It’s such a shame to see people build organizations, only to lose a vast majority of the people. I’ve seen this occur several times during my small business career. The first time I saw this happen it involved thousands of small business owners. The leadership of the departing organization wanted more control and more money and they achieved this but the fracture their move created never healed.
The second time I encountered an organizational fracture was during a recent merge of two local youth sports organizations. This most recent event had a direct impact on our family, especially our children, as these two local competing clubs decided to merge and combine forces to supposedly achieve a more cohesive and better environment for the children.
I feel the two directors jumped the gun, sent a mixed message and didn’t communicate properly. They both seemed to feel that dropping a big turd on everyone would be the best way to go and then leave people in the dark until they could work out the details.
Now I will say that one of the organizations was pretty good at communicating, but only after the public announcement of the proposed merger.
After all, the intent to merge and actually completing the merge are two separate topics.
Before you ever make a major change like a merge, especially when it involves families, money and children, it’s best to communicate first instead of later on down the line.
In our case – the families have been one of the main financial sources for the two organizations. So the salaries, overhead and expenses of these two operations are paid by the parents along with sponsors.
We happened to have experience with both organizations, so our perspective was different than the families on either side of the fence.
The one thing that struck me the most was the speed at which the two competing directors put the deal together. This and the simple fact that they are fierce competitors and have never worked together. Now I could keep going on and on but hopefully you get the idea.
It would be like two CEO’s or if you like, owners of small businesses merging to help foster a better community for their employees and their families.
Hmmmmmmm……let’s take a peak behind the scenes in the boardrooms and follow the money, eh?
With all that said…
Before you jump ship and split up an organization or merge two competing organizations, make sure that your ego and pride are in check. Do everything you can to work it out and consider the families that your split or merge will affect.
Lastly, communicate with the organization(s) before you make it public. For great communication can make the difference of a successful merger or one that fails and falls by the roadside.
Stay Tuned,
Dave Krygier
Publisher