Morgan Stanley and E*Trade. Bristol-Myers Squibb and Celgen. United Technologies and Raytheon. Regardless of investor reaction, mergers and acquisitions this big undoubtedly strike fear in the hearts of employees. And people have only so much focus and energy—when they’re in survival mode, they aren’t that great at their jobs. So what are responsible industry titans to do? We have some tips.

Start talking now.

It’s natural to want to delay messaging until there is perfect alignment and all facts are in order. But if you don’t communicate, you create a vacuum, and you know how nature feels about that. The space where your message should be will be overrun by rumors and falsehoods. So before the deal is done, start getting leadership aligned on a message. Start cascading it through both organizations as soon as possible. Research shows that during uncertain times, employees crave trust, stability, confidence, and empathy in their leaders. A consistent, compelling message is what they need.

Address the culture clash.

Too often leaders ignore company culture, both before the deal is signed and throughout the integration. We know that a single culture is difficult to shift. Combining the cultures of two organizations is double trouble.

The first step is to know you have a culture. We suggest using the PRIDE method. Assessments will create detailed pictures of both company cultures. Then, take a look at all plans through the culture goggles of each company’s employees. What works for one might not work for the other.

For example, let’s say the company you’re acquiring has an “everyman” culture. Maybe they are used to all-hands meetings to socialize every change. So do that. Find out which big changes went well for the company, and liken the acquisition to that experience, creating a feeling of familiarity and safety. And pay attention to words and symbols; for this organization you might do well with high-touch images and talk of family and community.

Accept resistance.

The bigger the change, the more hecklers you’ll have, and a merger is as big as it gets. So how do you confront the critics? You don’t. Focus your energy on the “sweet spot”—those employees who are open to change and who can influence your outcomes. Enlist them as project advocates. These grass-roots change agents can create momentum toward a successful merger.

In the very best of Ms and As, there are rough seas to navigate. You can ride the waves more easily by mastering communication, culture, and resistance.

In the nineties, Accenture struggled to keep women in executive positions. One theory was that women who left the firm did so to devote their time to parenting. But when they did the research, they found women were leaving to take equally demanding jobs. So, if it wasn’t the pull of family, why did women leave? Looking closer at the dwindling female talent pool, they saw something swirling beneath the surface: moments of incivility.

Here’s one way it showed up. Accenture’s informal mentoring focused on navigating office politics – whom to align with to represent you for promotions, and how to manage what others thought of you. One bit of advice was to make sure you were “heard.”

Being heard was a challenge at Accenture. During meetings, it was common to interrupt the speaker. Women found that others, including women, spoke over each other – verbally jostling to hold the floor. In fact, to avoid being spoken over in meetings, one very powerful and petite executive developed a strategy: she stood and up and circled the room while making her point. It worked, and she encouraged other women to do the same.

At many companies, incivility shows up as “throwing people under the bus.”

Recently, a friend of mine stumbled upon her direct supervisor and their Vice President deriding the quality of her work. When my friend brought it up, the supervisor invited her to drinks, begged her not to quit, and said it was a “misunderstanding” and “wasn’t personal.”

How about piñata-style management? This is when a manager believes that if they batter their people, good things might fall out. Another friend recently worked with an executive who sat back in every meeting, waiting to take a swing when the moment was right. Sometimes she yelled; sometimes she was snarky. She was known for asking questions out of left field simply to throw a person off. Yes, people did perform out of fear. But they also criticized, sabotaged, and quit in equal measure.

Christine Pearson, Lynne Andersson, and Christine Porath say what sets these experiences apart from other workplace hazards is ambiguity. Their definition of incivility is “low-intensity deviate behavior with ambiguous intent to harm… (and a) violation of workplace norms for mutual respect.”

So, incivility is not only pervasive, it’s elusive. The perpetrator can credibly deny the behavior, call it a misunderstanding, or blame the tension on the weak character of the target. It’s vague, slippery, and—because people get away with it—it builds over time.

But are discomfort and unhappiness the only down sides? No. Harmful behavior spurs people to leave organizations. And, for people who stay, the sheer energy it takes to live with incivility harms productivity.

Here’s the difficult part as a leader. You probably don’t see it.

