The essential considerations behind effective integration of organisations are the same be they new acquisitions, existing operating companies within a global group or departments within a company.

 

The level of challenge to deliver an effective post-integration organisation can however vary significantly for a number reasons including the motivation for the changes; integration of a new acquisition to stimulate growth and maximise synergies can be a very different proposition to integrating companies or departments as part of a cost cutting exercise.

 

But whatever the reason for integration a prime goal is always to deliver an effective organisation.
And one of the most important factors influencing the effectiveness of an organisation is the level of TRUST between its members. All actions during an integration should therefore, as far as possible, be aimed at building trust. The following guidelines can help maintain trust.

1. Objectives and benefits – make them clear
   Before anything is done it is essential that the objectives and anticipated benefits of the integration are very clear.
2. Communication – lots of it
   It’s a cliché because its true for all change; we almost never communicate enough. It’s worth considering writing a communication policy; this doesn’t have to be anything too esoteric but needs to discuss areas such as the types of communications (from memos, to team talks to informal chats over coffee), communication routes (e.g. through the management structure or direct to all employees) and the frequency of communication.
   And consider getting a number of your team involved in putting this together to get them on board and delivering a consistent message – particularly in the informal chats over a coffee where we know 95% of communication happens.
   To keep your management team on board, ensure that initial communications go through the management structure – nothing will alienate middle management more than being informed of significant changes at the same time as all the people they manage – they need time and guidance on how to deal with the inevitable raft of questions they’ll have to field.
3. Ugliness – get it all out
   Integration can often involve some tough steps such as making redundancies and moving offices. If this is the case, then it is essential that these steps are acknowledged as soon as possible because if the management team know or suspect that these steps might be a possibility then you can guarantee that many of the work force will suspect the same. Any delay, or worse denial, of these steps will burn trust rapidly.
   Let people express their concerns. Don’t avoid meetings or other forms of contact because you suspect they may be difficult – it will only make matters worse and more explosive. If you chair or are part of the management team in meetings you need to be prepared to face some aggression; when people get scared they will often display defensive aggression first.
   If you can create an environment where people can get through this stage of aggression, then they will often express their underlying fears and anxieties. With these fears acknowledged you stand a much better chance of people working together to support each other and, very importantly, generate more creative ideas for implementing the changes as beneficially as possible.
4. Authority – redistribute fairly
   In both the temporary integration team and new organisational management team make sure you distribute authority fairly and avoid cronyism. It can be tempting to put the people that you know and have worked with for years into positions of responsibility in the new teams but you will lose significant amounts of trust if you do so. This aspect is discussed in more detail in one of my previous posts.
5. Culture/values – maintain them
   It is important that you maintain your organisation’s culture and values during integration as these periods of change can have a significant impact on behaviour. This is done primarily through your demonstrated behaviour and can be very challenging as emotions may be running high which can make it difficult for us to be aware of what we’re doing.
   If you’re chairing a meeting, for example, and attendees are expressing their concerns aggressively you need to decide what behaviour to allow and where to draw the line. You may, for example allow someone to talk about their fear of losing their job very energetically but cut them off if they start a personal attack on you or anyone else.
6. Support – get some
   Managing these changes can be challenging and you are likely to have impulses that you cannot act on. You must not, for example, respond in kind to aggression – it will not help you achieve your goal. You may shut someone up during a meeting if you have authority over them but they will simply continue to undermine your efforts after the meeting.
   So you may need to hold onto a lot of unhelpful impulses and find some constructive way of managing them. This could simply involve talking to friends but in complex situations it may be worth considering the support of a coach who has ideally had some experience of what you are going through.
   If you do not find a constructive way of managing your feelings in these situations you risk less positive solutions such as venting them on your family or friends or using alcohol.
   You may also consider getting support in various aspects of the integration such as chairing meetings so that you can focus more on what is going on.

If this guidance is followed and embedded into the integration process and the vision/mission/strategy of the integrated organisation is clear, then the concrete steps including the following will be a lot easier to implement:

• Transfer employment contracts
• Transfer assets and properties
• Novate contracts
• Inform clients and suppliers
• Development of a new organisational structure possibly including integration of some of similar functional departments
• Selection of existing or development new organisational processes and systems

If this guidance is followed, then even the most difficult cost cutting integration with redundancies and moving premises can result in a very effective organisation.

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Have you had experience of organisational integration or are you planning to do so? If you have any thoughts or comments, please share below or send me a LinkedIn connection request.