Culture drift does not require bad people, it just requires the right conditions. Unchecked positional power, silence from those who don't speak up, a gradual normalisation of small shifts until they become acceptable. Purpose, values and ethics are the fixed point. The thing you look back to and ask honestly: are we still where we said we would be?

We live and work in a world where certainty equates to trust, where walking into a room with all the answers is a well-trodden path to professional success. But in rewarding certainty and promoting those who project it best, have we quietly built cultures where the inquiring mind is seen as a liability? This kind of certainty is not strength. It is creating the conditions for a governance failure.