In my industry M&A is a daily activity, both small and large. The organization I am currently working for has likely done upwards of a hundred and does not have a play book but they are looking to create a center of excellence for these activities. I am a change management professional, so my focus is on people and I need to make sure the processes, data and systems are all aligned to enable people readiness. I will likely to align the change management portion of our play book with the PROSCI Change Management method and tools as much as I can for People Readiness and our organization’s 7 Leavers for Change:
• Leadership Alignment
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Readiness & Sustainability
• Learning & Capability Development
• Communications
• Change Network
• Culture
Even though we use these 7 leavers in all our change efforts how they are used is customized for each project, just like Thant stressed, these things are not one size fits all. I think structure and a good guiding document is really what will help my organization. Coupled with documenting Lessons Learned and using them at the kickoff for the next M&A project.
