Managing cultural integration
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What are some effective strategies and best practices for managing cultural integration after a merger, especially in regards to aligning values and behaviors?
You could think about a cultural assessment – it would depend on the size of the two companies merging on what levels you want to conduct such an assessment and how much time it would take. After the assessment, use a focus group to define the ultimate culture you want to have at the end, and then work with a group specialized in change management, cultural awareness and communication on how the roll-out of the results could look like. I strongly believe consistent and transparent communication is key in case it means the culture is shifting at one of the two companies.
Another best practice could be developing a shared vision and shared core values, especially to highlight the already existing overlap – always good to stress the commonalities.This task can be extremely challenging given that leadership’s plans sometimes do not incorporate cultural differences into them. This makes things challenging for those tasked with integration. I look at things always with the view that one is not better than another – the goal is a diverse, cultural mixture. It is meant to be a joint process. Being transparent and talking through differences helps.
An approach to consider is conducting employee surveys, focus groups, and interviews with both leadership and key stakeholders to understand the cultural nuances of both organizations. The insights gained can be instrumental in helping you tailor the integration plan and identify potential areas of friction early on. Once a baseline has been established, pulse surveys can then help monitor employee sentiment and gather feedback on how the cultural integration is progressing.
– Appoint an integration team to understand the culture differences.
– Identify the influencers in the company and recruit them in the integration efforts.
– Conduct workshops to unite the vision and mission.
– Accept that the acquired company may have a different culture and there is no need for it to adopt the same culture as the acquiring company. Look at what works best for the acquired company. Willing to accept compromises as long as targets can be achieved.Apart from many good tips given here, in my company there is a monthly ‘integration pulse check’ – a short survey where different cultural aspects are measured, and because employees are located in seven countries around the globe, I find it very interesting to see the results. Then, the team responsible for culture and integration, analyses the results and they propose some solutions addressing needs.
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