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.

“As desired. As communicated. As understood. As lived. What I thought was absolutely abstract in nature has been made quantifiable and actionable by this book. Thank you, Jeff Veyera, for sharing your knowledge as to how culture can be assessed and as to how culture can be conformed, reformed, and/or transformed.”

—Ryan R.F. Barbin, MBA, LSSGB

“I call this book pioneering because I’ve not seen any other fully formed framework for understanding—and guidance for influencing—company culture. This is not a book to read, but a book to study. I deeply appreciate the broad, relevant references to literature, history, historical figures, companies, other business authors and personal experience. Stories provide context and make ideas concrete. Clearly the author appreciates wisdom, wherever he finds it, and knows how to bring it to life. It matters. The way Veyera understands a culture in terms of how decisions are made and how change is approached is simple and elegant. His further fleshing out of that matrix through correlated dimensions is comprehensive. I don’t think any environment could fall through the cracks. Finally, I learned that impacting culture in the way Veyera describes is not the job of an outside consultant. It is the work of the business, and should be led by a champion of the business.”

—Emily Bopp, Co-Founder, Enable, Inc. 

“Kudos…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.”

—Laura Kinney, VP, Operational Excellence, Signature Healthcare

“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.”

—Tom Bacus, Chief Executive Manager, Bacus & Associates, LLC

About the Author

Jeff Veyera is a career-long quality professional, Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Certified Quality Manager, and Lean Leader with over 25 years of experience in healthcare, military, manufacturing, consulting, and supply chain management. He is a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality. He lives in Fort Lupton, CO, with his wife, four children, two cats, and one dog. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and is proud to be ’93.