Governance in the decade of disruption and the tools to assist you navigate global challenges

Which Global Challenges are reshaping effective governance requirements?

Australian organisations are entering a decade defined by accelerated disruption. The 2025 TargetedBrains Annual Governance Study, Governance in the decade of disruption, reveals the rankings of the top 10 global challenges that are converging and reshaping what effective governance requires. These insights sharpen visibility of future pressure points, helping boards and executives prioritise their efforts, assess organisational vulnerabilities and prepare for the cross-domain impacts ahead.

Governance in the decade of disruption builds on The Amplification Principle annual governance study from 2024, and the With Maturity Comes Strength Benchmarking annual governance study from 2023, continuing our mission to track the evolving global challenges that affect governance in Australia and to identify how organisations can safeguard performance and trust.

This year’s respondents made one point clear: disruption is now structural, not episodic. Traditional governance models, designed for stability, are struggling to keep pace. Boards and executives must shift toward adaptive, transparent and learning-oriented approaches that strengthen resilience and maintain trust even as conditions evolve rapidly.

Top 10 Global Challenges rankings

Generative AI and Automation – This challenge stood out as the single most disruptive force. Leaders expect AI to fundamentally alter organisational decision rights, ethical considerations, assurance functions, workforce models and culture. While AI promises significant productivity and service gains, it equally introduces new vulnerabilities that many governance frameworks are not yet prepared to manage. AI represents a step-change in governance complexity. It touches every component of organisational performance – from risk management and compliance to strategy, ethics, people, technology and service delivery. Boards and Executive Committees that invest early in structured AI governance are better positioned to harness its benefits safely, maintain stakeholder trust, and protect against unintended consequences as automation becomes embedded across the economy.
Climate Change and Environmenal Governance – Respondents across sectors signalled that climate risk is no longer an environmental or CSR issue – it is a core governance responsibility with direct implications for strategy, financial performance, resilience and legal compliance. Boards will be required to enhance climate literacy, deepen their understanding of physical and transition risks, and integrate climate considerations into core strategic, operational and investment decisions.
Cybersecurity and Data Privacy – While technical controls exist in many organisations, true cyber maturity remains uneven, and
confidence does not always match the complexity of emerging threats. Cybersecurity and data privacy require a shift from technical
oversight to strategic risk oversight. Boards and executives must understand not only the controls in place, but their effectiveness, limitations and dependencies on external partners.
Regulatory Complexity – Regulatory obligations are expanding in both volume and complexity, with multiple pieces of legislation – often at federal, state and local levels – driving compliance requirements that do not always align. Governance must evolve from reactive, rule-based compliance to principle-based frameworks that support consistency, proportionality and integration.
Geopolitical Tensions – From a governance perspective, geopolitical instability introduces a set of strategic risks that are difficult to quantify and easy to underestimate. Boards and executives need to reinforce horizon scanning and scenario planning, mapping dependencies across logistics, technology, data, and workforce.
Hybrid and Remote Working Environments – Hybrid and remote work arrangements continue to reshape organisational
dynamics, creating a new category of governance, workforce and culturerelated risk. Leaders highlighted concerns that hybrid environments can create uneven work distribution, reduced visibility of contribution, and unintentional bias in who receives opportunities, recognition or support.
Social Media Risks – Social media presents a unique challenge: issues escalate faster than traditional governance processes can respond, and oversight structures are often fragmented or unclear. Effective oversight requires real-time visibility, clear decision rights, and coordinated risk management across legal, communications, operations and executive leadership.
Gender and Income Inequity – The governance implications are clear: boards must establish clear oversight structures for equity and inclusion, ensuring transparent reporting, meaningful metrics, and robust assurance activities. This includes monitoring pay-equity trends, tracking leadership diversity, ensuring equitable access to hybrid-work opportunities, and validating that organisational systems support inclusion by design.
Cost of Living – The governance implications are clear: boards and executives must strengthen oversight of how costof- living pressures are affecting staff and communities, and ensure that decisions reflect equity, transparency and long-term sustainability. This includes monitoring workforce wellbeing indicators, regularly reviewing remuneration and support settings, and embedding fairness considerations into strategic and operational planning.
Armed Conflict and Political Instability – Boards and executives must ensure the organisation is equipped to navigate external shocks which requires strengthening horizon scanning, monitoring global developments, and embedding geopolitical considerations into strategic and operational planning. Respondents identified the need for a better understanding of where vulnerabilities sit – including supply-chain chokepoints, technology dependencies, workforce mobility issues, and service continuity risks.

Governance Tools to help you navigate the decade ahead

In response to these pressures, the study reintroduces TargetedBrains’s Governance Safeguard Framework, which identifies the five critical capabilities organisations must build to remain resilient. Complementing this, the new 7A Safeguard Cycle provides a disciplined, repeatable method for embedding these safeguards into day-to-day governance practice.

Download Governance in the decade of disruption to access both of these governance tools.

The Governance Horizon to 2035

The decade ahead will reward leaders who treat governance as a strategic enabler – one that supports responsible performance, fair decision-making, foresight and continuous learning. Leaders who invest now in capability uplift, system simplification, modern assurance and trust-building will be best positioned to navigate disruption and create enduring public value. The decade ahead will require governance professionals, executives and boards to evolve their practice to navigate the pace, scale and interconnectedness of emerging global challenges.

The future of governance is not about maintaining the status quo. It is about anticipating change, adapting with confidence and building organisations capable of thriving under uncertainty.

If you would like to learn how to thrive under uncertainty, or have a governance question, book a meeting with Charitee Davies, author of Governance in the decade of disruption.