Guidelines for Integration Teams

  1. 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
       

  2. 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
       

  3. Manage expectations. . . yours and others

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

  4. 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!
       

  5. Don’t roll over and play dead

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

  6. 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
       

  7. 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
       

  8. Act like a consultant

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

  9. 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
       

  10. Understand the journey

    • Psychological shockwaves
    • Three phases of transition
    • Staggered experiences

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