Dealing with Merging Methods of Work: The “My Way or the Highway” Mentality

Increasingly organizations, whether “for profit” or “not for profit,” are entering into mergers, alliances and ventures or are forced into consolidation by hostile takeover by other organizations. The earthquake of bringing together of wide varieties of technologies, methods, processes, cultures, facilities and intellectual properties creates wide and dangerous chasms. If these chasms are not negotiated carefully and bridges built to cross them, the danger of companies plunging into the pit of Chapter 11, and ultimately complete demise, is very real.
While technology, methods, and processes are usually the impetus for companies joining forces, they are generally worthless without people to create, develop and implement. It is often the tendency for organizations to focus on the technical side and short-term issues first and to disregard the human side and the larger picture. During the course of a merger, the inconsistencies i...