cameron and green making-sense-of-change-management

The applications• Stick to company policy and processes. Do not take short-cuts as theyare likely to backfire on you.• Do not dither. This will cause resentment.• Treat employees at every level with dignity.Managing the organizationIt is important to select and agree a change process that matches the challengesposed by the specific merger and acquisition. If the most importantchallenge is to achieve cost-cutting goals, then project management techniquescan be applied and the changes made swiftly. This may mean theuse of a task force to make recommendations, and the agreement of alinear process for delivering the cost-cutting goals. However, if the mostimportant challenges are integration issues or cultural issues, then theideas of both Bridges and Senge are relevant. Attention must be paid tomanaging endings, transitions and beginnings for specific teams involvedin significant processes. Other teams may remain untouched.We have used the Kotter model, introduced in Chapter 3, to illustratethe steps from initial news of the deal to full integration. This model isuseful because it combines a range of different assumptions aboutchange, so tackles the widest range of possible challenges.1. Establish a sense of urgency. This is a tough balancing act for management.They must start to raise the issues that have led to the merger oracquisition without revealing the deal itself. For instance if thecompany is currently in a dwindling marketplace, then managersshould highlight the need to do something about this, without necessarilyrevealing any intentions to buy or to merge. People will be suspiciousand resentful of a deal that does not make any sense. ‘Why arewe diversifying now? I thought the plan was to buy the competition!’2. Form a powerful guiding coalition. Managers of both companiesneed to begin working together as soon as they can. They need tospend time together and build a bit of trust. When the deal isannounced, managers will then be able to work together at speed.3. Create a new vision. A top-level vision for the new company must bebuilt by the new top management team. This vision will be used to250