Building successful public service mergers – the organisational development implications

Some key questions to consider for those managing the change

1. Who are the key stakeholders – groups and individuals – and what is their position and power over the merger process?
2. How much spare capacity is there to manage the change process and how can I/we harness it well in pursuit of a successful merger?
3. What is my/our vision of the new organisation and what will I have to do to make it a collective vision that will help to guide all merger efforts and the new organisation once it exists?
4. What are the pressures for merger and how might these helpfully or adversely affect the merger process?
5. What are my/our actionable next steps – over the next month / next six months / next 18 months?
6. What principles will need to underpin the design of the management and decision making structures in the new organisation – and how do these principles differ from the component existing organisations?
7. Of the various organisations coming together – what do they think of themselves and what do they think of the others?
8. What elements of the component organisational cultures will need to form part of the new organisation, which elements will have to go and what new elements of culture are needed – how will this cultural transformation be managed?
9. What are likely to be the emotional implications for the stakeholders (internal and external) involved in the process of change – how will these need to be understood and managed?
10. How is the strategic context of the new organisation likely to change in the future – what will I/we need to do to ensure the new organisation is future proofed?
11. How will I/we need to manage information and knowledge in the transition?
12. What do I/we need to do to ensure that any transitional management / project teams remain in touch with the wider organisation(s) and avoid becoming insular and disconnected?
13. What HR functions need to be done especially well (and what do I/we need to do to make this happen) to ensure that morale and performance do not dip and that we keep the best people during the process of transition?
14. How will I/we engage and communicate with stakeholders (internal and external) in the transitional process to ensure that we have sufficient levels of awareness, understanding, involvement and commitment to build a new organisation successfully?
15. How will I/we create sufficient discomfort with the current range of organisations so as to encourage people to commit to the new organisation without going so far as to suggest any criticism of past deeds and achievements?
16. How will I/we make it safe to change so that people will not fear losing face by engaging in new ways of doing things in the new organisation?
17. What aspects of the existing organisations such as various financial, planning, IT & HR systems, traditional ways of doing things such as promoting managers, making decisions and engaging with governance structures might work against the process of change? How will these be neutralised or overcome?
18. What might I/we do to ensure that natural links and new networks begin to form between members of the component organisations?
19. What should be the overall strategy with people who resist the change and look for ways to keep the organisations separate or remain inappropriately or ineffectively loyal to the previous organisations?
20. How will I/we value, thank and recognise the efforts put in by people to create the new organisation?
21. What do we need in the way of external communication – what image and information do we want to project to the external world?
22. What new managerial tools, guidance and skills will be required by managers involved in the transition to make it work well?
23. How much effort will I/we need to put in to internal communication to ensure that staff are kept sufficiently appraised of progress and successes?
24. How will I/we measure and evaluate the transition progress and what systems of feedback do we need to ensure we keep heading in the right direction?
25. How will I/we make the transitional process a learning process?
26. How will we symbolise the new organisation and change towards it? – what totems need to be knocked down and what totems need to be constructed?
27. What words and concepts do I/we want the new organisation to use?

INQUIRY: Are you from Vienna? This particular blog posting has been looked at every couple of days over the last few months by someone from Vienna. May I ask why? I am intrigued. Please email me... Thanks.