Case study
Making a merger work at the human level
Two firms combined on paper, with people still making assumptions about each other based on how they worked.
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Background
A professional services firm had completed a merger bringing together two organizations with different cultures and different ways of working.
People understood the merger. They hadn't yet built trust across it. The two sides had different expectations around hierarchy, pace, decision-making and communication.
The challenge
“The merger was complete on paper, but it didn't feel complete to our people.” — Client sponsor
People were making assumptions about each other based on how they worked, and the firm needed a common language — quickly.
The Discflow approach
Core 2.0 for the merged teams.
Leader 2.0 for senior leaders.
Group 2.0 for specific integration teams.
The real moment of change
In a leadership session comparing how the two legacy organizations made decisions, someone described the other side as “slow.”
The discussion that followed showed they weren't slow at all — they needed more information before committing. A long-running source of frustration was reframed in a single conversation.
What changed
More open discussion of differences between the two legacy organizations.
Greater understanding of why colleagues approached work differently.
The leadership team agreed behavioral expectations for the combined organization.
In their words
“Once people understood the reason behind the behavior, the behavior became much easier to work with.” — Integration Lead
The assessment gave us a language that wasn't owned by either side of the merger.
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