Do your research
In any change, you have to understand the issues your people are facing.
When it comes to merging people from different cultures, you have to interact with them so you can get an idea of what you are dealing with.
“Engage folks that are going to have the most insight into that culture, because you’re going to be under a time frame for how much learning you can do before you have to move on to other things,” Schwartz says.
For him, that wasn’t just the leadership team but also the human resources managers. Not only do they interact directly with employees, but they also have the best insight into the policies and guidelines that shape the culture.
“You can learn an awful lot just looking at what the company does on a more formalized basis,” he says.
Policies around vacation time and volunteer activities, for example, can indicate how a company feels about and treats its employees. Those people policies can reveal company values, like contributing to the community or finding a work-life balance.
Through conversations with the HR director, Schwartz also learned how SafeGuard employees communicated. He found out that many product and policy ideas came from internal entrepreneurs within the company’s inclusive culture.
That finding helped shape how he communicated with employees — and predict how they might communicate back.
“Don’t lose sight on the work and effort that you need to do in due diligence to know exactly how to demonstrate your plan and be able to communicate effectively,” Schwartz says.
Of course, staying in touch with employees along the way will also help you gauge how integrated they feel. Pay attention to what people say and how they interact. From their responses, you can distinguish the followers from the stragglers.
“Some of the ways that you can see how effective you’re being in that cultural integration are: Are people actually talking? Are they asking questions?” Schwartz says. “Do people act like they’ve been told what to do or do they feel like they’re part of it? When you ask them a question, do they have an opinion?”