They're Coming! Combining Teams and Cultures in a Corporate Merger
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The document discusses strategies for combining teams and cultures during mergers, acquisitions, and organizational changes. It addresses managing change by fostering communication, listening empathetically, representing all stakeholders in decisions, and providing training. A case study examines how a content working group brought together representatives from different companies to establish a new combined system, holding regular meetings and keeping stakeholders informed throughout the project. The key is communicating early and often, allowing input from the team, and understanding the fears and perspectives of those affected by the change.
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They're Coming! Combining Teams and Cultures in a Corporate Merger
- 1. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Larry Kunz May 2018 #stc18 They’re Coming! Combining Teams and Cultures
- 2. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Mergers, Acquisitions, Realignments Source: Institute for Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances #stc18
- 3. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved3 E Pluribus Unum – Corporate Style #stc18
- 4. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved It’s about People (Not Boxes on an Organizational Chart) #stc18
- 5. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved5 Combining the Ingredients
- 6. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved 3 Teams 1 Team From 3 companies to 1 From 12 people to 45 Will the culture change? Will roles change? Will contracts be slashed or terminated? #stc18
- 7. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved 3 Content Repositories 1 #stc18
- 8. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved People – Workflow – Tools Foster a sense of unity Communicate early and often Listen empathetically Respect everyone’s right to know #stc18
- 9. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved People – Workflow – Tools Accommodate all viewpoints New support staff, new processes You won’t get it all done this week: Common goals create a sense of shared purpose What needs to change and what doesn’t - at least for now? Critical tools and processes first #stc18
- 10. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved People – Workflow – Tools Represent all stakeholders in decisions OR explain decisions to all, in terms they understand Provide training for all who need it Respect fear of failure #stc18
- 11. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved11 The Fear Factor
- 12. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Fear Factors Surprise Mistrust Threatened loss Bad timing Resistance to change Source: Lisa Quast, "Overcome The 5 Main Reasons People Resist Change“ Forbes, 26 Nov 2012 #stc18
- 13. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Listening with Empathy What are they really feeling (but not saying)? #stc18
- 14. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Empathetic Communication Foresee what’s coming Keep the team apprised It’s OK to say “I don’t know” Give everyone a chance to speak Groups and 1:1 “How can I make you feel comfortable about the change?” #stc18
- 15. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Good Conflict "The most powerful thing you can do to have conflict nicely is to leave your colleague with the impression that you understand their point.“ - Liane Davey, 3Coze #stc18
- 16. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Communicating with Stakeholders Have a vision, and articulate it Target your messages Communicate early and often (“Stakeholders” = People) #stc18
- 17. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved17 Case Study: The Content Working Group
- 18. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Case Study: Identifying the Challenge The challenge Setting up a system that would be new for everyone The shared vision Combined set of content, workflows, best practices #stc18
- 19. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Case Study: Forming the Working Group Represented all interested parties Putting Extreme Networks in charge Carefully setting schedule, expectations #stc18
- 20. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Case Study: Throughout the Project “Show and tell” session In-person workshop Biweekly meetings #stc18
- 21. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Case Study: Our Schedule #stc18
- 22. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Case Study: Leaving Nothing to Chance Hat tip: Sidney Harris The New Yorker #stc18
- 23. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Case Study: Through the Project #stc18 Working Group meeting slide deck 30 Oct 2017
- 24. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Case Study: Through the Project Working Group meeting slide deck 30 Oct 2017 #stc18
- 25. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Case Study: After the Working Group #stc18
- 26. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Takeaways
