Boards Want More Strategy and Scenario Planning
And Here’s 4 Practical Ways to Build It In.
If you’ve felt board agendas getting fuller while the external environment gets less predictable, you’re not alone.
Three recent governance reports are pointing in the same direction: boards are looking to spend more of their limited time on strategy and scenario planning. Directors see this as a smarter way to deliver oversight, insight, and direction in a volatile landscape.
In What Directors Think (by Corporate Board Member / Diligent Institute), directors are explicit about wanting to rebalance meeting time: 58% want fewer presentations and more time for strategic planning. And scenario planning is already trending upward: nearly half say they are spending more time on it, and 84% say they’ve strengthened their approach to include new or intensifying risks.
Deloitte LLP’s research on board and C-suite leadership lands in a similar place: 73% of respondent boards spent more time collaborating more with the C-suite on strategy development and scenario planning in 2025.
And a recent post entitled Board Governance in 2026 on the Harvard Law Corporate Governance Forum, also by Deloitte LLP authors, highlights scenario planning as a practical board effectiveness lever. The authors highlight its role in agility and risk appetite alignment, as boards navigate 2026’s evolving risk landscape.
So what’s the takeaway?
Boards are saying “We want to use our time together to create more strategic clarity and readiness for what’s next.”
What these reports are telling us
1) Boards want less time consuming information and more time thinking and discussing
The desire to reduce presentations is about value creation. When board time is dominated by updates, the board has less space for the work the board should be doing:
stress-test assumptions,
explore the strategic “so what,”
identify emerging risk exposures, and
push for clarity on choices and trade-offs.
That is exactly what directors are asking for: more strategic planning discussion in the boardroom.
2) Scenario planning is moving from occasional to regular
It’s notable that so many boards are already strengthening scenario planning. Directors recognize that even good strategies can get derailed by disruption, shifting stakeholder expectations, and evolving priorities. Scenario planning is thus part of the board’s broader effectiveness practices and becoming a regular board rhythm, not just a retreat topic.
This allows boards to stay current on internal and external developments that may impact strategy, how initiatives and goals are being executed and whether adjustments or pivots may be required.
3) Scenario planning should be tied to strategic options and risk appetite
Scenario planning becomes far more practical when it’s connected to risk appetite, where management and directors work through questions like:
What risks are we willing to take (and not take) to achieve our goals?
What would cause us to change course?
What alternatives and trade-offs would we accept or refuse?
That’s not management-level planning. That’s board-level exploration, oversight and direction.
4) Scenario discussions help boards to identify capabilities and perspectives
Scenario planning contributes to learning more about the organization and its leaders:
Directors and management see how others interpret the same scenario and their risk appetite.
The board discovers potential gaps in information, capabilities, resiliency and agility.
The group identifies where roles, escalation, and communications need clarity.
In other words, scenarios build shared judgment and understanding.
Why this matters for boards of any size
This isn’t only for large public companies. Smaller organizations and non-profits feel volatility acutely and may have fewer levers to pull.
All boards need to be more prepared for plausible futures so the organization can respond with confidence rather than scramble. Strategy and scenario planning is a way to increase organizational readiness.
Practical ways to build in more strategy and scenario planning
Scenario planning and strategy discussions don’t need to be complex to be valuable.
Here are a few easy practical moves to add in more strategic discussions and scenario planning that fit the reality of busy boards.
1) Protect a small agenda block for strategic exploration
Given directors’ expressed preference for fewer presentations and more strategic planning time, this is the simplest and most important shift: create protected time that isn’t swallowed by updates and routine matters.
2) Add a simple scenario exercise
Explore different scenarios together by simply naming a plausible high-impact situation, and then:
exploring what would matter most and what would be hardest,
clarifying decision rights and escalation triggers, and
identifying the one or two capability gaps or next steps worth addressing.
3) Add a dashboard or easy-to-consume strategy-focused report
Keep strategy front and centre with concise information that provides regular updates on the highest-value strategic goals and activities. Use key performance indicators that are meaningful to the strategy - not just activity trackers - to help to identify progress and trends, including when something is going as planned or at risk - or not driving the expected results of that strategy.
Discussions will naturally flow when the right information is shared.
4) Bring in an internal or external expert on a strategic topic.
Deep understanding and exploration is best supported when experts - whether internal or external - share their knowledge on complex topics affecting the organization and industry. This can be done during a board meeting, at a board retreat or offsite, or even through internal or external education courses, deep dive videos, third party reports, etc.
Ensure that there is an opportunity to discuss as a group afterwards. This helps to reinforce the information and discuss how it applies to the organization, as well as allow each director to share their take-aways.
What this looks like in real rooms (examples from my recent work)
I’ve seen the biggest gains when boards approach strategy and scenario planning as interactive and applied, not theoretical.
Scenario-based breakout discussions at a board retreat
In one recent engagement, I developed tailored scenarios and guiding questions for breakout discussions at a board retreat involving directors and management. The goal was to give the group a structured way to explore how they would respond to complex situations, identify areas for improved readiness, and learn from how others around the table see the same scenario.
The value isn’t the scenario itself - it’s the shared learning and trust-building. Differences and alignment in risk perception became visible, and decision and escalation expectations were clarified. The group also identified a small set of improvements that meaningfully increase readiness.
Scenario-based breakouts at a governance association event
I also designed scenarios and questions for breakout group discussions at a governance professional association event. Participants used the scenarios to explore response approaches, compare perspectives, and identify practical governance guardrails that strengthen readiness. As they were from different organizations, they are able to share experiences and solutions. Scenario work helps people learn how other smart, experienced professionals think, and that accelerates capability-building.
Two upcoming strategy-focused retreats using a board-level lens
I also have two upcoming board retreats where we’ll be discussing strategic planning. I’ll guide the group through a structured approach to consider specific organizational needs, goals, and priorities through a board-level lens. This keeps the board in its “highest value” role:
clarifying strategic choices and trade-offs,
pressure-testing management’s assumptions, and
ensuring execution and success of the strategy can be monitored.
A simple next step for your board
If your board wants to move in this direction, start small:
Add one protected agenda block for strategy/scenarios.
Pick one plausible scenario with high impact.
Ask a few disciplined questions to assess risk tolerance, escalation, and readiness.
Capture two follow-ups that strengthen capability and resiliency.
Because when boards ask for “more strategy and scenario planning,” what they are really asking for is: More clarity. More readiness. Better use of the precious time the board has together.