Satori Organisational Development

When Cultures Collide:
Making Mergers & Acquisitions Work

Leaders | Teams | Culture | Coaching

Are you ready to talk culture?

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Bringing two or more cultures together
can be a brilliant and beautiful experience

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can be exciting, but they also come with big cultural challenges.

Bringing two or more companies together means blending different ways of working, leadership styles, and values. This can lead to friction, uncertainty, fear and even resistance from employees who feel like they’re losing the culture they once knew.

If not handled well, it can hurt morale, reduce productivity and often lead to the great people leaving.

But when done right, M&A can actually strengthen company culture.

It’s an opportunity to bring in fresh ideas, diverse perspectives, and new ways of thinking. Strong leadership, open communication, authentic and safe discussions about what's really going on, what it really feels like alongside a focus on shared goals can help teams align and turn differences into strengths.

In the end, a new culture will emerge that everybody can see themselves, their history and their futures in - creating a more dynamic, adaptable, and forward-thinking organisation.

Talk about your culture and people

A high performing culture
that everyone owns

Case Study

A mid-tier law firm, growing rapidly through acquisition, wanted to create a high-performance culture without losing the great aspects of their culture that attracted people to work for them over other law firms.

They also wanted to develop accountability for leadership deeper in the firm, so rather than defining their culture for them, we invited their Partners and teams into a collective inquiry.

Kicking off the inquiry at Silverstone with the top 100 Partners, we de-mystified what it takes to successfully lead complex change – such as evolving culture.

All Partners then attended a leadership programme to explore the question themselves before inviting their teams to experiment with new ways of working. Together they are consciously recognising aspects of their culture to protect, and what to evolve, including what performance means to them.

The inquiry is a continuous learning cycle through which Partners reconvene to share learning, and return to experimenting with new ways of being together with their teams.

They have greater clarity of areas to develop - spin off projects have included clarifying purpose and values, improving communication and governance. They are learning how to learn together and create the culture they want. together.

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When two cultures collide -
post acquisition

Case Study

A market-leading, award winning, Global FinTech bought their larger competitor. Overnight they more than doubled in size and went from a single UK base to people across 10+ countries.

Their open, exciting, dynamic and ambitious culture was now trying to welcome in a calm, process driven group of industry experts.
18 months after the merger people still described the old and the new people, an in-group and an out-group on both sides.

We worked with the organisation initially around creating a sense of belonging - together we treated the challenge as we would a DEI issue. By supporting people to understand their biases, challenge their thinking, get to know others, and build trust.

Mindsets needed to be shifted before behaviours and language were going anywhere.

As the cultures began to merge something new emerged.
One did not win over the other, but instead the best bits from both were exchanged. Teams now work together more, share ideas and ways of working. Leadership styles have become complimentary and a sense of belonging to the 'one team' is thriving.

"Working with Juliet and Sammy for the last year has been highly rewarding. They have helped us create an even more inclusive company, challenging us also to think about how we work together as an organisation while maintaining high levels of performance and achievement." - Chief People Officer

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What we do

All of our work is designed to meet each client's unique context and needs.

Teams and Teaming

Team effectiveness is often overlooked, and yet few of us work alone! Developing a team's capacity to align, trust, communicate, learn and collaborate is vital. Working on ourselves and our relationships generates shared growth and a high performing team that thrives, no matter the challenge or opportunity.

Senior Leadership Team Development - for horizontal / strategic alignment
Departmental Team Development - for vertical / whole team change
Team Dynamics - enhanced communication and relationships for team performance
Team Coaching - live coaching for change as you do work

Leadership Development

Outdated ideas of leadership no longer serve us. Create a ‘leaderful’ organisation by developing leadership qualities in those with influence and responsibility. Whether it’s leading with authentic purpose, cultivating accountability, or leading change with trust and resilience, we enable you to lead for the change you want to see.

Leadership development programmes - for mindset and behavioural change
Leadership essentials - for those new to role
Talent programmes - for leaders of the future
Executive coaching - for leadership transitions
Leading complex change - for system-wide transformation

And often our work is a blend of the above, because one size never fits all.

Organisational Culture

As the world changes, our culture must evolve too. This requires more than definitions or action plans, it needs everyone. Evolve your culture to serve your purpose and strategy, by inviting participation and learning together in practical experiments. Our processes enable your culture to become your advantage.

Culture Inquiry - understand and evolve culture through growth, change, mergers, and acquisitions
Values and purpose - unearth and bring to life in both everyday moments and strategic decisions
Employee value proposition - understand and tell the story of 'why you'
Inclusive cultures - for a meritocracy where everyone can thrive

Coaching

Coaching, whether 1-2-1 or in a team, is up close and personal. Closely connected to the work, coaching develops confidence and competence by generating ownership for change. Coaching liberates potential by raising awareness of who we are and what really matters.

Executive and leadership coaching - for personal transformation and transition
Live, in-business, team coaching - for change in the real work
Open access coaching sessions - for cost effective 1-2-1 learning

What our clients say

We're brand new, but here's some lovely thingsour clients have said recently in our associate work.

"Working with Juliet and Sammy for the last year has been highly rewarding. They have helped us create an even more inclusive company, challenging us also to think about how we work together as an organisation while maintaining high levels of performance and achievement."

Constance Droubay - Chief People Officer - Bango (Global fintech)

“Sammy is a guru – her approach blending traditional and contrarian techniques is refreshing and rapidly delivers human and business outcomes."

Justin Ablett - Partner - IBM Consulting

"We now understand ourselves and each other better, how we perform better as a team (celebrating the highs and understanding the lows, and learning from both),

Ultimately unlocking the potential as a team to deliver outstanding work - which has a greater impact (and have some fun along the way!)"

John Kerslake - Chief Operating Office - RSPCA (National charity)

“They brought wonderful warmth and enthusiasm which really encouraged our team to fully engage. The results were insightful, they painted a recognisable picture and surfaced issues and new ideas that we are now addressing.

The work has had a significant positive impact on the company. I am very pleased we decided to work with them and would happily recommend to others."

Chief Executive Officer - Global biotech

"Their expertise in navigating through the challenges and changes generated in a high growth business has been appreciated across the company, ensuring we can thrive whatever challenges we face.

They are our trusted partner and a highly valued contributor to the high performance and long-term success of our company."

Chief People Office - Global fintech

“They helped us to inject pace and focus at a time when we didn’t have the mental capacity to move the business forward.

Working with them felt incredibly safe and reassuring."

Chief Executive Office - Software development company