The Space Between Worlds: How Lived Experience Strengthens Board Thinking

By Maureen Moneta, CPA, CA, ICD.D

Maureen is a former C-suite executive and Board Chair whose governance perspective is shaped by financial leadership and informed by her experience as a Métis and Ukrainian woman with rural and urban roots.

My twin sister often references the common idiom that we grew up with one foot in two canoes. We were balancing to navigate more than one world at a time. 

I think she said this as a curious reflection on our Métis and Ukrainian ancestry alongside our upbringing in a small rural community in northeastern Alberta. But over time, I’ve come to see the image differently. It captures the quiet skills that form when your life naturally spans different contexts, expectations, and ways of understanding the world.

I’ve learned that this lived experience may be one of my superpowers. It shapes how I think and influences the way I contribute in boardrooms. I have also come to appreciate that different life paths surface different ways of thinking. And boards benefit when those ways of thinking are welcomed.

What Lived Contradiction Teaches You About Thinking

When you grow up between worlds, whether culturally, socially, geographically, or professionally, you develop habits that impact the way you interpret and engage with the world around you. Over time, this shows up in practical ways, such as:

• noticing context and subtle shifts
• listening for meaning beyond the words
• understanding situations through multiple lenses
• anticipating tensions before they surface
• holding more than one truth at the same time

These habits don’t announce themselves loudly. They show up in how you frame questions, interpret issues, and make connections across information that might seem unrelated. Over time, they shape a way of thinking that is inherently more holistic and relational.

How This Shows Up in the Boardroom

Boardrooms are fast-moving environments. Information is incomplete, perspectives vary, and decisions often have far-reaching implications. In these moments, making sense of complexity matters just as much, or more, than technical expertise.

Lived duality tends to support these moments by offering:

• Broader interpretation. Seeing links and patterns others might view in isolation.
• Nuanced understanding. Recognizing that issues are rarely linear.
• Constructive curiosity. Asking questions that widen the conversation, not derail it.
• Perspective-taking. Considering how decisions impact different groups or communities.

It’s not about stepping forward loudly. It’s about noticing what might otherwise remain unsaid and gently offering it forward.

Most Directors Have a Version of This

One of the most grounding realizations in my work has been this: layered identities are universal. It just shows up differently for everyone.

Directors may have experienced:

• moving between regions or countries
• balancing leadership with caregiving
• navigating cultural or personal identity in professional spaces
• integrating career changes across sectors
• economic or social transition
• being the “only” in a room
• reconciling who they were raised to be with who they have become

Each of these experiences teaches its own form of complex thinking. Each shapes how someone interprets information. Each contributes to the board’s collective insight.

This isn’t about elevating one type of experience above another. It’s about recognizing that diversity of lived experience deepens a board’s ability to ask better questions and understand issues more fully.  It’s about having the awareness that there is an opportunity to learn from others’ perspectives before offering a perspective that might help the group see something more clearly.

A question I return to often is: will sharing this help the board understand the issue more fully, from all sides and angles?

If the answer is yes, the contribution is often worth making. 

A Closing Thought

If you’ve spent your life with one foot in two canoes, or simply navigating places where expectations and reality didn’t fully align, there is wisdom in that experience.

People don’t benefit from uniformity of thought, and boards don’t either. Boards benefit from directors who bring their honest, grounded perspective forward thoughtfully, respectfully, and with an understanding that people arrive with their own version of a complex and nuanced lived experience.

When those perspectives are welcomed, decision-making becomes more contextual, more human, and more anchored in real-world understanding. That is the quiet strength unique backgrounds can offer. And it is worth making space for it in our boardrooms.