The build-up has been combative, the history competitive and the future contentious, and what’s more, the life or death of the merger or acquisition deal could be down to a junior’s opening remark - to somebody on the same side.
When companies collide the big challenge can be culture merger - between firm and advisers. That first meeting between workaday internal team and external advisers can generate difficulties right from the start if the chemistry isn’t right, said Bridget Biggar, Maidenhead-based UK MD of Life Orientations Limited, one of the world’s most established staff and management testing and assessment organisations.
Imagine what problems will ensue if those same-side difficulties are in play when they meet with the combined internal/external team from the ’other side’. They’ll get eaten alive - and the value of a deal can be undermined in a flash.
The answer is short-circuiting - a management practice adopted by American and Japanese businesses, but now beginning to be used by UK and European companies. Basically, when same-side teams involved with a merger come together they need to be a single team from the outset - and looks may deceive.
The mind’s eye vision of a done-deal is of a high-level handshake - the reality is an assembling of legions of detail-doing in-house clerical and admin staff, and lawyers, accountants and bankers on each side, said Bridget Biggar.
The figureheads nail the principle, then the merger teams move in. But the big wigs sometimes lose sight of the fact that those left to tackle the detail can delay or even trash the deal because of severe chemistry clashes - on the same side.
The people at the top of the organisations involved can pretty well present themselves any way they want - their reputations and abilities utterly override their quirks. But you don’t have to go very far down the management ladder - virtually anybody outside the boardroom - and you’re going to find people who, for whatever reason, want to score points against their colleagues or advisers.
It sounds petty and twee, but there’s never a second chance to make a first impression, and if the two same-side teams meet and somebody cracks a shaky joke or is a point-scoring kind then there’s a danger that credibility is lost - and that could be a deal killer when that somebody who’s had a bad start has something crucial to say, she added.
This is where short-circuiting comes in. Instead of assembling and going straight into tackling the deal or the merger, short-circuiting gets the two same-side teams together with somebody who might otherwise be used by a company to test, assess and develop, say, an internal sales or department team.
The two groups are treated as a single team from the start. They aren’t bunged in a room together with the books and told to get on with it. They are assessed, their strengths, weaknesses and personality and behaviour types are identified.
Within half an hour, an accurate foundation of understanding is in place, interaction starts for real, the chemistry happens and the team starts to gel itself together - instead of finding out too late that there are massive same-side culture and personality clashes because people have been showing-off or shy.
Astonishing as it may sound, but the first half hour interaction, sharing information and with everyone understanding each other from knowledge - there’s no room for inefficient, emotional, haphazard ’relationship-building’ here - builds a bullet-proof platform.
Don’t dance around, cut through the crap. People will be saying ’this is how I am, this is how I like to do things’ and they’ll be hearing ’ yep, I hear where you’re coming from’. There’s no room for ambiguity and everybody understands each other with utter clarity because the testing and assessment has identified genuine personality and behaviour traits. That means when people open their mouths it’s truth not bullshit that showers the room.
A common language and a common understanding is established - and a united and professional front presented to ’the other side’ right from the start.
Whereas the vast majority of psychometric testing programmes identify traits, skills, shortfalls or strengths amongst the workforce, the success of LIFO has been built on providing an ongoing development path once the strengths or weaknesses of an organisation’s key people have been identified.
We can do nothing to change our base DNA - which could be psychopath or procrastinator - but we can do a good deal to assess and recognise capabilities, and identify and drive different behaviour strategies. LIFO sits on top of the personality and shows what can be achieved by changing someone’s behaviour.
Merger mayhem: same-side spats short-circuited
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