10 Key Guidelines for Post-Merger Integration Teams

Protect confidentiality

• You’ve heard it before…but it’s worth repeating
• Don’t leave confidential documents in meeting rooms, on copiers, or open on your desk
• Be extremely careful about forwarding emails
   

Respect each other and the process

• Realize that there are different “realities” and respect different perspectives
• Follow a well-defined integration process
• Stay on schedule
   

Manage expectations. . . yours and others

• Be realistic about the challenge
• Delegate to your direct reports
• Encourage ruthless prioritization
   

Adopt and go

• Understand how you do it and how they do it
• Don’t waste time arguing about whose way is the best way
• Pick a way that will be least disruptive… and go!
   

Don’t roll over and play dead

• Your ideas matter
• Surface genuinely important issues
• Pick your battles carefully
   

Add positive energy to the process

• Transition is all about energy management
• When your energy is depleted, you’re responsible for replenishing it
• Without energy, the transition process grinds to a halt
   

Learn to survive in no-man’s land

• You won’t fit well in either the present or the future
• The old way won’t feel right, but the new way won’t work yet
• Find ways to stay connected
   

Act like a consultant

• Get on the balcony to look at issues
• Don’t take positions; discuss interests
   

Consider the experience a “learning laboratory”

• Consciously select areas where you want to personally develop as you go through this experience
• Without specific goals you’ll just survive, not thrive
• There’s a lot of permission to “experiment” with new skills
   

Understand the journey

• Psychological shockwaves
• Three phases of transition
• Staggered experiences