M&A Change Management

Change management in M&A is the process acquirers follow to orient employees, manage their expectations, and achieve their buy in.

Employees adapt more quickly to changes if they are informed about the new rules of the game, what their roles will be in the merged company, what's expected of them, and how they will be measured and rewarded.

This section of the web site features presentations, plans, and articles to help organizations reduce resistance to change and plan successful changes during M&A integrations.

Managing Resistance in M&A

Change Management M&A Plans

Change Management M&A Best Practices

Managing Resistance in M&A

Change Management in Mergers & Acquisitions: 10 Steps on How to Overcome Resistance in M&A

The 10 Change Management Steps in Mergers & Acquisitions

1. EXPLAIN THE REASONS FOR THE CHANGE.

Usually the best steps in dealing with problems are the preventive ones.

Perhaps the most effective way to minimize resistance is to make sure people in the organization have a good understanding of the rationale for the changes ...
How Much Resistance to Change is Normal?

How Much Resistance to Change is Normal?

What sort of push-back is predictable in an M&A integration?  How much resistance is “reasonable”?

If you have a reliable frame of reference, you can put things into perspective.  Knowing what’s “normal,” you’ll have a better feel for how you should react to the particular situation facing you.  So let’s look at the typical scenario.

We’re dealing in generalities here, but the breakout usually goes about like this.

Some 20 percent of the people in the acquired company are “merger-friendly.”  They’re clear advocates who willingly embrace the combination.  You can depend on them to help drive the program.  Another 50 percent of the folks sit on the fence.  They assume a so-called neutral position, trying to figure out which way to lean.  They’re not necessarily hostile to the merger, but they’re not helping like they should.  The remaining 30 percent are the resisters.  They’re …
 

Change Management M&A Plans

Change Management Plan for M&A Integration

Change Management Plan for M&A Integration

Content

Change Management Plan Overview
Change Management Team Adds Value in Eight Areas
Change Management Plan
Change Management Team Mission
Deliverables
Interdependencies / Coordination Required
Hot Topics / Urgent Issues to Be Solved
A Systems Model of Change
HR Day 1 Plan
Key Decisions List for New Division
M&A Change Management Plan

M&A Change Management Plan

Content

  • Change Management Priorities - Integration
  • Integration Change Management Timeline
  • Governance
  • Culture
  • HQ Move
  • Communication
  • Change Management Priorities - Integration
  • Vision, Operating Framework and Leadership Alignment
  • Communication and Feedback Loops
  • Staffing
  • Transition Management
change management post merger integration plan

Change Management Post Merger Integration Plan

Mission

  • Develop a comprehensive change management plan that identifies what is changing and what is not as a result of the merger 
  • Design and deploy mechanisms to help employees understand the required changes and take personal responsibility for successfully implementing them
  • Prioritize activities in the change management plan by creating HR Plans for Day 1, first 100 days, first six months, and first year post-close …

Change Management M&A Best Practices

Push Through The Yield Point

Push Through The Yield Point

Opposition surfaces as soon as the integration process gets underway. Resistance starts to climb. You push to change the organization, and it starts pushing back ...
Something Has To Go

Something Has To Go

Jobs seem to grow more complicated every year.

Employees are expected to carry a heavier workload, meet higher quality standards, and pick up speed at the same time. It’s a foolproof formula for stress.

Since organizations are under so much pressure from changes in the outside world, though, we can’t look forward to any letup. More work keeps landing on fewer shoulders. Customer expectations keep going up. And ever stiffer competition means we have to move faster and faster just to keep up.

Nevertheless, there are limits to the workload we can carry. Trying harder and harder can only take us so far.

If we keep taking on new duties without giving others up, we’ll eventually hit overload. This means we should ...
Makes No Sense Thumbnail

Makes No Sense But It Happens All The Time

Picture this: An organization asks people to change, then rewards them better if they stay the same.

Makes no sense whatsoever, but it happens all the time. Basically it comes down to this—people get paid to resist.

This is the absurd situation that develops when we ask people to change their behavior, but fail to make it worth their while. They usually decide to keep doing the same old things instead. And why not? It’s probably easier. Maybe it seems less risky. But most important, it offers a better payoff than changing does.

Think about it. People often stand to lose somehow in the change process. Work gets harder, at least for a while. There’s more job stress. Overall, the personal costs seem rather high. If resisting change doesn’t cause them problems, then why worry about changing? Hanging on to old habits makes pretty good sense, so long as the old reward system stays in place.

You must give people eye-catching reasons ...
Exploit Instability

Ride the Waves: You Can't Avoid the Rough Water

During the early months of merger integration, about the best you can do is manage the blur—ride the waves, so to speak, instead of trying to be boss of the ocean. You can’t avoid the rough water, so you might as well make the most of it …