Making governance culture visible: insights from a governance effectiveness review

“This blog was kindly authored by Susie Hills, Senior Consultant Huron, Joint CEO and Co-Founder Halpin Partnership. Increasingly, boards recognise that their effectiveness depends not only on what they do, but on how they do it. There is recognition that when governance crises occur, they are rarely caused by systems or processes alone. More often, they reflect deeper cultural issues: what is encouraged or discouraged, spoken or left unsaid; the ability of boards to explore, test and challenge; and the willingness of executives to engage openly. A well-designed governance effectiveness review can surface these dynamics, helping boards to understand their current culture and to shape the culture they need for the future. Governance culture is not what boards say about themselves. It is revealed in what they reward, tolerate, avoid, and repeat. It shows up in how members prepare, how they listen, how they challenge, and how they relate to executive colleagues and to one another. Rather than attempting to ‘measure’ culture directly, an effective review makes it visible through patterns of behaviour, decision-making, interaction, and the lived experience and reflections of board and executive team members. One window into culture is how a board understands and enacts its role. While governors may use similar language – stewardship, oversight, strategy – a review can reveal how these ideas play out in practice. Does challenge feel curious and evidence-based? Do board members feel able to ask the questions they want to ask? Do executives feel supported to respond honestly? And if concerns arise, is it clear where they can be taken? A culture of collective responsibility feels very different from one shaped by individual interventions or deference to a small inner group. Diversity of background, experience, and perspective only strengthens governance when board culture enables difference to be expressed, heard, and to influence decision-making. A governance effectiveness review should be concerned, not just with the data on diversity, but with how diversity operates in practice. Reviews need to look beyond who is around the table to how inclusive board dynamics really are: whose voices shape discussion, how challenge from less established members is received, and whether disagreement is explored or smoothed over. In this way, diversity becomes a useful lens on governance culture itself, revealing whether the board’s stated aspirations are supported – or constrained – by how it actually works. Meeting dynamics provide another rich source of insight. A governance effectiveness review should look beyond what is on the agenda to how it is used. Who speaks first, and who speaks last? Whose contributions shape the discussion, and whose are quietly absorbed or bypassed? Who is fully engaged, and who is distracted? Even silence is culturally revealing – it may signal trust or disengagement, caution or fatigue. These dynamics also shape whether diversity of thought – however boards define and pursue it – is genuinely invited and explored, or whether difference is subtly filtered out through habit, hierarchy, or unspoken norms. The flow of information to the board is equally telling. While executives may take pride in the quality of papers they produce and boards often complain of paper overload, there are deeper questions to explore. Are governors presented mainly with polished narratives and assurances, or with data that invites interrogation and learning? Are executives confident enough to share background information and data which board members can explore if they wish to? Are questions asked outside of board meetings? A healthy governance culture is one in which information and data are shared in ways which encourage exploration, discussion and challenge. Decision-making processes also send strong cultural signals. Reviews explore whether decisions are genuinely owned by the board or effectively predetermined elsewhere. Cultures that prioritise consensus may move smoothly but risk blurring accountability; those that prize robust challenge may reach stronger decisions but require skilled chairing to avoid fragmentation. Crucially, a governance effectiveness review also examines how the board relates to the wider organisation and its stakeholders. Does the board see itself as distant and impartial, or visible and relational? Are governors curious about organisational culture beyond the boardroom, or do they rely solely on formal reports? These orientations are deeply cultural and often shaped by prior experience, professional norms, and sector expectations. Over time, they can influence not only the quality of governance but the organisation’s capacity to learn, adapt, and respond to challenge. What makes the review process particularly powerful is its reflective nature. When governors are invited to talk honestly about how governance really works – not how it is supposed to work – they often gain new insight into their own culture. Thoughtful questioning and carefully framed feedback can themselves prompt cultural shift, especially when presented collectively and developmentally rather than judgementally. This reflective depth, however, depends in no small part on the quality and experience of those leading the review: their ability to recognise cultural signals, to understand how boards and organisations operate in practice, and to move beyond superficial assurance to meaningful insight. Ultimately, exploring governance culture through a governance effectiveness review is not about judging a board as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. It is about making the invisible visible. Once culture is named and understood, it becomes something the board can work with rather than work around. In many contexts, this self-awareness also becomes a source of organisational resilience or advantage. Boards often find that consciously changing small aspects of how they work – how challenge is invited, how agendas are used, how silence is interpreted – can, over time, open up new ways of thinking and relating. In that sense, the most effective reviews do more than assess performance: they create the conditions for more self-aware, intentional, and impactful governance. The strongest governance review teams bring their experience of having worked as executives and as board members to bear and often have insights from different sectors and different models of governance. They are able to explore culture throughout the review process – listening and learning as they work – and they offer practical reflections as to how culture can be developed as the oxygen for healthy governance practices. Since writing this piece, the draft 2026 CUC Code has been shared. It reinforces the central point of this article: that board effectiveness is inseparable from board culture. The Code emphasises that: the Board must operate as a single, accountable body, with all Board members contributing to constructive, rigorous challenge in decision-making. All Board members must share collective responsibility for Board decisions and demonstrate active commitment to working together. It also highlights the Chair’s role in setting the tone – working with the University Secretary to ensure members understand their roles and responsibilities, modelling behaviour consistent with the institution’s values, facilitating open and respectful debate, and ensuring the Board operates with integrity and transparency so that “all voices are heard and given equal weight, while maintaining space for confidential discussion”. Finally, the Code recognises the importance of executive culture and board–executive relationships, stating that: the head of the institution should foster integrity, openness and accountability across the executive and in engagement with the Board, model exemplary behaviour consistent with the institution’s values, and ensure the provision of timely, accurate and transparent information to enable effective decision-making and constructive challenge. A robust review can test how far these expectations are being met – and help the Board and executive strengthen the culture that makes constructive challenge possible. Get our updates via email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Subscribe The post Making governance culture visible: insights from a governance effectiveness review appeared first on HEPI .

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