That’s because the perpetrators are often high performers who are good at managing up. And the targets often don’t want to cause trouble. If you do see it, or you have a sense that something is off, know that it’s permeating your organization. To root out incivility, a leader must look a few levels lower and use an instrument stronger than a typical employee satisfaction survey.

Fortunately, our academic friends have figured out a way to measure it concretely. See if trouble shows up when you conduct this survey by Lilia Cortina and her colleagues.

The Workplace Incivility Scale (WIS-10)*

During the past year, were you ever in a situation in which any of your supervisors or co-workers:

1: Never 2: Once or Twice 3: Sometimes 4: Often 5: Many Times

If you find your team trending toward uncivilized behavior, take the following steps:

• Label it. Uncivilized behavior happens because the perpetuator can deny it. Don’t let them. Words have power. Is someone being condescending? Call it out. Are they rolling their eyes? Tell them you see it. You will remove their ability to deny and start to create accountability.
• Define the behavior you want. It’s easy to talk about respect, but how does that look in your work environment? You might have people share, anonymously, the behavior they would like to see. Then take action — make the best suggestions part of business as usual. A number of colleagues who left 1990’s Accenture have told me they would still be there if someone had acknowledged their contribution. What a shame. If the firm had heard that feedback and translated it into an expected behavior, they might have retained those A-players.
• Don’t tolerate it. You get the culture you tolerate. When you see it, stop it in the moment. And here’s the hard part – if your repeat offender is a critical contributor and/or high performer, you must let them go. They are hindering the team’s performance even while they are convincing you to rely on them. When I have done this, I have found the team’s performance improves significantly. And I’ve had colleagues ask me, “Why didn’t you do this sooner?”

Creating a civil work place is not simple, because it requires intention and confrontation. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s well worth it. Your people will spend less time focused on office politics and more time on the performance and creative solutions you want from them.

*I’ve included two items from a version of this tool from 2001, Cortina, Magley, Williams and Langhout.

There is an increasing number of articles and blogs about influencers: marketing, social media, and Instagram influencers to name a few. Emerson is a company that specializes in behavior change. So we understand the importance of partnering with these individuals, especially ones focused on change.

To make change happen, you must enlist influencers in the organization. Identify individuals who give the right energy for change. Then, use them as change advocates to create momentum and move the organization.

Methods to find change influencers

Brainstorm with key people. Find those who know the organization and understand the change.

Use visuals. Create a map of the organization’s people and departments. Identify potential influencers. Are there any individuals you definitely want on board? Are all impacted groups represented?

Look at previous initiatives. Who was involved? How did it go? Any lessons learned?

After following these methods, you should have insights into who the right people are are within the organization.

How to use change influencers

Once you have identified those individuals in the organization, have them actively participate in developing the change solution. Influencers can help craft a solution that actually works in their setting. They will have great insight into the organization and can provide ideas on how to engage impacted groups.

On a recent large transformation project, the Emerson team built a cadre of change influencers. This group represented all functional areas, at various levels and locations. They participated in a strategy workshop to provide input into the change plan. Afterward, the team had a shared vision and consistent messaging to share with their teams.

Once influencers have a shared understanding of the desired state, they can become change advocates and generate momentum. Simply stated – these individuals make change happen.

If you’re curious about how project sponsors can influence the success of change, we’ve got you covered. Read this.

Your Silence Speaks Volumes

Let’s say you’re a C-suite executive and a new CEO is on the way. You’re a strong performer, and the numbers support it. Still, you might feel really nervous—does this upcoming change affect your position within the company? Are you in danger? In our opinion, yes, you are.

You might be thinking of horror stories like Bed, Bath, and Beyond. After only weeks on the job, new CEO Mark Tritton fired all but one of his C-suite.

While this scenario is farm from the norm, it is common for a new CEO to take a hard look at the team she inherits. She needs to prove her worth, quickly, or she’ll be the one on the way out. Studies show that this is especially true when CEOs come from outside the company, which can double involuntary departures.

So if you’re a top exec with a new CEO – or, for that matter, anyone with a new boss — what can you do to survive?

Harvard Business Review studied CEO changes of over 1000 companies and interviewed a number of new CEOs. Their accounts support something we tell our clients:

Not communicating IS communicating.

