You just embarked on a global merger…..now what?

By The Linkage Editorial Team

When a large multi-national corporation acquired one of its direct competitors, the leadership team of the new company had a narrow window of time to equip 27,000 employees affected by the merger with the tools necessary to navigate the transition. As a result, the Human Resource and Organizational Development teams focused in on the 1,038 managers spread across 20 countries. The plan was to quickly equip all the managers with the change tools they needed so they could then share what they’d learned with their teams. That’s when the Linkage team stepped in.

Linkage partnered with the Human Resource and Organizational Development teams to launch an intensive one-day program—Managing Organizational Transitions—that was designed to train thirty internal facilitators who’d then be able train their colleagues. To do this, Linkage consultants created customized Train-the-Trainer webinars led by Linkage Master Trainers via the Internet to the facilitators located around the globe.

Following the webinar series, facilitators then received individual coaching from a Linkage Master Trainer via phone to complete the certification process. They were then paired up with another colleague for their in-house deliveries of Managing Organizational Transitions to the managers within their region.
The company continued to offer a condensed version of the training for several months online to managers who missed the in-house sessions and Linkage’s Managing Organizational Transition course has since been integrated into the curriculum at company headquarters where all managers receive regular training.

Thanks to Linkage’s customized Train-The-Trainer webinar series, the larger company has:

• Equipped the manager population with tools to better understand change and transition and to facilitate the change process among their teams
• Brought two separate business entities together to better understand one another and to affect a positive change on the 27,000 employees impacted by the acquisition
• Engaged and motivated cross functional teams worldwide efficiently during a transition
• Strengthened the intellectual capital and professional growth of their internal trainers, managers and employees
• Distributed a repeatable and proven process to better address emerging business issues while continuing to drive business results

Feedback
Are you navigating the results a merger/acquisition or simply the every changing landscape of doing business today? What are the biggest challenges you face?

More information
Any company that has experienced a merger or acquisition will undergo some form of dramatic change and transition via: rebranding, integration, reorganization, and possibly downsizing. Throughout these predictable fluctuations, it’s important for an organization to identify and focus on its most valuable asset–its people. And this is where Linkage can help. Click here for more information.