Borrowing from Frankie Goes To Hollywood, when two tribes go to war merge, it often turns into point scoring, resistance, obstruction and sometimes all-out war.

Leaders can be vying for power; managers may hunker down and keep themselves protected; colleagues can get anxious or take flight.

And if there’s a vacuum of communication or simply a lack of transparency, expect imaginations (and the grapevine) to be working overtime.

Having been through a couple of acquisitions and worked with several companies going through mergers and restructuring, here are a few insights into some of the challenges and some of the potential answers.

 

Align to business strategy

Yeah, sounds like Change Management 101.  But a lot of talk following a merger can focus on a load of processes, changes, projects and engagement that can feel random or simply superfluous to current need.  Focus on what matters now, and is aligned to the strategy.

 

Be as transparent as you can

Going through a merger or restructure has lots of change, understandably, a few known unknowns and, in the words of Donald Rumsfield, there will always be a few unknown unknowns.  Some things can’t be shared – whether publicly or people sensitive – but it’s that ability to be able to share what you can and explain why there are some things that can’t be shared right now.  Or some questions that leaders don’t have answers for.

 

Make an effort to understand the resistors

It is easy to dismiss resistors as people who wouldn’t be happy with whatever is happening or just like to stir things up.  But their resistance comes from somewhere, and being able to have that cognitive empathy is critical.  Sometimes it’s simply a lack of knowledge or communications; sometimes pure fear; or they feel they have to pick sides – and they don’t want to go against a leader who’s clearly marking his or her territory.

 

Make sure leaders stand up and be counted

Mergers, restructuring, change programmes – these are all major programmes that eat up a lot of leadership and managerial time, and that’s without everyone getting on with the day job.  But leaders need to make time to listen – and listen intently; be visible; and encourage colleagues to voice opinions, bring ideas and feel like they are shaping the organisation, at every level.

 

Find the glue that brings you together

While company strategy provides a sense of direction, the glue for many is in the culture and sense of purpose.  Again, not at a macro level, but how can we collaborate?  What are the opportunities?  What is the culture we are creating here?  Values help to frame this, and show a commitment to its people, but also give voice and empowerment to teams and individuals in shaping that culture in the future.

 

Be clear about the opportunity

Leaders can often speak in broad terms about the market opportunity for the new company; but the excitement of that can often appease quickly.  People want more granular detail – what does it mean for me?  There is always work to be done to be able to show to people at different levels in different departments, what the change means.  It could mean more opportunities, a chance to collaborate with new teams or develop new products, or simply it provides stability for the team.  It doesn’t need to be a moonshot message.

 

There is no silver bullet for any merger or restructure.  You have to work in the context of your organisation – some mergers are much smoother than others, often when there’s little or no overlap of skills or territories.  And you have to work at it, full stop.