- 27. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Exercise: Combining Teams and Cultures The change Summarize the change in one sentence Who will the change affect? The decisions Who will make them? Will the team be able to influence them? How can you get buy-in? The communication strategy Messages Team participation Feedback mechanisms #stc18
- 28. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Resources Ten Reasons People Resist Change Rosabeth Moss Kanter – Harvard Business Review – 25 Sep 2012 https://hbr.org/2012/09/ten-reasons-people-resist-chang Overcome The 5 Main Reasons People Resist Change Lisa Quast - Forbes – 26 Nov 2012 https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2012/11/26/overcome-the-5-main-reasons- people-resist-change/ Organizational Change: 8 Reasons Why People Resist Change Robert Tanner - personal blog – 13 Oct 2017 https://managementisajourney.com/organizational-change-8-reasons-why-people- resist-change/ Can Conflict Be Nice? Liane Davey – 3coze blog – 3 Dec 2017 http://www.3coze.com/2017/12/03/can-conflict-be-nice/ #stc18
- 29. ©2018 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved WWW.EXTREMENETWORKS.COM
Editor's Notes
- TIME 4:00 Poll the room: how many have been involved in a merger or acquisition in the past 5 years? Institute for Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances graph: Mergers are common in all industries Growing, both in numbers and in total value Blue bars = number of mergers Red line = total dollar value (Note: The second-to-right bar represents first 3 months of 2018) The shape of the chart is essentially the same for US, Europe, and worldwide Mergers happen for all kinds of reasons Large companies acquire smaller ones to obtain a product line or (more commonly) technologies & patents Companies align to achieve economies of scale – to compete against a larger rival Company breaks up & sells its business units (this was the case for Brocade & Avaya)
- Extreme’s Sales team likes to show this slide I call it E pluribus unum….From many, one The chart is like a family tree: in any column, read up from the bottom You’ll start with companies that were around 20 years ago Companies merged into bigger companies… ….Which, finally, were absorbed into Extreme Networks Mergers aren’t always easy, and don’t always work as designed As a result, we see “do-overs”: more corporate restructurings, more selling off business units And, so, in the second column of this chart – Motorola acquired a couple of companies…. ….then sold those portions of its business to Zebra Technologies…. ….which, 2 years later, sold them to Extreme) To make a merger work, you need thoughtful planning and deliberate action Today I’ll talk about how we’ve done that in the InfoDev group at Extreme Networks I’ll tell you about a case study in which we combined cultures, workflows, and tools
- I’ve been on both sides of the M&A equation I’ve seen how both groups – the acquired and the acquiring – naturally take a defensive posture In each case, they feel threatened by a big, bad change agent On the "acquired" side, in 2005 I was a foot soldier at Veritas Software We said, THEY’RE COMING The big bad West-coast company is taking over: imposing its tools and workflows on us Nobody cares how we’ve been doing the job Nobody cares what we think They’re coming to assimilate us into their Borg More recently, on the "acquiring" side, I was a project lead at Extreme We said, THEY’RE COMING New people were coming from Brocade Networks and Avaya They have content that’s nothing like ours All the hard work we did – Setting up tools and workflows Creating a corporate culture and a brand – will go out the window The new people will want to take my job They’ll want to keep doing things their way They won’t fit in Well….we could’ve felt that way But we didn’t As a result, the new people didn’t feel like they had to come at us with swords drawn
- TIME 4:07 We were blending 3 organizations into 1 3 teams of people 3 cultures 3 content repositories 3 sets of tools and workflows That’s a lot of ingredients The end result would be different from anything any of us were used to The specific task at hand was to combine the 3 sets of content onto a single CMS That’s the case study I’ll show you in a few minutes But the bigger task – the overall context for the case study – was combining the teams and the ways they worked Here’s how we did it
- Let me tell you about our InfoDev organization at Extreme Our boss managed 12 writers Soon she would become manager of about 45 She talked w/ the old team about upcoming changes and how to preserve the culture Culture is important us – we’re creative people, "lost" among engineers So we were intent on preserving the culture we had, while welcoming the newcomers To add to the challenge of merging 3 teams and 3 cultures… ….The 3 teams included subcontractors from 6 different companies – located in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and India So here’s how members of each team might’ve looked at things: Original team: My successful team will take in a bunch of newcomers Newcomers: My successful team will lose its moorings and join a group of strangers Contractors: My contract will be slashed or cancelled In fact, none of the contractors lost their jobs –and some even were hired as permanent employees
