In our strategic alignment engagements, we work with our client on:

• Envisioning a compelling future state
• Developing 3-5-year strategic focus areas
• Identifying 12-month lines of effort, targets and actionable milestones
• Retiring old ways of operating and aligning on new operating principles
  to ensure success
• Communicating with and managing key stakeholder groups and relationships
• Building an accountability structure for fulfillment

Our engagements often include an initial 2-3-day strategy creation session, followed by monthly or quarterly implementation support, 1-2 breakdown and breakthrough consultations, and monthly coaching for the leaders.

In our cultural alignment engagements, we work with our client to:

• Reveal hidden contexts, default principles and habitual ways of operating
• Complete one Era of the organization and move into the next
• Identify what is needed in the future
• Develop new communication structures
• Commit to new, productive ways of being and acting

To sustain the shift, we provide implementation sessions throughout the year that create accountability to integrate and sustain commitments into every day work.

We are often called upon to support organizations that are experiencing challenges during the 6-12 months following a merger or acquisition. While most consultants and change-management experts provide sufficient support to our clients with their technological, fiscal, legal, and structural changes, we find that attention to the psychological transition of the human performers is lacking.

When the psychological impact of the transition is not attended to through a major circumstantial change, we often find cultural tension, performance drops, turnover, and an abundance of fear, frustration, anger, confusion, or apathy.

In the post-M&A environment, specifically, we tend to see tensions between colleagues of the two legacy companies, tensions between department and corporate offices, and often other dividing lines develop. In some cases, the number of colleagues from the two legacy companies is so lopsided, that even the acquiring company can feel “taken over” by the acquired company.

While we have a particular expertise in “turning the ship around,” we can also design solutions to support the change and mitigate some of the psychological transition struggles if we are able to “get ahead” of the wave by partnering with our clients on the front end.

Each M&A situation requires a distinct approach to bring the two companies together and into alignment with corporate vision, strategy, and operations. We customize our methodology to suit the situation.