Culture Shapes Councils: Creating the Conditions for Effective Professional Governance
Culture is the foundation for effective professional governance environments. It shapes how nurses and other professionals experience autonomy, accountability, and shared decision-making in everyday practice, including professional governance councils.
How Relationship-Centered Culture Strengthens Governance Councils
A relationship-centered culture grounded in trust, mutual respect, open and honest communication, and consistent visible support creates the conditions for professional governance to thrive. When this culture is paired with a core expectation that those closest to the work should influence decisions that affect their practice, individuals feel safe to speak up, get involved in quality improvement, collaborate across disciplines, and take ownership for the outcomes of their work. Councils become empowered, communication flows bi-directionally, and decision-making is grounded in expertise rather than positional authority.
What Happens When Culture Undermines Governance
Even the most well-designed governance structures will struggle in a culture where fear, disengagement, or hierarchy dominate. In these environments, participation becomes transactional, follow-through suffers, and professionals may not feel heard or supported. Councils may exist in form, but not in function.
Professional Governance as an Expression of Organizational Culture
Ultimately, professional governance is not just a structure; it is an expression of an organization’s culture. Organizations that intentionally cultivate healthy cultures create the conditions where professionals are empowered to lead meaningful change and drive better outcomes for patients, teams, and the organization.
How Daily Behaviors Shape Governance and Decision-Making
Culture is continuously shaped over time. It’s reinforced daily through the behaviors, language, and actions of everyone in the organization. Every interaction – how feedback is given and received, how decisions are discussed, how council work is supported – shapes an organization’s culture.
Strengthening professional governance begins with an honest look at culture. Start with an individual reflection, examining how your own daily behaviors, decisions, and interactions either support or undermine professional governance. By intentionally modeling trust, mutual respect, open and honest communication, and consistent visible support, we create conditions where councils are trusted partners in decision-making. When culture and councils are aligned, decision-making at the point-of-care becomes the norm, not the exception.
Tools to Help Strengthen your Professional Governance Journey
To help organizations reflect, assess, and move forward with confidence, we offer practical tools and expert-led support designed specifically for health care teams.
Download our free Shared Governance Survey.
Use this brief assessment to explore how culture, trust, and decision-making show up in your current governance structure- and identify opportunities for growth.
Want to go deeper?
Our team partners with organizations across the country to strengthen professional governance.
Whether you are building councils, reinvigorating engagement, or preparing for Magnet® or Pathway to Excellence® designation, our consultants can help you align culture and governance so decision-making at the point of care becomes the norm.
Contact our team to learn more about Professional Governance/Shared Governance education, consulting, and workshops.
References:
Creative Health Care Management (2023). Leading an empowered organization. Minneapolis, MN: Creative Health Care Management, Inc.
Medeiros, M., & Guanci. (Eds.). (2025). Considerations in professional governance. Creative Health Care Management.
Van Wagoner, K., & Martin, T. (Eds.). (2025). Essentials of a caring culture: The interprofessional relational model. Creative Health Care Management
This content was developed under human authorship and editorial oversight, with optional support from AI tools used to enhance clarity and efficiency.
Amber’s deep understanding of data, attention to detail, and drive for creating a culture of excellence offers her clients a strong advantage. With her impressive background as a clinician and leader within a large health system she knows how to motivate others and unlock the potential in individuals and teams. Her work in engaging and leading teams through the strategic planning process by aligning organizational goals with unit and department goals has led to staff understanding of the big picture and collaborative relationships with those from the point of care to those in executive suites.