Migrators Group  - Effective Consultancy for Today's Organisations

 

ALI'S ADVENTURES

After the Battle of the Mergers

Follow the adventures of Ali, as she uses a new approach to understand and manage the cultural differences between two parts of an organisation, that have recently merged.

Introduction
Following a long and arduous battle, Ali’s organisation has finally managed to take over its main competitor. Shortly after the merger is complete, Ali has been given the task of managing the complete development of the first product to be launched by the ‘New Organisation’. This involves taking the best resources from both of the old organisations and making them work together as a unified team, producing a joint product.

One of the problems Ali faces is to get the teams from the ‘New Partners’ to work effectively with her ‘Old Team’. Ali does not wish to impose her original organisation’s way of working on the New Partners, because this will cause unnecessary friction and stifle the creativity necessary for this important project.

Working Apart
At the start of the work, the project teams still hold allegiance to their old organisations. This appears to be causing noticeable difficulties. During an early review meeting, Ali finds progress is behind schedule, and slipping further. In addition, discussions in the meeting are taking longer than expected, with teams accusing the others of deliberately causing delays and administrative difficulties. Ali suspects that the problems concerning the way the teams work are related to the old organisations structures and methods.

Ali talks with the team managers from the New Partners to find out more about the way they work and manage. All her suspicions appear to be true, there are distinct differences in the way the New Partners manage their work and run their projects. Worse, the New Partners are not happy with the way Ali’s Old Team is working, providing Ali with a few unexpected home truths.

Now Ali knows the project has problems, due to differences in the way the New Partners work with the Old Team. This discovery then poses a number of questions, including: 

  • Are the differences really significant ?

  • Are there any more that we have not yet identified ?

  • Will they effect the successes of the project ?

  • Do these problems effect the whole of the new organisation?

  • What can Ali do about them ?

Later, Ali takes the concerns and juggles them into a table, which looks a bit like Figure 1.

Figure 1.                Project differences

Old Teams Perception of the New Partners

New Partners Perception of the Old Team

They are behind schedule with their work

We are always trying to push things along too quickly

They are never punctual

 

They always have to refer decisions to their managers, who will not attend the meetings

We have too much individual authority

They want detailed discussions on minor details. They always need more data

We are not always aware of the detailed procedures to be used

They appear to forget, or changed, some of the items formally agreed at previous meetings

We keep to the letter of the agreements, not the spirit

 

We are disrupting the harmony of the new organisation

To Ali’s surprise, not many of the differences are directly related to the outcome of the project. Most of them appear to be concerned with the administration and control methods used. However, some of the differences also appear to be similar, just taking a different perspective. Others are management related problems, associated with the way the origins of the organisations.

Understanding Differences
Ali considers there is a need to understand more about the differences in ways of working. This will allow all her teams to become more aware of each others working methods, helping to improve the integration of the two organisations. Ali discusses this aspect during the next meeting and the team managers agree the need to improve the way the new organisation works and the need to resolve differences between the groups.

Ali also realises that there is a need to permanently resolve these differences. Otherwise they will keep effecting the way the new organisation works, as well as disrupting Ali’s project. Ali considers that the only way to do this fairly is to systematically investigate the differences that are currently appearing in her project, as well as possible future differences. Once the extent of the differences is known, Ali can find the most suitable solution to resolve them.

After making a few enquiries, Ali selects a systematic approach, which can identify the most significant differences and their impact, Spectra Analysis from Migrators Consulting (Ref 1). Spectra Analysis provides a 5 step framework to identify and resolve any differences. The principle steps from the framework are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2.                Spectra Analysis

Spectra Analysis Steps

Objective

Data Gathering

Obtain data on the participants management styles and ways of working.
Identify acceptable ways of working for each participant.

Populate Spectra Charts

Provide a visual indication of similarities and differences in organisation cultures.
Identify extent of similarities and differences in working methods of participants.

Resolve Initial Issues

Obtain early agreement on the most appropriate procedures that can be used.
Agree approaches to mitigating remaining areas of differences.

Communicate

Ensure that all participants are aware of any potential differences.
Publicise agreed procedures and mitigation methods.

Monitoring & Report

Provide checks to ensure that procedures and mitigation methods are working.
Provide exception reports relating to areas with continuing difficulties.

After receiving some initial coaching, Ali and her team starts to apply the Spectra Analysis framework to the project and the organisation.

During the Data Gathering step, Ali obtains a variety of information from the different teams. This is used to identify the views of each part of the new organisation regarding a number of areas, or perspectives, relating to work and management. The results are then plotted on Spectra Charts. 

The results revealed the extent of similarities and differences in the way the various teams within the new organisation worked. Where the plotting resulted in similar cells being populated, Ali realises there will probably be no significant differences in the working methods of the new organisation. However, where the plotting results in a separation of 2 or more cells, Ali suspects that there will be significant differences in the working methods of the teams within the new organisation. If the cell separations are constantly far apart, Ali knows that the working practices within the new organisation, will probably need to be re-evaluated.

Working Together
Looking at the Spectra Analysis results and the associated data, Ali realises that she may not have the best approach in some of the perspectives. For these perspectives, Ali resolves to change her own management approach, enabling it to become more flexible and tolerant. Ali also discuss the differences in the cell plots with the other team managers. They agree to consider how they can adapt their own team management and work approaches.

The project team agrees that culture issues, related to the new organisation, should be included in progress reports, and discussed at review meetings. The team also agrees that culture issues should be included on the risk log and the change management process.  The issues, and ways of resolving them, will also be included in the team briefings. All of which will ensure that any differences in working between the teams within the new organisation can be highlighted early, and methods to resolve the issues put in place quickly

The team managers also suggest that the issues should be raised to the senior management of the new organisation and included in their progress reports. This will allow all parts of the new organisation to be aware of the situation, helping to reduce conflict in other areas.

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