Welcome to the earliest days of the merger between Company A and Company B:
- Both enjoy tremendous success in their respective countries.
- Both embrace their rock-solid corporate cultures and values, especially integrity.
- Both are committed to this merger.
This merger is doomed.
Both companies put their best engineers on the newly merged team and plunge into the work. The grumbling soon begins:
“They have no integrity! How can you expect us to work with people who aren’t honest? We ask them for their opinions during meetings and they refuse to answer”, state many of the Company A engineers.
Company B engineers counter with, “They are the ones with no integrity, they openly challenge our ideas in meetings and expect us to fight back in a public forum instead of in private, one-to-one meetings. How can they so easily disrupt the group harmony?”
Both sides had widely divergent views of how a person with “integrity” is supposed to behave. The common sense within Company A corporate culture is that a person with integrity channels constructive confrontation to hash out differences on the spot, regardless of hierarchical rank or the number of onlookers.
Contrarily, Company B corporate culture is driven by maintaining harmony in a public forum; a good leader refrains from giving critical feedback until in a private, one-to-one setting.
It’s Just “Common-Sense”
Company A and Company B engineers never intended to upset each other; they were merely operating from their respective common-sense positions.
And this is mindset destroys far too many teams:
- “What works for me should work for you.”
- “There are no differences really, we’re all striving for the same thing.”
- “It’s just common-sense, anyone with integrity or, (fill in the blank) wouldn’t do that.”
Sadly, teams comprised of people from different cultural or corporate backgrounds—ranging from newly formed domestic companies to multinational corporations—rarely interpret each others’ behaviors or intentions with accuracy. Hence, communication and teamwork suffer … and team members retreat from each other.
Go Slow, to Go Fast
Newly formed teams, eager to get stuff done, should change their focus.
Instead of:
- Focusing on task: “Let’s dive in and get to work!”
Try this:
- Focus on process: “Let’s clarify how we will work together … before we work together.”
Company A and Company B engineers team wasted time and squandered team unity by falling into the get stuff done trap. Paradoxically, identifying mutually acceptable rules of engagement—beforehand—ultimately speeds things up; go slow, to go fast.
Assume Comprehension … At Your Own Risk
The seeds of discontent are already sown when leaders of newly formed, or culturally diverse, teams assume comprehension … of anything.
Options abound for leaders to ensure team members of a newly formed organization will accurately bring to life such value-laden words as: customer care, teamwork, or respect:
- Lead by example: Demonstrate (during meetings, training sessions, daily actions).
- Ask team members to describe, then demonstrate, their understanding.
- Create a hybrid set of behaviors reflecting the cultural, or generational diversity of the team. (Simple example: have team members discuss when direct eye contact conveys respect vs. disrespect.).
Done properly, and in the early stages of team development, this process helps reveal areas of understanding—and misunderstanding—before tempers flare.
Put on Your Socks Properly
Creating new teams or organizations provides a fantastic opportunity to build a strong culture. And, there’s nothing wrong with starting with the basics.
After all, John Wooden, the 10-time NCAA National Champion coach of the UCLA Bruins is famous for starting each new season with the following activity: Teaching players to avoid blisters by putting socks on properly.
When asked about this, Coach Wooden replied:
“The little things matter. All I need is one little wrinkle in one sock to put a blister on one foot, and it could ruin my whole season.”
Where are the metaphorical wrinkles in your organization’s socks?