There are many reasons people fail to communicate.

• You don’t yet have what you think you need – the information, or a firm decision to convey.
• You feel like the evidence speaks for itself, and you don’t need to add anything.
• You’re not ready for questions, because you don’t have firm plans. Maybe you feel like so much is going to change in the near future that your plans might be moot.
• You think someone else is better suited to deliver the message. It’s not your strength, or it’s not your place.

Whatever your reason, it’s not good enough. Because people will hear something, even if you’re not speaking. When they have gaps in their understanding, they WILL fill those gaps in some way. All you’re doing, through your silence, is giving up control over what they will think.

So what does this mean for you, if you have a new leader? Say something.

Communicate, even if you feel it’s unnecessary.

The HBR interviews revealed what you’re really saying when you stay silent.

• Early impressions are important, but they aren’t based on the information you might think. New CEOs won’t ask their predecessor about you. And even when they get input from valid sources, they don’t place much stock in it. They want to make up their own minds. One big mistake: not enough face time, to help them form the impression. CEOs told HBR of a variety of ways their executives missed opportunities to fill in the blanks, from ill-timed vacations to over-focus on customer relationships. Face time is critical when the new boss is forming impressions.

What you’re saying with your silence: “I won’t be there for you when you need me.”

• One CEO told HBR, “Virtually no one came to see me to ask how they could help.”CEOs are in a naturally hostile environment. They’re in survival mode, trying to quickly figure out who’s with them and who’s against them. CEOs told HBR that they did not equate lack of disagreement with support. In fact, without strong, clear agreement, the CEOs draw their own conclusions: you’re not on the same page. CEOs reported firing executives because of misaligned priorities, even though those executives had never once announced their opposition.

What you’re saying with your silence:  “I don’t agree with you and I won’t support you.”

• New CEOs who deliver positive outcomes for their organizations in the first year tend to keep their jobs; CEOs who don’t tend to get fired. So it’s essential that the new CEO delivers on their first-year agenda. They say executives should actively confirm that they understand and support the plans of the new boss. And, beyond simple agreement, it makes sense to clarify what the CEO is doing and what you, specifically, can do to support those outcomes.

What you’re saying with your silence:  “I won’t help you succeed.”

• It’s hard to fault an executive for painting a bright picture of their function or division to the new CEO. But resist that temptation; it will backfire. As one CEO said “I don’t have time to sort out trust issues. If you don’t show me the negatives, I suspect that either you don’t know them or that you will try to hide things from me.”

What you’re saying with your silence: “You can’t trust me.”

• CEOs have enough challenges without trying to twist their style to fit their new team. So, of course, they want executives to match their style. You can do that the hard way – many months of observation, trial, and error – or you can do it the easy way. Ask them. One new CEO had a direct-report who others assumed would be fired, but “He…asked how I wanted him to disagree with me. What kind of facts cause me to change my mind — stories from the front line or statistics? Could he disagree in public or only in private? Once he had made his case and failed to convince me, should he try again or just accept that the decision was made? How did I feel about his subordinates or peers knowing he disagreed with something?” His direct and thoughtful conversation literally saved his job and set him up for long-term success with his new boss.
  What you’re saying with your silence:  “I won’t make this any easier.”

We often tell our clients that saying nothing tells employees, ”We don’t know” or “We don’t care.” Or both. That’s the very last thing you want your new boss to think. Say something.

1. Source: https://www.challengergray.com/blog/ceo-exits-hit-119-in-march-2022-q1-exits-up-29-over-same-period-last-year/
2. Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/17/business/bed-bath-beyond-ceo-mark-tritton/index.html
3. Source: https://hbr.org/2007/05/surviving-your-new-ceo

“Create the conditions for fun!”

These are the words of our CEO, Trish Emerson. Our leader. Our founder. And she is all in.

The Emerson team is just coming off our first in-person company meeting in three years. It was fun – true fun. It wasn’t overly structured. We didn’t do a ropes course to build trust. We had ourselves, shared space, and shared time. Just like our weekly All Hands meetings, our in-person time was a mix of acknowledgements, celebrations, strategic updates, storytelling, and laughter. Lots of laughter.

