Uncertainty is not a temporary phase we are passing through. It has become the structural condition in which strategy now lives. Over the past year, that reality has only sharpened. What used to be “rare shocks” are now recurring patterns: geopolitical shifts, polarized narratives, climate volatility, technological acceleration and the steady erosion of global institutional alignment.
And yet, for boards, the challenge is not to predict the future. It is to govern wisely inside a world where visibility comes in fragments, signals conflict and change rarely arrives in a straight line.
This is where many boards still default to the familiar: analyzing markets as if they were stable, reviewing strategy as if past logic still applies and treating ESG as if it were merely communications or compliance. But uncertainty today requires a different discipline, one that moves from forecasting to sense-making, from reassurance to readiness and from static planning to strategic vigilance.
I use the term “pragmatic vigilance” deliberately. It is not about alarmism or optimism; it is about staying attuned to what is shifting, what is accelerating, what is interconnected and what truly matters to value creation.
As someone who works at the intersection of strategy, sustainability and governance, this has always been the lens I bring into the boardroom. When I sat on the executive side, strategy meant “Where do we want to be? How do we build, borrow or buy our way there?”
But on the board side, the work changes. The question becomes“Is this the right strategy for the world we are actually living in — not the one we wish we had?”
That requires a different kind of evaluation:
- Does the strategy hold under structural uncertainty?
- Does it survive different political, climatic or technological futures?
- Are we challenging assumptions that no longer belong?
- Do we understand the trade-offs management is not naming?
- Are we governing the risks and opportunities that will shape the company’s relevance, not just its results?
This year reinforced something important: resilience is not defensive. True resilience is the ability to bounce forward, not just back — to redesign, to adapt, to imagine, to shape the next version of the organization.
That applies equally to sustainability. ESG today is not linear. We see progress in some areas, regression in others and widening inconsistency across markets. The United States is becoming increasingly polarized. Europe is redefining ambition. Global institutions are weakening. Yet, companies remain deeply connected through supply chains, capital flows, technology and talent.
We now operate in a world that is institutionally fragmented but operationally interdependent, and boards must govern inside that paradox.
This means sustainability can no longer be treated as “extra.”
It has become a strategy question: “What positions us to compete, to attract capital, to retain talent, to earn trust?”
It has also become a resilience question: “What enables us to absorb shocks and adapt before they become existential?”
Across industries, boards that hesitate will not be spared. If they do not move by design, they will move by pressure — from regulators, investors, customers or employees. That is not activism. That is the structure of today’s markets.
And perhaps the deepest reminder from this past year is this: Boards cannot meaningfully govern uncertainty without creativity, curiosity and imagination. Sense-making requires judgment. Judgment requires perspective. And perspective requires the courage to ask different questions — not for the sake of answers, but for the sake of clarity.
For me, this is the work we should continue to bring into boardrooms:
- A disciplined way of seeing, testing and challenging the logic behind decisions
- An insistence on long-term viability even when the timeline shortens
- The belief that uncertainty is not a weakness to manage, but an operating condition to master
Because governing well in uncertainty is not about having more information. It is about knowing how to look, where to press and what cannot be ignored.
That is where real leadership begins.