When Organisational Cultures Collide - Guest Article by Richard Bell

08/04/21

Mergers, acquisitions and amalgamations are a common feature of the organisational landscape today and as the effects of Covid are felt beyond 2021, it is arguable that this phenomenon will increase as businesses in many sectors seek to survive and thrive post-pandemic.

So as the dust settles on the due diligence process and the ink on the contracts is drying, are we spending enough time thinking about and planning ‘how’ the two organisations will be brought together culturally? Has enough time been spent understanding and defining cultural similarities and differences? If not, then time invested early can really help the senior team to understand and get to grips with the new reality, factoring in culture change or alignment as part of strategic planning. We all know how a poor organisational culture can affect the bottom line and also disproportionately impact our ability to hire and retain the talent we need to move forward.

To bring about culture change where organisations have come together, it is vitally important to have a clear strategy, vision and narrative that enables employees to contextualise where the new organisation is at and where it is heading to. This really helps, as it starts to paint a picture for colleagues about ‘what’ needs to happen and ‘why’ it is important. This will really help develop an understanding of the change that is needed at a cognitive and logical level. Colleagues may not agree with what is happening, they will, however, understand it and in time and with appropriate interventions most will embrace it.

As the new organisation starts to operate, the biggest single win is to create deliberate opportunities for colleagues from the legacy organisations to meet and work together on ‘how’ the strategy will be brought to life. This will bring focus to a whole range of systems, processes and behaviours that are integral to truly being one organisation and provide rich data on the biggest barriers to success. Of course, this will need to be carefully planned and managed to enable priorities to be focused on. If this was a Disney production, then everyone would respond positively and get on with making the situation work. The reality is that 20% of employees will embrace culture change, 20% will actively resist and 60% will be ambivalent, or sit on the fence. Work on the 60% in the middle.

Having mechanisms available to engage with and listen fully to colleagues throughout is really important, as even if only some of the views are acted on, these are vital opportunities to increase emotional connection to the new organisation, create dissatisfaction with the status quo and help colleagues to see a different and brighter future. This takes time and multiple interventions.
The gist of this article is that setting the parameters and engaging people positively through culture change in organisations that are coming together is vitally important. It really is about winning the hearts and minds of colleagues.

What is equally important is the structure and profile relating to how cultural change or alignment is delivered. Treat this as you would any other high profile project, establish a plan, deliverables and key measures of success. Without this how will you know you have moved forward?
Culture change in organisations that are being brought together is a huge and complex topic and there is no one right way of achieving this. There are however some good basic principles set out above that will increase your chances of success and move the new organisation forward faster.

Richard is an Organisational Development (OD) and Learning and Development professional who has worked in senior roles across a variety of commercial, public sector and third sector organisations throughout his career. As a practitioner, Richard understands the value of high quality OD interventions that underpin effective business delivery and has extensive experience of working within organisations to develop and transform workplace cultures. Richard has a passion for leadership and developing leaders to affect positive change in their teams and across their organisations.