| |
|
|
|
MANAGING THROUGH A MERGER |
You received the memo, now you've received the phone call.
There will be a special meeting of all senior managers and
department heads tomorrow afternoon. No agenda has been
mentioned, and no one within your "contact group" admits to
knowing what the meeting is all about. What you do know, is that
everyone senses that "something big" is going on. As a manager
who has both line and/or staff managers reporting to you, you
are usually kept up to date on what the company is doing so that
you can better communicate with the people who report to you.
This time however, you don't have a clue.
At the meeting, all of the usual people are present, with an
additional two people, whom you do not know, sitting with the
President and the Chairman at the head of the table. You wait
for it to happen, and then it does. Without much lead-in, the
Chairman states very calmly "We are merging with Acme Tool and
Die". Every person at the table appears stunned. Deadly quiet is
followed very quickly with a barrage of questions, most of which
have the actual or implied "WHY" in them. You're sitting there
asking yourself "what do I do now?"
As a senior manager, you realize that the first thing to do is
to get all, or as many of the facts as possible and then get
them to your troops at "e-speed". You know that the word will
travel fast, it will be "hot stuff", most of it will be rumors
that are not entirely factual, and that everyone on your staff
will have an opinion and the rules of gossip will prevail. The
battle to kill the rumors and get the truth out is underway.
In today's world, messages travel at incredible speed. Even the
lowest positioned person on your staff has access to the
Internet, the company Intranet and/or e-mail. Your job now is to
get there first - to listen, and to feed a steady stream of
honest, truthful, factual information to your people. One of
your objectives should be to over-communicate. In this
situation, redundancy becomes a positive factor in settling the
emotions of your people. Most large organizations going through
a merger now create a position of "Information Czar", often a
person from the outside, who will be as objective as possible
and who will serve as the manager of "Information Central"
through which all merger news will flow.
Two-way communication is always best, but in this case, it
becomes critical. Your people are not necessarily thinking of
what is going to happen to the organization, they're thinking
and worrying about what is going to happen to them. Listen to
what they say. Listen to their questions and concerns. Make
yourself become a communication machine. If you can find out
what their concerns and problems are, you can, in all
probability, answer or fix them.
From the first moment the announcement is made, don't "cuff"
answers to questions or concerns. Don't shave the truth. Your
people deserve the truth. They will know when you're "blowing
smoke" at them which will be deadly for you. Build your
credibility by leveling with your people. Give it to them
straight, not what you think they would like to hear. If you
don't know an answer, tell them that but, also tell them that
you will get the answer and get it to them ASAP. The odds are
that it would be unrealistic to think that you can make all of
your people happy during this time. It's better to arm them with
an understanding of the facts and prepare them for the hard work
and possibly disturbing tasks that will be facing them in the
next faze of the transition.
Let us also be redundant. Listen - Listen - Listen, communicate
often and honestly, then communicate again. Silence is the
biggest enemy and the most major of sins. Your people may not be
happy with all of the answers, but they will respect the honest
and frank responses they will be getting.
Sea Bright Enterprises, Inc. stands ready to assist you and your
organization in creating an "integration strategy" to help
assure as smooth a transition as possible in the event of a
merger or acquisition. Our purpose would not be to take the
place of any of the organization's management, but rather to be
a facilitator during the process.
|