- We needed to merge 3 content repositories into 1 Today’s case study focuses on one specific aspect of the change It’s an aspect that touches on people, workflow, and tools Our boss asked me to guide the process of integrating into one CMS Avaya used the current version of SDL Knowledge Center Brocade used an older version “Original” Extreme used a different CMS We moved all 3 teams onto a new instance of the current version of Knowledge Center We integrated 3 separate DITA content-repositories into one The choice of the new CMS wasn’t automatic We didn’t just pick Knowledge Center because several of the people already knew it Instead, we considered the options with open minds We needed a CMS that could: Handle our current and projected authoring and publishing needs Scale to accommodate this merger and possible future ones Secondary criterion: Shorten the learning curve (i.e., choose a system most team members were used to) Today the teams are working together on a single instance of Knowledge Center We have tools and processes That everyone is comfortable with That can handle future growth – whether organic or through more mergers
- To get there… …We balanced and understood three elements: people, workflows, tools Out of the 3, people are the biggest key to success We worked to Foster a sense of unity Communicate early and often Give everyone a chance to be heard in public AND in private Provide frequent status updates Provide frequent reminders of the overall vision (what’s the end state we’re trying to reach together?) Listen empathetically (more on that later) Respect every team member's right to know
- In the area of workflows, we worked to: Accommodate all viewpoints, to ensure a thorough understanding of the environment Don’t forget support roles The larger team will need more editors, more team leads, a dedicated illustrator Create written processes that clarify roles… ….especially for things that everyone used to understand as second nature Play the long game: we knew we wouldn’t get it all done in a week We defined common goals to create a sense of shared purpose We identified what needed to change and what could remain the same - at least for now We prioritized critical tools and processes first
- Finally, in the area of tools, we worked to: Make sure all stakeholders are represented in decisions about buying and upgrading tools Provide training for employees who need it Not just those who are picking up the tool for the first time… …but all who are experiencing a change (like moving up to the newer release) Understand that some people are afraid of failure… …and provide a bridge from what they know (old tools and processes) to what they don’t know
- TIME 4:15 When you see the roller coaster, how do you feel? Exhilarated: You love roller coasters, and you’re thinking “I’d love to be there right now” …. Frightened: This is definitely not your thing: “I don’t even want to look at this slide” If you’re in the Exhilarated group… ….it might be hard to realize that some people feel very differently Some people, in fact, are frightened just to watch It’s the same with corporate change While some people react to change with excitement and a sense of possibility… ….there are many people who dread it How can we accommodate both the excited and the fearful… ….without quenching the excitement and the sense of possibility?
- When your company gets acquired, you’re apt to be afraid of: Being “assimilated” into the Borg Having to defend your job, your way of doing things Fear might drive you to swords-drawn mode – just as in my old job at Veritas Conversely, when your company acquires another one, you’re apt to fear: Having someone come in and take away your job Losing corporate culture The familiar way of doing things, is going away "Remember when you could go down the hall and the IT support guy was right there?" Fear of failure: "I used to know this job, cold" If you’re a manager or team lead in either one of these scenarios… How can you deal with your people when they’re afraid? Lisa Quast, in Forbes: "Overcome The 5 Main Reasons People Resist Change” Take time to understand what the changes are, who they'll affect, and how (That’s part of the exercise we’ll do later in this session) Be as open and honest as possible Understand the factors that cause people to fear: Fear factor: Surprise: so don’t spring changes on people without warning Fear factor: Mistrust: be sure to create an atmosphere of trust This, of course, is a seed you plant long before the change happens) Fear factor: The threat of losing job security; of losing a safe, familiar environment Have a communication plan (I’ll cover this later) Fear factor: Bad timing: You can’t magically make everything work at once People won’t walk into the office one day… …and find all of the new tools and workflows working perfectly There will be bumps in the road; you need to plan for them Fear factor: Some individuals are especially averse to change They need frequent, empathetic listening
- The way to defeat fear? Communication Not simply the transmission of facts But empathetic communication Which always starts with listening Do listen to the words people say, but be listening for what’s behind the words Mind the gap between what people are saying and what they’re really expressing When you listen empathetically, you might detect Anger Bewilderment Feelings of disorientation Most people are reluctant to talk about their fears, or aren’t even aware of them So invite feedback Touch base often Listen for what’s on both sides of the gap I recommend Alan Alda’s book, If I Understood You, Would I Have this Look on My Face?) He says empathy is "the fundamental ingredient without which real communication can’t happen"
