The WCCSA Tutt Memorial Lecture 2026 - Governance Reimagined: The Power of Empowering Values for Transformation

At its core, governance aims to ensure accountability, transparency, fairness and responsiveness. But in a landscape shaped by VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) and BANI (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible) conditions, traditional approaches reach their limits. Structures and processes, however sophisticated, cannot compensate for behavioural blind spots or cultural weaknesses. This is why a behavioural lens on governance offers a more realistic, human-centred view.

Directors are not detached, perfectly rational actors. They operate under bounded rationality, navigating limited information, time pressures and cognitive biases, optimism bias, confirmation bias, escalation of commitment, that distort judgement, especially under stress.

Social dynamics shape boardroom reality further still: power relations, informal norms and unspoken expectations can influence decisions more powerfully than any policy manual, and board culture determines risk appetite, ethical sensitivity, and whether challenge is welcomed or quietly discouraged. Governance, in other words, is enacted less through formal structures than through the everyday practices and conversations that define how people truly work together.

"True governance lives in judgement, courage, dialogue and the collective ability to stay steady when the environment feels anything but."

This human-centred view becomes essential when organisations operate in complex conditions. Volatility and brittleness heighten stress, amplifying bias and pushing boards towards either excessive caution or misplaced confidence. Nonlinear, incomprehensible events make past experience a weaker guide, so boards lean more on intuition or influential voices, and dominant personalities or powerful CEOs can shape decisions disproportionately if psychological safety is fragile.

In such an environment, governance cannot rely on rules or technical expertise alone. What matters is behavioural competence: the capacity to think critically, challenge constructively and act ethically when clarity is scarce. That competence is rooted in values.

"Values don't decorate governance – they drive it."

Values such as integrity, courage, accountability, transparency, respect and inclusivity are not abstract moral statements. They are behavioural anchors that steady judgement under pressure. When values are truly lived, governance becomes more than compliance, it becomes culture: building trust through open dialogue and challenge, deepening accountability, strengthening ethical judgement where rules fall short and fuelling the kind of psychological safety that makes innovation possible.

"Culture is simply values in action – especially under pressure."

Yet a behavioural lens also explains why failures still occur inside well-structured organisations. Boards may normalise deviance, gradually accepting practices once unthinkable. They may suppress dissent to avoid conflict or protect reputations. Groupthink can blunt critical evaluation, while confirmation bias filters information to fit preferred narratives, and these risks intensify in volatile or anxious environments, when boards instinctively cling to familiarity or authority.

Strengthening governance therefore requires interventions that address behaviour, culture and lived experience: translating values into clear, observable expectations, nurturing cultures of constructive dissent, reviewing decision processes and not just outcomes, and developing emotional intelligence, bias awareness and ethical reasoning as core competencies alongside formal structures.

The future of governance will be shaped less by the accumulation of new rules and more by people who can adapt, think deeply and act with courage under pressure. Boards don't navigate complexity and uncertainty through rules; they navigate it through the practice of virtues, the moral muscles of values.

Virtue enables a board to face dilemmas squarely (courage, temperance, justice) and to lead an organisation that is always learning and testing different perspectives (practical wisdom) in relation to its core purpose. This is the bridge between stated values and lived behaviour, ensuring virtues are enacted consistently in decision-making, oversight and stewardship, and providing the vision for a broader view of Environmental and Social Governance.

Ultimately, good governance is not defined by what is written in policy. It’s defined by what people do when uncertainty is high, the stakes are significant, and the answers are not obvious.

"Governance evolves when people think deeply and lead bravely."

Want more information? The WCCSA and Leeds Business School are currently researching how organisations embed values into their cultures and governance systems. Get in touch if you'd like to know more.