Mergers: How to Manage & Coach People through Change (Case Study #2)
Power in Numbers
I was working with two separate organizations that often subcontracted work out to each other. Each department within these
separate organizations had refined their specialty areas and their unique customer bases. Also, each organization relied
on the other to fill in, as necessary, with the successful completion of projects. During one lunch meeting, Kim (the
director of company A) suggested that one of her departments join together with Ken (the director of company B) and one
of his departments. The goal of this merger would be to engage in more cross-functional collaboration. This suggested
merger would really take their quasi-partnership to the next level of performance and efficiency. They agreed it made
sense to have their departments work more closely, so I was brought in to work with Kim, Ken, and the departments to outline a plan.
In the past, each group saw itself as superior to the other. The leadership of both organizations had encouraged that
typical, competitive "us versus them" environment, and the employees were stuck in this mode. Our first step then was
clear: build cooperation despite the egos, control challenges, and engrained past practice; replace this competitive
approach which seemed to have a stranglehold on the staffs of these two departments.
Building cooperation entailed two large steps. The first was hammering out a rough outline with the two directors. The
next involved bringing in the two diverse department groups and having them start the process of voicing the benefits
of utilizing and relying on each other.
Consequent to these steps, each group started to focus on what they were getting, rather than what they were giving up.
Essentially, they redefined the pros and cons in their own terms. They started to see and talk about how to leverage
their own and others' unique talents. Because of their changed mindset (from being coerced to being given a choice), they
actually got more accomplished in less time than had been originally slated for the task. They quickly saw the benefits
of working with each other, as they saw their own success increase by cooperation.
This shift in perspective was the missing piece in the merger process. All those in the room readily became aligned
with a common goal: to make the merger a success. The rest of the pieces in the process quickly fell into place.
As new questions, challenges, and problems were identified in the implementation stages of the merger, the critical skill
of mentally reframing the question into a choice, versus
a law or a demand, empowered all involved to feel they had a
semblance of control over their lives. This encouraged all participants to move cooperatively in the same direction, aligned
around a common vision.
