The window that often goes unused
What if people do not simply undergo a merger, but, as far as possible and desirable, sit at the design table? Not to decide everything together, but to test whether what you have in mind is reasonable, acceptable and workable.
Once the outlines are clear, a window opens. A story is taking shape. There are people who will soon have to carry that story. And there is a choice: do you let this moment pass, or do you deliberately make use of it? While structures take shape above the waterline, a reality is also forming beneath it. People look for something to hold on to, make choices and draw conclusions, long before you involve them. In that quiet phase it is precisely the strongest profiles that drop out, energy leaks away and trust evaporates before collaboration can really land.
Leadership that lets itself be mirrored
Make working with people part of the plan. Early enough. This is a strategic choice that helps determine the chance of success.
Whoever believes in their project dares to have it mirrored. Expose ideas, convictions and plans to the gaze of others, not to tear them down, but to make them sharper, more robust and more bearable. Let yourself be challenged on blind spots. Power asks for mirrors. Look into those mirrors, even when you see uncomfortable things in them. That is where legitimacy grows.
Know, by the way, that you are in the right place when it gets difficult. Tall trees catch a lot of wind, and rightly so. Because tall trees have strong roots.
A context that works below the waterline
That mirroring requires a setting that lets go of daily work and is relevant at the same time. A place that makes room for productive discomfort so that the waterline drops and we can grasp what could not be discussed. A place where we are not only with our heads, but also with our bodies. A body does not lie: it tells the truth about what people need and find important, in mergers too.
Such a place exists in many shapes and sizes. At Outward Bound we resolutely choose nature as the environment. Because nature has no meeting structure, no hierarchy and no agenda. It does ask for presence, collaboration and real choices. What happens there gets under your skin. It stays with you, long after the flipcharts have been rolled up and the catering has been cleared away.
When a merger is carried
Organisations that free up enough time and budget for this early on strengthen their human capital at the moment it counts. They create appetite, cohesion and direction, before the complexity of daily practice swallows everything. They consciously choose not to build a sum of structures, but an organisation carried by people who want to help build.
A merger is only successful when the people who have to make it happen also want to do so. Because it matters. Value the people who will soon have to make your merger happen. Acknowledge their voice, their perspective, their interests and needs. Take them seriously, early enough. That is what makes a merger human, and what carries people through a merger.
At Outward Bound Belgium we guide teams and leaders at the moment it matters: outside, with something at stake, in a context that makes collaboration and leadership visible at speed.
Are you in the middle of a merger, takeover or reorganisation? Or is such a program on the horizon? Let us look together at which window opens and how you can use it consciously.
I trained as a psychologist. As director of a reception centre for refugees at Fedasil, as a trainer and consultant in Ethiopia, and now as Executive Director of Outward Bound Belgium. What drives, connects and sometimes holds people back: that is what I like to stay curious about. From boardroom to rock face, the common thread in my life is how we can remain human in a world that is spinning out of control. And how searching leaders with strong shoulders can contribute to that. With this newsletter I think out loud about how we can cherish that human measure in teams, in organisations and in society.