The Merger & Acquisition Leader's Playbook

CHAPTER 21Politics: What Current and New Leaders Need to Know Organizationally and Personally

The fifth component of the organizational playbook is politics. Can we talk about politics? Do we have to talk about politics? Politics is inevitable in any organization of more than one person. Even if you'd like to pretend your organization is politics-free, it isn't. Even if you'd like to ignore the politics and get on with the real work, you can't. On the other hand, those who make playing politics their first priority often fail to get beyond it.

To be fair, some try to avoid the politics and the hard decisions.

Two companies merged in Japan. For all to save face, they agreed that the president of one of the companies would be the first president of the combined organization. When he retired, the president of the other company would take over. Then, each successive leader would alternate between the two companies.

And that's what they did.

For 30 years.

After 30 years, all the people who had previously worked for either one of the original companies had finally left or retired and they finally got to pick a president who thought he worked for the combined company.

And sometimes people don't even talk.

One combining company merged departments by putting them on the same floor—but kept all the old work groups together on opposite sides of the floor. You'd get off the elevator and ...