Our in-person meeting came on the heels of our latest book group discussion. As a team, we read The Power of Fun, by Catherine Price; the book was a gift to each of us from Trish. Trish recognized that, after the last few years, we all need to focus on lighter things.

Price leads us to reflect on times of the truest, realest fun in our lives. From those moments, we can mine our own Fun Magnets.

Fun Magnets are the ways (activities, people and settings) we create the conditions for Real Fun.

Don’t get me wrong—this book isn’t meant to be comic relief. Instead it is straight talk about the differences between Fake Fun and Real Fun. She defines Real Fun as “the confluence of playfulness, connection, and flow.”

Let’s check our company meeting for Real Fun:

• Flow is “being fully engaged in your present moment that you lose track of the passage of time.” Check! Time flew by. As our group dinners went past my bedtime, I didn’t even notice. I didn’t check my watch (or my phone) once. I was fully present.
• Connection is “the feeling of a special, shared experience with someone else.” We definitely had that. For some, it was the joy of reunion; for others, it was our first face-to-face meeting with colleagues we had only known virtually. We were so grateful to share the day in person.
• Playfulness is “a spirit of lightheartedness and freedom.” We certainly had that. Even the strategic updates included creative, whimsical visuals and games.

I loved reading Price’s support for fun, and recognizing it in my own organization. It is an unspoken, but very important part of who we are—individually, and collectively. It’s why I feel I can bring my real self to work! And it’s something clients ask us to help them build into their culture. But no matter the project, we do meaningful work with people we love—which creates conditions for fun.

Does a big change have to slow you down?

How many times have you read recently that companies are in the throes of unprecedented change? We’re all tired of hearing it, but it’s true. On top of all the organic changes we face – the need for new strategy, systems, skills, and structures – the pandemic has added a layer of fundamental change.

For example, nearly every organization has had to reconsider where and how its employees work. And it’s no wonder – a large portion of the work force likes working remotely, and over half of employees would consider quitting rather than returning to the office before they feel safe.

Just when we think we’ve considered all possibilities, we see new changes on the horizon. California, for example, is considering making a 32-hour work week the law.

Business leaders need to land on a model that works for them and then help employees make the shift. No matter what leaders decide, it amounts to another wave of change.

Which leads me to change management – helping your business survive and thrive through multiple change initiatives. Approaching big change fills many leaders with resignation that, at a minimum, the organization is in for a bumpy ride.

Why? Because there is always a drop in performance after a change event.

But there isn’t. And there shouldn’t. It’s a pervasive myth. The fact that we expect one creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Our mindset is powerful, and it can work against us. Remember the four-minute mile? It was assumed to be an absolute limit of human performance, until Roger Bannister broke it. He broke it because he did the hard work of preparation, and because he believed he could. And after he believed, other elite runners followed. Not because they were suddenly physically stronger, but because they saw it was possible. Roger Bannister had taken the teeth out of 4:00.

Steady (or improving) performance through a change event is no less possible than a sub-four-minute mile.

Setting the expectation that there will be a drop in performance is giving your power away, just as those runners used to. It’s creating a haven for sloppy change interventions.

Drops in performance don’t have to happen. They happen when we have not:

• Clearly defined the performance required after the event. In other words, we have not described the specific actions each person must perform differently on Monday morning.
• Mapped the before and after, from each individual’s point of view. For example, where are the resources people used to depend on? What new resources are in their places?
• Let people practice the skills needed for these new actions. We haven’t let them try, fail, use the new tools and resources, and find a way to succeed.
• Convinced our people that they need to perform these new actions – that the change is vital to the organization and there’s nowhere to go but forward.
• Allowed them to demonstrate their own success, so they won’t be afraid to go all in.

Anything new here? Nope. But here’s the issue: we have spent our days believing in the performance drop, and working to minimize it. What if our change planning made the drop unacceptable? What if the metrics we talk about, but never measure, included an immediate timeframe to adoption: start-to-success within three months?

These steps take significant effort and attention to detail. They require steely commitment. I suspect we’re afraid to step up to the task. And we’re afraid to demand the same of the sponsor whose neck is on the line for delivery.

We’re afraid because we’re looking down. We expect hard times, lower performance, and lots of confusion and adjustment after the change. So our sponsors and our people hesitate.

