Culture Is Everything

Culture IS Everything. As organizational leaders and managers, we can successfully apply all of the Lean Six Sigma principles, quality ideas, and best practices we know and still fail because we have done so within a company culture utterly hostile to such endeavors. In this book, Jeff Veyera shows you how to diagnose your company's culture in terms of its suitability for your preferred quality improvement approach and then offers guidance on how to either tailor your approach to that culture or change the culture to better suit your approach. If you've ever executed a brilliant initiative only to see it chewed up in the prevailing culture of your company, this book is your protection against such soul-crushing setbacks in the future. The first book I've seen that approaches cultural transformation with an emphasis on process improvement, including rational how-to steps that quality geeks can relate to Jeff sharing his personal stories adds a richness to this book and certainly makes it relatable to the quality professional. The author delivers on his initial promise providing a toolkit to help you evaluate, change, and sustain your company culture. Throughout the book the author discusses the concepts and a logical strategy and then provides the & how-to tools for implementation, giving readers actionable benefits from the book, not just theory. Veyera introduces the concept of using guerrilla warfare in the struggle between the culture lived and the culture desired. This is particularly appropriate, as the old culture is geared to protect itself, not to bring about its own demise. Organizations continually fall into the trap of letting the existing culture dictate how culture change will be carried out. Having been involved in a few change efforts, I found the discussion of steps to protect yourself especially valuable. I really could have used that back in the day.