The Ground Has Shifted | A Governance Series | Post 1 of 6

There is no certainty available right now.

The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed since late February. What most people understand as an oil crisis is, in practice, a multi-system disruption. Analysts are calling it the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. The effects are compounding and cascading.

And all of this on top of a metacrisis already underway, the convergence of geopolitical fracture, climate pressure, technological disruption and eroding institutional trust.

The question I keep returning to is, "How are boards governing in the middle of this?".

Not responding to it but governing through it.

Because there is a difference.

Responding is tactical, it addresses the immediate disruption. Governing requires holding the immediate and the longer-term simultaneously, asking not just "what do we do now" but "what are the ongoing implications, and are we building the capacity to navigate what we can't yet see?".

The hardest thing about this moment is that certainty is not available. Waiting for it is a choice. Acting without it is also a choice. And the quality of that choice depends heavily on the quality of the thinking in the room.

This is what I work on with boards...Creating the space for the conversations that are hard to have. Helping boards hold uncertainty so that the decisions made now are ones they can stand behind as the picture continues to change.

The question isn't whether your board can wait for clarity. It's whether your board is ready to govern without it.