and to allow classes with colleagues' children to participate.
Yes, absolutely! A big part of our work takes place in the Netherlands, but ConsultingKids is also active in countries such as Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, Australia, North America, the Middle East, and Africa.
That may sound bigger than it is — in many of these places, we’re just getting started, with a few people working with the concept or running first explorations. But the ambition is definitely there! :-)
The keynotes and workshops “Thinking Like a Child for Professionals” by founder Bas Warmerdam are already being delivered worldwide — from Amsterdam to Sydney, and from Tokyo to New York.
Schedule an introduction via the link, use the button in the menu, or contact us directly at +31 6 52 88 10 23 / info@consultingkids.com.
You’re also very welcome to drop by for coffee, tea, or a soft drink at our office in co-working building AREA071 in the Netherlands.
We’re always open to exploring new and exciting partnerships.
Send your ideas to info@consultingkids.com — it might just be the start of something great together.
No worries! You can reach us by phone or email at +31 6 52 88 10 23 / info@consultingkids.com, or schedule an introduction via the link or the button in the menu.
You’re also more than welcome to visit us at our office in the co-working space in the Netherlands — we’ll happily answer your questions over a cup of coffee or tea.