What if, instead of asking them to weather the dip, we ask them to move upward and only upward? What if we tell them that, after all that ground work (in the bullets above), we’ll be stepping UP, not down?

When an executive has gone to the board for a transformational change, make sure they know how to lead the team in this way. Their careers hang in the balance. Give them the option to support you in doing the right work so your organization steps up — only up — to new levels of success.

What’s best for your organization?

The post-pandemic work model is still being defined. Some organizations have decided to allow their employees to work remotely, indefinitely. Others are implementing a hybrid approach. Some remain in a “wait and see” mode.

Obviously, this is not a “one size fits all” situation. Each organization is weighing its options.

Normal wasn’t working. We must not think of it in terms of pushing a button and going back to the way things were.  — John Kerry

If your organization is still on the fence, consider the questions below. They might help you choose the best solution for your organization.

Part 1: What do our people think?

• How do our employees feel about how they’ve been working?
• What is their ideal work setting?
• Have we asked them?
• How can we engage employees in examining the options and choosing a solution?
• How will we communicate and implement a work model change?

Part 2: What are the possibilities?

• Does the work environment have to be one way or another?
• Have we considered all options?
• Can we let departments, functions, teams, or individuals decide what works best for them?

Part 3: How does remote work serve us?

• What are the benefits for continuing to work remotely?
• What’s the down side? What’s been missing since we’ve gone remote?
• What are the business outcomes of remote work?
• Are customers impacted by remote work?
• How do our shareholders view remote work?
• Have we enabled our people to be successful in a remote setting?
• How do we ensure teamwork if we’re remote?
• How is our culture impacted if we don’t work with each other in the office?
• What tools, infrastructure, and support enable employees to flourish in a remote environment?
• What did we learn about remote work during the last two years?
• Did we make assumptions that our people know how to work remotely?
• Are there certain employee behaviors and skills that enable successful remote work?
• Will our recruiting and development change based on new skills or behaviors?

Part 4: Should we return to the office?

• What are the benefits of working in the office?
• What is the downside of in-person work?
• What are the business outcomes?
• How do we ensure we don’t lose those people who would prefer to work remotely? How can we incentivize them?
• If we decide to return to the office, are there certain business events that might drive our timing?
• If we return to the office, do we have proper safety protocols in place?
• Do we have healthcare professionals on-site? Do we have enough healthcare professionals on-site?

Part 5: Could a hybrid model work for us?

• What are the benefits of working in a hybrid model?
• What is the downside of a hybrid model?
• What are the business outcomes?
• What does a hybrid work environment look like?
• Does hybrid mean certain roles work from the office and others work remotely? If so, how will we determine which roles should work from the office?
• Does hybrid mean certain activities happen in the office and other activities happen remotely? If so, how do we make those decisions?

Wherever these questions lead your organization, grant your leadership and your employees some patience during these uncharted times. Have faith that, together, you will find the model that works for you.

Use this four-part agenda to launch and support a strong, focused team.

We talk about the need to both perform and transform. If you only transform but don’t perform, you have no here and now. If you only perform but don’t transform, you have no future. — Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips Electronics

A few years ago, a friend began a company turnaround. His first task: tell his executive team they would not receive bonuses due to missed goals, despite growing revenue and EBITDA.

The team had never met face-to-face. Some had been through three management changes; others were new hires. This is a surprisingly common problem. As Jon R. Katzenbach writes, “Even in the best of companies, a so-called top team seldom functions as a real team. The fact is, a team’s know-how and experience inevitably lose power and focus at the top of the corporate hierarchy. And simply labeling the leadership group a team does not make it one.”

My friend was up against this daunting challenge. He couldn’t afford to build a new team from scratch, so he asked for our help to build his team as they were running the company. They needed both performance, in the moment, and transformation to their vision for the future.

In preparation for our working sessions, we agreed on the following principle:

High impact teams result from meaningful work, not team-building exercises.

We met in a series of four meetings. Over the following two years, this team increased sales 50% and EBITDA 300%.

Meeting 1 Outcomes – Strategy and Working Agreements

The CEO had an overall vision for the turnaround. The team, shell-shocked from bad news, needed to hear it. Because they needed to jell quickly, we wanted them to explicitly agree on how they would work together.

