Maintaining Generative Director Mindsets When Volatility Becomes the Norm
Directors face an uncomfortable paradox: the faster external conditions change, the more boards can default to familiar patterns. Quarterly reviews become monthly deep-dives. Risk committees multiply sub-committees. Strategy sessions turn into scenario-planning marathons that exhaust without illuminating.
This defensive reflex is understandable but counterproductive. When uncertainty rises, simply intensifying old methods is insufficient. Boards need to cultivate a deeper capacity for discernment, one that allows them to step back from reactive problem-solving and to ask profound questions about assumptions, mental models, and the very frameworks being used to interpret reality. Research by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG, 2024) on "The Expanding Agenda for Boards of Directors" also identified this need as a challenge. As they said, boards must develop new competencies to address complex, evolving challenges while maintaining open dialogue, diverse perspectives, and constructive challenges. The agenda facing boards has expanded beyond traditional financial oversight to include sustainability, digital transformation, AI, geopolitical risk, and stakeholder engagement.
The Path to Discernment: From Mindfulness to Wisdom to Compassion
Our research journey into effective governance began with a crucial distinction between foundational awareness and its application in complex ethical contexts. Individual mindfulness – defined as present-moment awareness and the capacity for attention regulation – provides the essential groundwork (King & Badham, 2019). It allows directors to observe their own reactions and the flow of information without immediate judgment, creating the necessary space for more considered responses.
However, mindfulness alone is not the entirety of effective governance. Building upon this foundation, individual wisdom introduces the critical layers of ethical discernment and substantive reflection on purpose. Wisdom is the ability to apply that regulated attention to critique purely instrumental approaches and consider deeper values. As observed in a separate study I undertook with Kate Norbury and David Rooney (2020), "Wisdom involves planning your approach. A clear focus on the desired outcome and an understanding of the situation and the impact of actions enables us to reflect and create a strategy for better outcomes" (p. 5). The Mindful Board Assessment Survey (MBAS) framework I then developed with Dr Vince Murdoch and Dr Justin Brienza recognizes that directors need both these attention regulation capabilities (mindfulness) and the capacity for ethical discernment (wisdom) when facing competing stakeholder demands (King & Murdoch, 2021).
Yet, when decisions carry significant emotional weight for stakeholders, another layer of capability becomes essential: compassionate discernment. Emerging research from Tania Singer's team at the Max Planck Institute reveals a crucial distinction. When directors experience empathy -feeling the emotional weight of stakeholder concerns—brain scans show activation in regions associated with personal distress and emotional contagion. This empathic response, while natural for caring leaders, can overwhelm decision-making capacity. Compassion training, conversely, produces a markedly different neural signature. Instead of distress regions, compassion activates networks associated with positive affect, motivation, and approach behaviour (Singer et al., 2023). This allows for connection without cognitive hijack. The practical implication is profound: boards benefit from practices that cultivate this compassionate discernment, integrating care with analytical clarity.
The Discernment Ladder: Operationalizing Wise Action
To help boards operationalise this progression from foundational awareness through ethical reflection to compassionate, wise action, I developed the Discernment Ladder. Drawing from the 2019 framework Richard Badham and I developed, and from contemplative wisdom traditions, this structured approach helps maintain generative thinking under pressure by guiding directors through distinct levels of inquiry:
- Level 1: Pause and Ground (Anchored in Mindfulness): Take three conscious breaths and ask: "What is my current emotional state, and how might it be influencing my perception?"
- Level 2: Expand Perspective (Invoking Wisdom & Initial Compassion): Shift from personal reaction to stakeholder impact: "Whose voices are represented, and whose are missing?"
- Level 3: Question Assumptions (Core to Wisdom): Examine beliefs: "What would have to be true for our current approach to be inadequate?"
- Level 4: Generate Options (Facilitated by Clarity): Explore: "What possibilities haven’t we considered?"
- Level 5: Choose with Wisdom (Compassionate Discernment): Ask: "Which path serves both immediate needs and long-term flourishing?"
Four Practices for Discerning Boards
| Practice | Implementation | Research Foundation |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Assumption Audit | Dedicate 20 minutes to questioning one core strategic assumption, rotating through business model, market dynamics, regulatory environment, and stakeholder expectations. | Aligns with King & Badham's emphasis on questioning established categories and limited perspectives. |
| Stakeholder Voice Rotation | Begin each meeting by explicitly considering the perspective of a different stakeholder group—customers, employees, communities, future generations. | Supports the "collective wisdom" orientation that focuses on broader stakeholder consideration. |
| Scenario Stress-Testing | When evaluating major decisions, ask: "How would this look if our base-case assumptions proved 50% wrong?" | Reflects the "sensitivity to context" capability identified in collective mindfulness research. |
| Wisdom Check Protocol | Before finalizing decisions, ask: "Are we solving the right problem, or just the urgent one?" | Embodies the distinction between reactive problem-solving and reflective wisdom-seeking. |
Developing Discernment Capabilities
The MBAS research undertaken with support from 200 non-executive directors (King & Murdoch, 2021) has emphasised that mindful boards must cultivate this journey from individual awareness through to collective wisdom and compassionate discernment. This requires moving beyond reactive decision-making to what Richard Badham and I called "substantive" mindfulness - attention to ethical and political foundations rather than purely instrumental approaches.
To move towards achieving that, you could begin with a simple experiment at your next board meeting. When facing a complex decision, implement the five-level Discernment Ladder as a way to walk through these layers of awareness and consideration before moving to traditional analysis. Notice what insights emerge when you create space between stimulus and response. You can also introduce the monthly Assumption Audit by selecting one fundamental belief about your industry, business model, or stakeholder expectations. Spend twenty minutes as a board explicitly questioning whether that assumption still serves your strategic thinking.
The Integration of Caring and Clarity
As Kate Norbury, David Rooney, and I observed in our work on coaching for wisdom: "Wisdom requires habits of wise decisions and intentions" (King, Norbury & Rooney, 2020, p. 9). This integration of ethical intention with practical decision-making enables boards to honour stakeholder concerns without being cognitively hijacked by them. The Boston Consulting Group research reinforces this point, noting that boards must balance traditional duties with new responsibilities, requiring both analytical rigour and stakeholder sensitivity (BCG, 2024). The path of mindful awareness, leading to wisdom and culminating in compassionate discernment, provides the bridge between these demands.
When boards develop these integrated capabilities, they demonstrate distinct characteristics during high-stakes decisions. Rather than avoiding emotional dimensions or becoming overwhelmed by them, they create structured space for both caring and analysis.
"Wisdom requires habits of wise decisions and intentions."
King, Norbury & Rooney, Coaching for Leadership Wisdom, p. 9
Resource Download for You
Discernment Ladder Toolkit with guided questions for each level and board implementation templates
References
- Boston Consulting Group. (2024). The Expanding Agenda for Boards of Directors.
- King, E., & Badham, R. (2019). Mindfulness at work: A critical re-view. Organization.
- King, E., & Murdoch, V. (2021). Mindful Board Assessment Survey. EGOS Conference.
- King, E., Norbury, K., & Rooney, D. (2020). Coaching for Leadership Wisdom. Organizational Dynamics.
- Singer, T., et al. (2023). Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
Next article:
Building the Board's Meta-Attention Muscle: developing collective mindfulness for high-stakes oversight.
Dr E. King researches mindful governance practices and co-authored "The Wheel of Mindfulness." Additional resources available at www.drlizking.com.