- Another way to defeat fear: Avoid bad timing: Don’t force change to happen too quickly As much as you can, foresee what's coming Keep the team apprised of your best guesses, and of the timeline You don't have to know everything before sharing with the team It's better to say "I don't know all the details yet" than to spring surprises later Ensure that everyone can speak freely and know they're being heard Invite feedback both in group settings and in1-on-1 meetings Ask: "How can I help you feel more comfortable about the change?" This presupposes that they trust you – so do everything you can do to be trustworthy (and, again, sow the seed early)
- There’ll inevitably be conflicts and disagreements It’s a mistake to avoid them, or to pretend they’re not there But you should ensure that the conflict is healthy Liane Davey says, in her article on healthy conflict: "The most powerful thing … is to leave your colleague with the impression that you understand their point.” To let someone know that you understand (all quotes are from the Davey article): First, you have to listen "Unfortunately, the moment you get into a conflict, your attention gets laser focused on pleading your case, rather than hearing theirs." Rephrase back to them Probe: “Why is it bad if X or Y happens?” That way, you can get to root causes You can bridge the gap "Create a path forward” rather than trying to trap the other person into agreeing with you By following Davey’s advice, you can: Identify the real issues – the ones on the other side of “the gap” Reassure your people that someone is listening Keep the focus on the future – on solving the problems and succeeding
- Have the end in mind: show everyone the desired end state and the timetable for getting there We surveyed the Extreme team, asking what aspects of the culture are most important to them We developed messaging around that –about products, processes, and tools As you communicate… Aim your messages to each set of employees – both the “acquired” and “acquiring” teams Don’t use a "one size fits all" approach But do ensure that all messaging is consistent Don't make assurances to one group that contradict assurances made to another group Don't favor the established employees over the new (or vice versa), in terms of depth and the amount of information you supply Make sure that new employees get information on Day One HR should take the lead – but don’t assume they will Have means in place for communicating within your local department: wiki, in-person, email This takes careful up-front planning, so that all communication media are in place In our exercise, you’ll get to plan a communications strategy to help allay fear and keep everyone pointed in the right direction
- TIME 4:25 The case study describes how we: Represented all viewpoints, for a thorough understanding of the environment Fostered unity and open communication Established a sense of shared purpose by defining common goals Identified what needed to change and what could remain the same Played the long game, focusing on critical tools and processes first Managed the project to a successful completion
- Identifying the challenge We decided to set up a new instance of SDL Knowledge Center… …rather than keeping one of the existing ones We needed to move everyone to the new instance Started with 3 different sets of content, 3 style guides, 3 workflows, and 3 sets of publishing transforms [at least all of them were DITA!] Ended with 1 of each (To be honest, we’re still working on the transforms – again, you can’t do it all at once) Creating a shared vision: clear picture of what the end would look like The vision had to be appealing enough, and well enough articulated, for everyone to feel comfortable giving up the status quo The outcome was described in staff meetings, so everyone knew about it We emphasized that The rollout was being managed by a team representing all viewpoints The rollout would come in stages Everyone would get the training they needed – tailored to them
- Our working group for managing the CMS migration Represented all of the content-development teams - both technical and management people CMS vendor (SDL) was also represented SDL wanted to manage the process, but we insisted that Extreme would manage Because we could represent everyone's concerns Because it would foster a sense of unity Because it reinforced that Extreme, ultimately, was responsible for making the project succeed We set the schedule / expectations at the beginning This is what we'll be doing; this is when we'll do it This was another way to keep attention focused on the vision The schedule was checkpointed at each meeting
