What questions should leaders be asking today?
What will determine resilience, innovation, and meaningful action in the years ahead?
Future Days 2025 in Lisbon didn’t offer easy answers – that’s good. Instead, it sparked thought-provoking, sometimes uncomfortable, but much-needed reflections on how we should shape the future: with courage, responsibility, and greater imagination.
Below, we’ve gathered 13 key insights from the conference that every leader should take to heart. This is not a trend list—it’s a strategic compass for those who aim to keep up with change and actively shape it.
- Symbiosis is the new model of innovation
The future no longer depends on dominance, but on interdependence – across technology, the environment, society, and the economy.
- Think in systems, not straight lines
21st-century innovation will emerge from complex ecosystems. Designing with diverse actors – people, institutions, and the environment – is becoming a core leadership skill.
- Embrace diverse perspectives
Voices from the Global South, minorities, and users at the system’s edges strengthen the resilience and relevance of innovative solutions.
- AI is a tool, not the answer
Mature organisations don’t see AI through a lens of fear, but as a source of opportunity, particularly in inclusion, education, and public services.
- Ask uncomfortable questions
Provocation isn’t a threat – it’s a spark for deeper thinking. The best strategies often begin by challenging the obvious.
- Prepare for “unthinkable futures”
The ability to imagine and design for futures we can’t yet picture is becoming a key leadership capability.
- Make space for curiosity – not just ROI
In a productivity-driven world, it’s worth pausing to ask: what truly matters today?
- Be ambitious – beyond your own goals
Tomorrow’s leaders set directions that extend beyond their company’s interests. Authentic leadership means taking responsibility for something greater than your product or team.
- Design systems that adapt by default
The future won’t be static. We need operating models that can absorb tension, evolve, and shift direction when needed.
- Partner with those who turn foresight into action
In a complex world, it’s not about more data – but better questions. Working with a partner like Booster of Innovation™ means investing in clarity, resilience, and strategic edge.
- The future doesn’t start tomorrow – it starts now
Foresight alone isn’t enough. Competitive advantage lies with those already experimenting, testing scenarios, and learning faster than others.
- Tomorrow’s leader is a curator of culture
Not just a strategist, but a guide who shapes an environment open to experimentation, complexity, and uncertainty, without losing clarity of direction.
- Futures literacy is a strategic skill
The ability to use future-thinking tools—scenarios, signals of change, backcasting—should be embedded not just in innovation teams but also in executive boards and strategic units.
Do you want to design the future of your organisation consciously?
At Booster of Innovation™, we help leaders think bolder and act smarter. Through our original programmes – Future Forward Briefings and Innovation Sprint Lab – we co-create future scenarios that bridge global trends with local challenges and real business decisions.
We help build the bridge between what’s now and what’s next – strategically, systemically, and with real human, technological, and market needs in mind.
Organisations like ING Bank Śląski, Orange Polska, and Polpharma already benefit from this approach, achieving tangible results such as new growth directions, stronger innovation portfolios, and greater resilience to change.
Let’s start a conversation about the future worth shaping – together.
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