a seat for the future at the board table

The latest in-depth piece from the EY Center for Board Matters explores how we can unlock certain superpowers to level up collaboration across the CSO, CFO and Board trifecta. It weaves an artful narrative across empathy, multilingual storytelling and breaking down the walls to explore ecosystem collaboration. But the real juice is the last chapter where we break down the actions for boardrooms. I've taken the liberty of adding my own spin and provocations on these five actions from the article:

1.?????? Reimagine tech for sustainability: Tech, and in particular the use of AI has some pretty massive environmental and social implications but governed in the right way (check out Anthropic’s Long Term Benefit Trust in addition to its status as a Public Benefit Corp) might work hand in hand to avoid potential catastrophe

2.?????? Rethink business models: How would business models change if we strategically planned for circularity, sufficiency, equity and justice? EY’s New Economy Unit proposes these principles as part of a wider set of elements to drive the transition to a regenerative economy. Read the paper here: A new economy - Exploring the root causes of the polycrisis and the principles to unlock a sustainable future (pdf)

3.?????? Reframe time horizons and ROI: What does long term value mean to you? Why do risk registers often look at 1-2 year timeframes, corporate strategy looks at 3-5 years, but the crucial challenges we face are often multi-decade problems requiring a longer term lens? Why do we blindly accept the principle of discounting (see point 5!)...?

4.?????? Expand your ecosystem: single projects by single organisations are not going to solve the crises we find ourselves in. ?Global board members have incredible breadth in their multiple roles and hats – exposure to many industries and geographies help them to catalyze true systems thinking and imagine new futures: and yes I know what you're thinking: aside from 800 page board papers, if only they had the time to do it. Which is why we might need to…

5.?????? Rethink governance: there’s a major risk, compliance and regulatory overload for boards; an outdated operating model and looming gaps in skills and behaviours (we researched and wrote about this here). No time, too much information, too slowly. But reframing how and when we need to make good decisions is something worth talking about. At Small giant’s Governing for Purpose course I learnt about physically bringing in totems from nature – soil, a bowl of precious water – so that we’re reminded of nature when we make decisions. Faith in Nature has a physical seat for nature at its table.

But now that I’m a mother I wonder how I can do my son justice in the decisions I make. And then I wonder about his future unborn at the board table, and theirs, and theirs. How would a board chair facilitate a discussion where we have to step into the shoes of the future unborn. What would that look like? Would we still make the same decisions? Would we be comfortable explaining those decisions to society?

This last point hit home in Roman Krznaric’s excellent book The Good Ancestor. He talks about the 'Dark Art of Discounting' - something we're taught at university and that we often don't question: we prefer present rewards than future ones. But we apply discounting across policy and investment decisions, and if we're thinking about making an investment that might save human lives (e.g. a flood barrier system) - at a 2% discount rate, a single life today has the same value as 2.7 lives in 50 years' time.

50 years: A time when my son, i hope, will still be alive - and perhaps if he has a child, they might be too. My life certainly isn't worth more than theirs combined. It's difficult to constantly have that sense of the future whilst we're trying to live mindfully in the present, but it is so necessary. What tactics do you employ to think across horizons?

Photo by Tom van Hoogstraten on Unsplash