Innovation is created by people, not by processes or tools. Creativity helps you come up with an idea; innovation is when that idea reaches people and becomes valuable to them. A conversation about innovative thinking and trends helps a team see wider, speak a shared language and believe that anyone can create something new.
Especially relevant at year-end, when teams gather for annual reviews and strategy sessions: the conversation inspires, unites and brings a fresh perspective before planning.
“We do it the way we always have, because it works”
While it works, change is invisible. When it stops working, it is too late to change. We learn to notice signals earlier.
“Only the boss knows the trends”
The rest of the team hears about change from the news and social media. After a trends overview everyone sees the same map and talks about it in the same words.
“New ideas end with ‘let’s offer another discount’”
Without practices, the brain takes familiar paths. We give tools to see wider: notice, connect, imagine.
“It was a hard year, people are tired”
Ukrainian cases show that ordinary people create innovation in the toughest conditions. That inspires more than any motivational speech.
“AI: either fear or hype”
We honestly unpack what AI already amplifies at work and what remains uniquely human. No panic, no magic.
“‘We’ve tried that before’ in the first minute”
The team learns to hold an idea longer than the first objection and test it in small steps instead of arguing.
Two numbers the conversation starts with. They are not about a distant future, but about what is already happening to everyone’s work.
innovative thinking is among the fastest-growing skills in demand on the labour market: #5 after AI literacy, conflict mitigation, adaptability and process optimisation (US data).
LinkedIn · Skills on the Rise 2025 →of employers name a shortage of people with the right skills as the main barrier to business transformation by 2030. Demand is growing fastest for AI and technology skills, and for creative thinking, flexibility and curiosity.
WEF · Future of Jobs Report 2025, p. 49 →The whole team understands what innovation is and what is happening around them in the same way.
People from different departments see the same picture and feel they are building it together.
Energy that comes not from slogans but from real cases and the feeling “we can do this too”.
People see opportunities in change, not only threats, and know where to start.
28 short statements about how you see the world and what you do. You get your profile across the seven practices and recommendations on what to develop next. You can save it as a PDF.
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Founder of Ukraine’s first innovation consultancy. Teaches the “Innovative Thinking” course in the MSc in Innovations and Entrepreneurship at Lviv Business School (LvBS). Has taught Innovation Management at KSE Graduate School of Business for over 10 years. Worked as a strategic designer at BCG (Boston Consulting Group) in New York. Holds an Executive MBA from IE Business School and completed leadership programmes at Stanford.
Talks about innovation in a language that leaders and whole teams understand, grounded in global research and Ukrainian cases.
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