The fourth component of the change management playbook is the announcement. The announcement of a merger or acquisition will impact different people differently. Some will be emotionally impacted. Some will be directly impacted. Some will be indirectly impacted. Some will be less impacted. Manage how they hear the news differently while making sure to answer the only question anyone will have: “How does this affect me?”

Internal and External Stakeholders

Start by identifying all the stakeholders impacted by your announcement and how they are going to feel about the announcement. Classify them as emotionally, directly, indirectly, or less impacted based on how much the announcement affects them or people with whom they are close.

Emotionally impacted: People being moved out of a job or are at risk of that, who have allies or friends being moved out of a job or are at risk, see someone else getting or potentially getting a role they might have wanted, or see this transition as particularly important to their own success are all likely to be emotionally impacted by the announcement. It's useful to tell these people one-on-one, giving them a chance to vent their emotions without being embarrassed in front of others.

Directly impacted: People working directly with new leaders or going to be working directly with new leaders—as direct reports, peers, suppliers, customers are, by definition, directly impacted. Tell these people in small groups, allowing them to ask questions.

Indirectly impacted: Those not emotionally or directly impacted can find out in large groups.

Less impacted: The less impacted can learn the news via email or broad announcement.

Message

Think through your message, working through the following as depicted in Table 25.1

Platform for change: Note what will make your audience realize they need to change.

Vision: Lay out a brighter future—that your audience can picture themselves in.

Call to action: Note actions the audience can take.

Headline: Note short phrase that conveys the essence of your message. (Bumper sticker length.)

Message points: Answer three questions in your communication points:

1. Why anyone should listen to you (Ethos)
2. How they should think and feel about what you're saying (Pathos)
3. What they should do next (logos)

Along the way and through every step, your communication should be emotional, rational, and inspirational:

• Emotional: Connect with your audience, empathizing with how the merger or acquisition is affecting them personally.
• Rational: Lay out the hard facts of the situation in detail with a calm, composed, polite, and authoritative tone and manner.
• Inspirational: Inspire others by thinking ahead, painting an optimistic view of the future, and calling people to practical actions they can take to be part of the solution, which will instill confidence and calm in them.

Pre-Announcement Timeline

Every person you tell about an impending change increases the likelihood of the news leaking before you're ready. Thus, order matters. Start with the people who must hear the news directly from you. From there, work your way out.

Plan out whom you're going to tell when. Understand the risk of leaks increases with each additional person you tell. You're going to lose control of your communication at some point. So try to tell those that you most want to hear directly from you first. The general prescription is to tell:

1. Those emotionally impacted one-on-one first so they can be emotional in private
2. Those directly impacted in a small group next so they can ask questions
3. Those indirectly impacted in a large group so they hear it from you
4. Those less impacted through some sort of mass or electronic media—the “formal” announcement

Formal Announcement

Plan out when and how you're going to deliver the formal announcement (Table 25.2).

Post-Announcement Timeline

There will be some people who you did not or could not get to before the announcement. They are still emotionally, directly, indirectly, or less impacted. Treat them as you would have before the announcement, understanding that you've lost your chance to position the announcement so you may have to correct some erroneous assumptions on their parts.

Here's an example announcement cascade timeline:

• One-on-one conversations with those emotionally impacted—early morning
• Small group meetings with those directly impacted—late morning
• Formal announcement, concurrent with large group meeting with those indirectly impacted—midday
• Follow-up conversations with those who were surprisingly emotionally impacted (there are almost always some)—afternoon

Managing Your Reaction and Response to Announcements

If you're on the receiving end of the announcement of a merger or acquisition, the emotional, rational, inspirational framework works in reverse.

• Emotional: Don't waste energy trying to fight your emotions. Accept them and own them. They are neither good nor bad. They just are. Take a moment. Appreciate them. And move on.
• Rational: Think through what has already been decided and is not going to change, what is best current thinking that you can influence, and what remains to be decided. These are the whats that kick off your what—so what—now what thinking. (This is the first part of the Stockdale paradox: confronting the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.)
• Inspirational: Rally yourself by jumping into so what and now what thinking. You can't control what's already happened or been decided—but you can control how you react to those.

Think through how you might deal with what has already been decided, how you might influence current best thinking and things remaining to be decided. (So what?)

Choose to be optimistic. This is the second part of the Stockdale paradox, faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose.

Focus your energy on the few most important things you can do to be part of the solution.

David and Goliath

The head of contracts and pricing at one company learned they were merging with a larger company. The new, combined senior leadership team had been announced and would be figuring out how to merge the teams reporting into them over the next few months.

This leader realized that the new organization would not need two separate contracts and pricing teams and therefore would not need two heads of contracts and pricing.

Emotionally, he was scared. He liked his job. He liked his company. He liked his lifestyle. He didn't want to lose any of those.

Rationally, he realized his company was going to change and his current job was most likely going away. There was no opportunity to change the merger decision. There was an opportunity to influence whether his job was going to go away.

Inspirationally, he thought it through and concluded that his job should go away. He decided not to try to save his job but instead to position himself as a candidate to be head of a combined pricing and contracts function—even though he currently led a smaller group than did the current head of pricing and contracts in the “other” organization.

He led his current team through a future-focused imperative workshop to lay out:

• The mission of the new, combined pricing and contracts group (P&CII)
• A vision of success for P&CII
• A set of objectives for P&CII around optimizing profitability through pricing, minimizing risk through contracting and pulling these together effectively, efficiently, and rapidly
• Specific goals, essentially quantifying those objectives for P&CII
• An overarching strategy for P&CII
• Strategic priorities flowing from that strategy
• The capabilities and enablers required to drive those strategic priorities—including a new, combined organization chart (with no names in boxes yet) laying out choices around where to
  • Win by being: predominant or top 1 percent, superior or top 10 percent, and strong or top 25 percent;
  • Not lose by being: above average and competitive, good enough and scaled; or
  • Not do by: outsourcing or not doing at all.
• Culture choices for P&CII around behaviors, relationships, attitudes, values, and the environment
• An implementation plan with projected dates around when and how to
  • Assess the current people in both organizations
  • Choose who filled which boxes now
  • Announce those choices
  • Help those chosen come to their own decisions about whether to be part of P&CII
  • Help backup candidates come to their own decisions about whether to be part of P&CII
  • Help those either not chosen or opting out secure and prepare for their new futures
  • Accommodate work needs of the members of P&CII
  • Assimilate members into a combined team
  • Step-down this imperative into subgroup imperatives to accelerate success

You've already figure out how this story ends. On seeing this plan and the lack of a plan from the leader of pricing and contracts in the larger organization, senior leadership decided to make this leader the leader of P&CII.