Consider this.
If there’s one thing I could tell you…
Organisational change is tricky at the best of times. It’s even more challenging when it involves people from different national cultures.
Based on our international experience consulting to global companies, if there’s just one piece of advice we could share with you, it’s this:
Developing Cultural Intelligence (CQ) should be integral to any organisational change initiative involving international mergers and acquisitions.
Why?
National culture can heavily influence attitudes toward decision-making, relationship-building, influencing, communication styles and managing conflict.
If these culturally-influenced mindsets are overlooked in the M&A process, it could be to the detriment of achieving core business goals.
As qualified intercultural specialists, we are best placed to help uncover and address cross-cultural barriers that could derail the most well-intended organisational change program.
We can work alongside your M&A consultant or organisational change specialist to implement practical strategies for navigating cross-cultural differences across teams.
Challenges we address.
“Why won’t our teams just talk with each other?”
“How difficult is it to take more self-initiative at such a crucial time?”
“We’ve lost the art of having open and honest conversations.”
If you find your organisation in this position after a merger or acquisition, you’re definitely not alone!
Inherent to international M&As are risks associated with the integration of two corporate cultures. Although establishing a new corporate culture is often an organisational priority during the M&A process, what often gets overlooked is the blending of national cultures.
Here’s why. We are often unaware that our leadership style (communication, negotiation, relationship-building etc) is heavily influenced by our national culture.
Our leadership style is, at times, likely to be at odds with the preferred styles and expectations of our international colleagues.
Unless consciously managed, here’s what typically happens:
- Project deadlines slip.
- More frequent miscommunication.
- Team members start working in silos.
- Reporting becomes onerous.
- Enthusiasm for the project fades.
- Attention to strategic outcomes goes by the wayside as team members focus on their individual areas of responsibility.
- Cross-organisational engagement becomes forced.
- Diversity is still welcomed, but not inclusion.
Our specialised capability is uncovering and addressing cross-cultural barriers that arise due to underlying and often invisible clashes of national cultures.
From our initial exploratory meeting with you through to implementing the agreed scope of works, we can work alongside your M&A consultant or organisational change specialist to ensure our efforts dovetail with your other initiatives.
01. Risk Assessment.
We recommend starting with a risk assessment audit of cross-cultural barriers to organisational change.
02. Strategy Development.
Based on the findings of the risk assessment audit, we can develop strategies for integrating Cultural Intelligence with organisational change initiatives.
03. Executive Coaching.
We can tailor a Cross-Cultural Executive Coaching program to build on existing leadership expertise, with a focus on overcoming cultural barriers to teamwork, communication and trust-building.
04. Standard Operating Procedures.
We develop tailored SOPs for identifying, mitigating and managing cross-cultural challenges in the workplace. SOP topics could range from how to organise and conduct meetings with global teams through to handling conflict with international colleagues.