The Merger & Acquisition Leader's Playbook

CHAPTER 23Change Management: Leading Through the Point of Inflection

The second component of the change management playbook gets at change management itself—after you've got your integration leadership in place.

At a high level, once those working for you have had their “What about me?” question answered, pivot to inspiring, enabling, and empowering them.

In change management A × B × C > D, in which

A: platform for change/reason for change

B: envision self in a brighter future/goals

C: call to action so they can be part of solution

D: inertia

Note the math on this. If you leave out any of the platform for change, vision, or call to action, you're left with zero chance of overcoming inertia.

Platform for Change

The platform for change is generally an external situational change or change in ambition. These get at why the changes need to be made. Note, using the merger or acquisition itself as the platform for change is a cop-out. Get at the external situational change or ambition change that led to the merger or acquisition. That's the platform for change.

The external piece is important. People respond better to being asked to change in response to a change in the world than they do to being told that something about themselves needs to change.

Picture of Success

Next, you need a picture of success in which others can envision themselves. The word is envision, not vision ...