Culture Isn’t Just One Aspect of the Game – It Is the Game
Companies are combining in record numbers to accelerate growth, and the energy and financial resources invested in mergers and acquisitions is staggering. So too is the success rate, as all too often integration efforts fail to accomplish and sustain their goals. Leaders tend to focus more on the blending of structures, processes and systems and overlook the combining of corporate cultures – the key to actually making the deal work.
It has been said that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game – it is the game. While acknowledged as a critical success factor, few organizations prioritize cultural integration because of its elusiveness and complexity. Cultural integration can’t wait until the deal is done, however, as success hinges on managing the people side of the transaction.
Our team fosters an employee-centric mindset and helps leaders address the cultural and psychological factors that matter most to ensuring a successful integration. After all, it’s the behaviors, competencies and contributions of an organization’s employees that will ultimately create and deliver the value of the new company.
We help our clients integrate corporate cultures by:
- Identifying and measuring differences among values, beliefs, behaviors and practices
- Determining critical gaps to close and cultural issues that might get in the way
- Establishing the broader vision and objectives for cultural integration
- Aligning leadership around integration objectives and building sponsorship of the culture transformation effort
- Designing customized leadership development programs to build capabilities needed to support the vision and succeed in the new organization
- Defining the important workplace behaviors required in the new culture, as well as the measures and incentives to monitor and encourage adoption
- Communicating and coaching the behaviors throughout the organization
- Engaging and retaining the talent required to advance the goals of the new company