By Lee Rhodes

Many organizations today need mergers to achieve economies of scale, accelerate growth, diversify risk and secure other benefits that can’t be gained organically. Still, the facts on mergers indicate that the true measure of success is satisfied customers and employees. So the real puzzle is not how to do a merger, but how to do it right.

Having worked at a number of blue chip financial and high tech companies in the past where transition and change are regular occurrences, I was excited to be invited to join the First West team and create a framework to effectively guide our team through its own transition. What I found when I started is that First West leaders recognized early on that success ultimately hinges on how people’s concerns and cultural integration were tackled. This was especially important considering we were establishing a multi-brand model—something unique among credit unions.

Regardless of the business model and the number of brands involved, mergers are not easy sailing because change affects people and so requires deft navigation. Here’s a look at six lessons we learned about people on our change journey.

1. People crave purpose and direction
It’s simple. People need vision, purpose and sense of direction. New teams or old teams, they need to be inspired by the collective objective—the reason for being. When our new CEO, Launi Skinner, arrived on the scene, that’s the first thing she set out to do. We called it our why. In short, we wanted everyone on the team to understand why it is we turn the lights on here each day and open the doors. It wasn’t to sell mortgages, RSPs or car loans. No, it was a higher purpose: to make a meaningful difference in the financial lives of our members. Positively impacting lives of our neighbours, friends, community or coworkers with each interaction. It was a statement about who we knew ourselves to be and the potential within us to be more than we were at that moment.

We also laid out how we were going to do that. The how would be equally important, signifying the kinds of behaviours we’d all agree to exhibit in accomplishing our why. Today, the how is embodied in our 6 Big Ideals.

The response to the approach was overwhelmingly positive. As our why and ideals rolled out across the organization, they ignited the passions of our team members like a wildfire. Now 15 months later, it’s our modus operandi—the heart of our culture and organization.

2. Provide clear and swift information about what is changing.
It’s as simple as identifying what is going to change for people—whether that’s structure, reporting relationships, job titles, compensation, processes, task ownership and so on. Unanswered questions have the potential to undermine any team’s engagement and ultimately, an organization’s degree of success. For example, titles and reporting relationships are often sensitive topics for current team members. And, because we had two very different approaches to structure and job grading and even compensation, it took longer than many would have liked. But we wanted to do it right—and when it comes to roles, pay and reporting, spending the extra time up front is always better than rushing forward.

Looking back, we did it right, but could have done better. If you’re going through similar change, my advice: Be thoughtful. Be transparent. Build understanding. Throughout it all, make sure to temperature check your organization as a whole to ensure the pace of change is right—too slow or too fast can be detrimental to morale.

3. The story behind the numbers matters too.
Achieving numbers is a key measure, but not the entire story. Too many organizations pay little attention to how an objective is met, focusing solely on achieving the objective, when in truth both are equally important and necessary. Over the past year, we made a dramatic shift in performance management to make sure we were considering the story behind the numbers. It sent a powerful message to everyone in our organization: exceptional results must be measured with behaviour and leadership that are consistent with our 6 Big Ideals.

Consider your workplace. Some leaders can accomplish amazing things through a numbers-focused, command-and-control approach, but is it creating the experience your customers and employees expect and is this approach sustainable? What we’ve seen is that a high performing culture with engaged team members requires the commitment of everyone to act in a manner that is consistent with the organization’s ideals.

4. Commitment to your team is a commitment to your customers.
Actions speak louder than words. It’s cliché and probably something your parents told you, but it’s often painfully true. People are looking for signs of integrity: “Do you really care about me and the work I do?” Show your team members that you’re committed to helping them perform better in a larger organization which places greater demands on them.

At First West, this commitment became very real when we began to focus on our performance management discussions. When managers have to talk with their team members about both the what and the how of a performance situation, the conversations immediately take a deeper and more profound turn. Meaningful coaching that helps someone improve in all areas of his or her leadership is one of the best investments an employee can receive from an organization. Though sometimes hard, those conversations done in a constructive, helpful yet honest manner, help people grow their career potential both within an organization and wherever their journeys may take them. Investing in others creates confidence which leads to better interactions with customers and creates better customer experiences overall.

5. With regular communication, teams can handle a swift pace of change.
Pace of change is a challenge that people are often quite verbal about, even to the point of feeling overwhelmed, particularly in the first year of a merger. Still, people have tons of potential that’s untapped and change is a great catalyst to growth.

What we learned through our employee engagement survey was that an important segment of our team felt there was too much change. At the same time, the overall engagement levels were significantly higher than other in-transition organizations and well above average when compared to peer financial institutions that weren’t going through transition.

The results reminded me of a quote by Marcus Buckingham, who sees leadership as “the art of getting people to forget their instinctive fear of the future.” Fear is best addressed through understanding, which is demonstrated tangibly through regular communication and consistent action. Change may not always be pleasant, but it can be positive and showing empathy is key.

6. Everyone can be a leader
If you’ve ever been through significant organizational transition, you’ve seen this for yourself: change has a way of shifting one’s attention to issues of sustenance. In the workplace, this translates into a mindset that sees people begin to relate to the organization in more of provider-dependent, or parent-child, relationship. Business leaders and organizations who care deeply about their employees can often fall into this approach—but it’s counterproductive for everyone in the end.

So early on we took the opposite mindset. Especially during times of change when ambiguity and uncertainty are at high levels, it was important that everyone felt they could take ownership and help lead.

This was especially embodied through the introduction of our Lean way of thinking and approach to work. Simply put, we said that everyone at First West, Envision Financial or Valley First has full right to initiate activities and make decisions that are aimed at continuous improvement. And it’s not that everyone is off in their own corner making blind and isolated decisions all the time. No, we introduced to our culture a confidence wherein anyone, regardless of title, had permission to wrestle with and analyze anything we do and suggest new ways that could bring value to their coworkers, customers, and the organization.

For us, it’s a new way of thinking and acting that’s taking hold. We learned that if you don’t give people permission to take the lead, you limit their potential, their ability to embrace change, and the potential effectiveness of your organization overall.

So there you have it. A handful of lessons we’ve learned over the past two years about people, about who we are as an organization, about how to lead. Our journey has just begun—and we continue to learn along the way. Learning on the journey—that’s the exciting part and it makes the whole thing worthwhile.

Lee Rhodes is the SVP of People Services at First West Credit Union. Visit www.firstwestcu.ca, follow @firstwestcu or email communications@firstwestcu.ca for more information.

This article was originally published on firstwestcu.ca. Reprinted with permission.