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?”
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.
Think through your message, working through the following as depicted in Table 25.1
Table 25.1 Messaging
Platform for change: | Headline: |
Vision: | Message Points: |
Call to Action: |
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:
Along the way and through every step, your communication should be emotional, rational, and inspirational:
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:
Plan out when and how you're going to deliver the formal announcement (Table 25.2).
Message delivery | |
---|---|
Method: | Timing: |
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:
If you're on the receiving end of the announcement of a merger or acquisition, the emotional, rational, inspirational framework works in reverse.
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.
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:
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.