|
Tips and Answers
to Your Questions
Integrating the New Organization
The Integration Plan
An integration plan is your map to the highly complex process
of creating a new organization out of those that have merged. It should
include a clear set of desired outcomes and objectives for each major
area of organizational integration, along with an action plan and timeline
for achieving those objectives.
The plan should address each of the following areas of integration:
- The management of the integration process itself
- Board
- Management
- Staff (paid and volunteer)
- Programs
- External communication and marketing
- Systems (finance, fundraising, human resources management, information
technology, and facilities)
- Evaluation
It should also address organizational culture and internal communication;
we find it best to integrate the activities related to both
of these areas within each of the other integration areas, however.
The plan should be concrete and easy to use. Everyone in the organization—board
and staff alike—should contribute to the development of the plan
and use it when setting priorities and developing more detailed work
plans over the course of the integration process.
Integration plan versus strategic plan
Often, nonprofit managers considering how best to pull their merging
organizations together decide to embark on a strategic planning process.
A strategic planning effort—whether the traditional model or
a slimmed-down, more flexible approach—provides a context for
viewing the newly merged entity as a new organization with a newly
enlarged mission and programs. Strategic planning can be an invaluable
tool after a merger. At the same time, any actions resulting
from a strategic planning effort are at least several months off. Recently
merged organizations need to take immediate action across a broad front
to ensure the new organization’s success. For this reason, this
book provides a model for integration planning that does not include
strategic planning. However, if you wish to engage in a strategic planning
process at the same time as you plan and pursue integration, the two
processes should .t together. Integration planning, as you will see,
deals with many of the same topics considered during strategic planning:
programs, organizational culture, communication, and finances, to name
a few. However, while the strategic planning process aims to chart
a future course building on the unique strengths of the organization,
integration is intended to develop those very strengths through
the merging of two different organizations.
Do not forgo integration planning because you intend to develop a
strategic plan. The two processes can work together, but you cannot
replace one with another. If you have time for only one plan at this
point, make it an integration plan.
When to create an integration plan
In an ideal world an integration plan would be ready immediately
after the decision to merge has been announced. In reality, most organizations
emerge from merger negotiations with a map for legal implementation,
but no clear plan for organizational integration.
In some situations, the joint merger negotiations committee has a
good feeling for when integration planning makes sense. For example,
negotiations sometimes reach a tipping point at which it’s obvious
the merger will happen. That’s an excellent time to assemble
an integration team to begin addressing the big-picture goals and overall
timeline of an integration plan.
But that’s not the norm; in fact, you may have a merger in
place and no plan. Usually actual integration is begun informally,
without thought of creating an overall plan. If you are in this situation,
quickly assemble an integration team to develop a plan to see you through
the integration process.
|
