When did you last change your mind about something that mattered?
I ask because it is easy to mistake agreement for evidence. When our colleagues, news feeds and preferred commentators keep confirming what we believe, certainty can feel thoroughly earned.
But have we tested our thinking—or simply surrounded it with approval?
The modern web brings this question into sharp focus. We can seek different perspectives, yet how often do we choose the familiar? With AI now helping us research, interpret and communicate, another question follows: are we using it to challenge our judgement, or to produce more persuasive reasons for what we already believe?
For business leaders and boards, this has practical consequences.
An assumption left untested can become a strategy. A strategy repeated often enough can become part of an organisation’s identity. By then, questioning it may be interpreted as disloyalty rather than diligence.
That concerns me more than disagreement.
When people learn that agreement is rewarded and challenge is unwelcome, difficult information may stop reaching the boardroom. Silence can then look remarkably like success—until the consequences arrive.
My approach to governance starts with a willingness to question my own position. I want to understand what supports a proposal, what could undermine it, and what happens beyond the immediate result.
A decision may improve this year’s margin while weakening customer trust. A new technology may increase efficiency while creating a dependency we do not fully understand. A growth opportunity may look attractive while stretching the people responsible for delivering it.
These are reasons to examine how success can be sustained.
Curiosity must also lead somewhere. Boards cannot demand perfect information or reopen every decision indefinitely. Our responsibility is to test material assumptions, weigh the trade-offs, make a decision and support its execution—with clear signals for when reconsideration is warranted.
Three questions help me:
- What would cause us to change our minds?
- Who experiences the consequences differently from us?
- What might this decision make more difficult two or three steps from now?
I value a boardroom where challenge is respectful, accountability is clear, and directors can support a collective decision without compromising in silence.
“Curious or delirious?” is a deliberately uncomfortable question. I direct it at myself first.
The contribution I aim to make around a board table is considered judgement: the confidence to decide, the curiosity to keep learning, and the courage to speak when something needs examining.
Certainty can be comfortable. It still needs to earn its place.