CULTURE WHITE PAPER & ARTICLES

If you are still on the fence about what culture means for your bank, this page has important information you'll want to read.

If you have arrived directly at this page, I encourage you to explore the entire Culture section of my web site for a thorough understanding of the impact of culture on your business success.

If you have already read much of this section and want to flesh out your understanding of why culture matters to your business success:

• The Getting Started section below features some of my past writings on culture, material that will add to your understanding not only of culture issues, but of my own approach to, and experience with, these issues.
• For a thorough (20-page) discussion of "How Tightening Your Culture Can Make You More Nimble, More Resilient, and More Successful," look into my Culture White Paper, described below.

You might also note that subscribers to my e-zine, Jeff's Thoughts, receive a "thank you" in the form of my brief summary of 7 Key Elements in Monitoring and Enhancing Your Institution's Credit Culture. That document is available only through my e-zine.

Finally, you may have encountered my writings on culture in periodicals you already subscribe to, as I regularly publish articles in magazines from state and national associations and from various banking schools.

Getting Started

Download "Culture Matters," my short article covering "Six Common Misconceptions About Corporate Culture That May Be Holding Back Your Bank."

You can also explore concepts and applications of culture among reprints from my e-zine, Jeff's Thoughts. Although there is some overlap, skimming a few of the topics listed below will give you a good feel for how I approach culture issues, and why I think they are so important.

Start with these past articles:

• "Ice Bubbles, Financial Bubbles": I suggest that you might want to "bottle" today's culture for later use.
• "Mind the Gap!" highlights the need to close the culture gaps in your institution.
• "How to Make a Boring Topic Way Too Lively" focuses on what documentation problems reveal about a bank's culture.
• "Culture Definitely Matters" covers some of the basic reasons culture makes a real difference to your business success.
• "Seeing Culture" makes the point that many skeptics about the value of the concept of "culture" had their eyes opened wide when the recession hit.
• "Is Culture Dead?" was an early attempt to alert bankers to the power of culture, before the recession made that more obvious.

In Depth: My Culture White Paper

For a more complete look at the impact of culture on your business, you'll want to read my white paper, "Build Your Culture, Build Your Business." You will find more than 20 pages of thoughtful discussion on:

• Why culture matters to your business
• How a tight culture works to your advantage
• Why "judgment calls" are so revealing about your culture and practices
• How to detect signs of a loose culture, and to perform a formal assessment of your culture
• First steps you can take to build a culture that helps you build your business

My white paper helps you see "How Tightening Your Culture Can Make You More Nimble, More Resilient, and More Successful". Download this preview of the Table of Contents and Executive Summary.

Then, if you are ready to learn more about how your culture is impacting your business, get the entire white paper by dropping me a line at Jeff@JeffJudy.com, or calling at (952) 903-0113. My assistant will get an electronic version out to you immediately, so that you can start mapping your way to a culture that will enhance your business outcomes.

Getting Help

In addition to the consulting and training I offer around culture, Jeff Judy & Associates also handles culture assessments ... a process described in detail on the Assess Your Culture page. For your convenience, however, you can download two helpful PDF documents related to culture assessment directly from this page:

1. If you want to understand the practical steps necessary to know where your culture stands, download my summary of "Culture Assessment Tools."
2. If you know you want to do an assessment, use this "Culture Assessment Planner" to begin the design process and request a quote that will fit your unique needs.

Continue to How I Help ...

The more you understand about culture and its impact on your business success, the more you will want to do to explicitly monitor and manage your bank's culture.