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Think One Way and do the Opposite
By Ron | August 15, 2008
So, I told you about us smarties planning to take over an operation out in the Nevada desert. We were all ready with our HR Manual, Offers of Employement, Orientation about our Company, blah,blah, blah. Before we moved ahead, we had lunch with consultant, Dr. Charles Hughes. He asked us if we were going to go up and put up a new sign with our logo. We said, “Yes.” He asked us if we were bringing our HR Manual to indoctrinate them in our policies. We said, “Yes.” And, so it went. I got the drift right away (we had taken his seminar about a month or so earlier). I had an idea of what he was going to recommend to us.
Here is what Dr. Hughes told us. “Don’t do anything that you just told me!”
“If I understand their culture right, you want to go up there in an old pick-up truck and have a BBQ with all the employees. Wear jeans, not those fancy suits. Do not change their sign and their precious logo that they have had for over 60 years. You can add your logo in small print after a month or so. Spend a week listening to them. Have them join in on the merger activities so that they can help design what “it” is going to look like. Don’t force your HR manual on them and your silly rules.”
Our consultant was so right.
We have all seen acquisitions and mergers which didn’t work out and, I believe, that most of the time it was because the acquiring company did not take in account the culture of the other company. They showed no empathy for the people who were being absorbed and, in fact, acted superior to them. As I said before, “Never underestimate the power of Culture.”
Topics: HR, Leadership, Management |