- The working group met biweekly, and more often when needed In addition, there were 2 other group sessions: 1. (late August) Special "show and tell" meeting near the beginning Involved the 3 Extreme teams - not SDL Conference call, with screen sharing Objectives: Show each other how we currently did things – for example: Workflows for authoring / reviewing / publishing Storing content Clarify where there were differences to be reconciled (or accommodated) It really helped that I knew the workflow - knew what questions to ask, what to look for In the show-and-tell, we heard a lot of “have you tried such-and-such” and “I like how you did that” The show-and-tell set a great tone of openness and cooperation: We're all one team; your concerns are my concerns When we interact with SDL, we’ll speak as one team 2. (2 weeks later) 2-day in person workshop (per SDL’s usual process) The SDL staff met an Extreme team that had already bonded together We established stronger working relationships by meeting in person Set the parameters for the new system, based on what we’d discussed in the show-and-tell 3. Then, the biweekly group meetings continued until the end of the year
- Our North Star, our vision, consisted of 2 parts: The articulated goal of a unified CMS The schedule I developed the project schedule with the help of the PM at SDL And with full knowledge and buy-in from all working group members Once we had the schedule, I included it in every meeting’s slide deck And paused to show it, and talk about it, at the end of every meeting This helped keep everyone focused on the long-range goal, as well as the short-term issues
- The plan and the schedule made sure that nothing was left to chance These guys might have designed a breakthrough process But there’s one little thing missing It’s tempting to include a “miracle” step somewhere in your plan Especially when there are a lot of unknowns Or when there’s disagreement about the best way forward The in-person workshop was great for identifying all of the issues… …and for clarifying every step of the process Our plan didn’t have any “miracle” steps Whenever I didn’t know how something would be done, I put it on the agenda and posed the question to the people who did know I played by the rule: There’s no such thing as a stupid question! Remember Lt. Columbo? “Let me ask just one more thing”
- Here’s a typical meeting agenda I always sent the agenda and slides out a day before each meeting, so people would be prepared I started each meeting with follow-ups from the last meeting Then, specific topics to cover – each one had one or more slides in the deck (In this example, the topics were the User Acceptance Test and the process of exporting data from the old system to the new one) Meetings always ended with a summary of follow-ups (which you’ll see on the next slide) And, of course, with a look at the “North Star” – the schedule
- Here’s a sample follow-up list I’ve grayed out people’s names…. Every item had one or more people designated – and those people would agree to do the follow-up Green: complete Orange: still open We covered every open item in every group meeting, until the item was completed Any member of the group could add new items as needed
- Following up…. The CMS project finished up around the first of the year But there remained more to do to complete the blending of our team Remember: you have to take the long view; you won’t finish everything in a week Here’s one tool we set up to help a team together The Confluence wiki: extremedocs Provides organizational information Policies/procedures Culture Low cost (under $5K/year) New team members feel comfortable having a one-stop shop for finding information A place to exchange information open and accessible Everyone (all 45 people) has access Unifies the team – invites everyone to take part A “wiki team” within InfoDev provides oversight and does periodic training Answers questions and provides support With the encouragement of our wiki team, uptake has been steady People commonly say in staff meetings and in casual conversations: “Oh, look on the wiki”
- Here are your takeaways We’ve been pleased with how we blended 3 teams into 1 As typified by our experience with the working group, we recognize the need for: Frequent, intentional communication Active, empathetic listening Respecting every team member’s right to know Involving all stakeholders in decisions about tools and workflows Fostering unity and open communication Establishing a sense of shared purpose
- TIME 4:35 Exercise: The change [Ask Matt & John to distribute] You won’t get through the entire exercise in our session today But it’ll get you started, and you can take it back to the office with you Think of a new tool or process, about to be introduced, that will change the way people work... ...on teams that don't normally work closely together ...on teams that don't share the same management structure (from different parts of the organization) Summarize the change in one sentence – there are examples here Who will the change affect? Will any teams or individuals be affected disproportionately? What will people be concerned about? If you don’t know, how can you find out? The decisions Think of two or three key decisions that have to be made. Who makes the decisions? Can the team members influence any of them? How can you get buy-in from team members? The communication strategy What messages do you want to send to the team members? Would a cross-team working group help with participative decision making? What will the group's charter be? What feedback mechanisms will you establish?
- Q&A – TIME 4:42