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As our future becomes more volatile, and social and ecological changes become ‘baked into’ our economic system, a challenge for organisations is whether they can update their governance to future proof their success.
(Griffith University, Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Pentland Centre, Founder of Future Normal), Professor Jan Bebbington (Director, Pentland Centre) and (Griffith University) investigated how organisations can future proof themselves through adopting generational governance.
Generational governance is an approach to bringing future leaders into formal organisational governance routines.
The research team surveyed 3,000 business leaders and managers - drawn equally from Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom - to understand their attitudes to the idea of generational governance.
Survey participants believed that their employers were already considering future generations in their decision making, but that they would make better decisions if they had some form of generational governance in place.
Respondents also perceived challenges of enacting generational governance, particularly that existing leaders would have to cede power, and that there would need to be investment to ensure younger leaders were able to contribute effectively to governance.
The report with the full survey outcomes and our conclusions is available to download below. It builds on earlier Pentland Centre work on Longevity and Resilience, which is also linked to below. If you're interested in finding out more, the research team are offering 3 FREE webinars on Generational Governance: Future Proofing Organisations at different times on Tuesday 12 May 2026 (BST).
Download Generational Governance: Future proofing organisations (PDF, 1.3 MB)