At the first meeting, we:

• Defined the culture they wanted.
• Described the strategy using four key words and personal stories.
• Determined specific actions for the next 180 days.
• Agreed on how to work together.

Meeting 2 Outcomes — Momentum, Working Styles, and Profit

In the first 180 days, the team agreed on a new budget, met five new distributors, introduced three products, and hit their targets.

In this second meeting, we:

• Celebrated a successful quarter.
• Identified their preferred working styles and examined ways to adapt to their colleagues’ styles.
• Explored how to work with existing assets to increase profitability.

Meeting 3 Outcomes: A Visual Vision

People crave meaning. The most successful companies are clear on what they stand for, and why. Now that the team had worked together for a while, they were ready to clearly articulate their direction.

Here, we summarized their:

• Core Values – what they stand for
• Core Purpose – what they exist to do
• Aspirations – what they want to be
• Visual Vision – what the future looks like, in hindsight

Meeting 4 Outcomes: Focus, Goals, and Connection

The team was winning, clearly focused on a differentiator, and they had resolved factory capacity to increase profits. The CEO wanted them to sustain progress into the new year, create long term impact, and strengthen their connections as a high-functioning team.

So we:

• Examined how they accomplished what they did, and how to sustain it.
• Created steps to achieve their personal goals with the differentiator.
• Applied strategies to stay focused.

The CEO had inherited this collection of executives. Using a thoughtful structure, we created an experience that turned them into a team.

Behavior science can overcome resistance.

By Paul Mastrangelo, Emerson ReadyStaff

May you live in interesting times. Although the phrase is NOT really a Chinese curse, it remains an appropriate quip for the decade so far. Organizations faced with constant external pressures need to enlist employees to change, so the organization survives and thrives.

Change models show us that individuals change their behavior when the perceived cons of changing are less than perceived cons of staying the same. The Gleicher Formula (D x V x F > R), says that Dissatisfaction with the status quo, Vision of an alternative, and First steps toward that end will overcome Resistance to change.

Similarly, Edgar Schein explains change as spurred by the imbalance between Learning Anxiety and Survival Anxiety – the fear and personal cost of learning something new versus the fear and personal costs of staying the same. Schein, however, observed that tipping the scales by increasing fear of staying the same is NOT effective.

Instead, the key to influencing individuals is to decrease the fear of the new.

Note how many recent behaviors bear this out.

• 25% of the US population resist getting vaccinated for COVID 19. Why? They are being told that remaining unvaccinated is a threat to survival, but they rationalize that the vast majority of COVID cases are like a bad case of the flu, which is far less scary than a brand-new vaccine. The anxiety around the new vaccine is too high, so getting vaccinated is a hard change to make.
• Currently, one out of six posted jobs is remote, compared to one out of 67 jobs in 2020. Why? Before 2020 remote work options were uncommon because most leaders feared reduced performance, less innovation, and weakened culture. Once the pandemic forced the issue, remote work became the status quo, which now feels safe. Leaders’ anxiety diminished greatly (and reducing overhead costs certainly sweetened the pot). Allowing remote work as the default has become an easier change to make.
• Recent data show that people now value flexibility as much as a 10% pay raise. Why? Employees feared that removing themselves from the office, out of sight from their boss, would be detrimental to promotions, raises, and developmental opportunities. After nearly two years of partial or full remote staffing, it’s the new normal. The fear is gone, along with hours of commute time. Demanding flexibility is now an easier change to make.
• There is a sudden labor shortage, largely due to older employees retiring early. Why? The idea of spending more time at home and with family was always counter-balanced by the uncertainty of life without work. But the pandemic gave seniors a glimpse of that lifestyle. It now feels safe, especially compared to the potentially covid-ridden workplace. So of course early retirement is an easier change to make.

Once you recognize that behavioral change results from reducing the fear and cost of trying something new, you might reconsider using statements like “We must change if we’re going to survive” or “Change is inevitable.” Those messages attempt to increase fear of staying the same, but that’s the wrong pressure point.

The right pressure point is to make the change feel safe. Through this lens, overcoming resistance to organizational change is a challenge we can meet.