Finding a common language across two newly merged organisations
How two of the UK’s leading pharmaceutical organisations found a way to come together and instil a unified desire to perform better as one
Following on from the merger of two large scale pharmaceutical organisations; this is the story of how Criterion Partnership helped to unify the new organisation and work with them to shape the future of their training for all pre-registration pharmacists. This resulted in:
• The facilitation of crucial conversations to ensure that all parts of the business felt listened to and motivated to work together to produce the new unified training programme
• The engagement and buy-in of pre-existing and often long serving pharmacists – enabling them to experience lasting behavioural changes in the way in which they train new pharmacists and approach customer service
• A large improvement in the skills and behavioural levels of trainee Pharmacists throughout the organisation
• The creation of country specific programmes of all training programmes as part of a new approach to equally engage all employees, no matter what their geographic location
The journey began with the completion of the process…..
The physical move was achieved, the majority of the roles were defined and the Board had disseminated the information. Throughout the change, efforts were made to engage the members of both organisations but some unrest and resettling was still, of course, a natural and inevitable part of the experience. These two organisations, now one, were experiencing the commonly encountered post-merger environment.
The work of drawing together ‘how we do things’ with ‘how they do things’ was underway. As Business Psychologists we were brought in to assist on the first major high profile project. Our aims were not initially defined. We were involved early on to add guidance and expertise throughout many aspects of the project. This included facilitating, guiding and assisting with the relationships to ensuring the project output was aligned with best learning and development practice and anything else that may emerge as we progressed!
The project and the challenge!
The business of Pharmacy was changing and the strategy post-merger was built upon the premise that continued growth and profitability would be dependent upon the quality and quantity of service delivered by the Pharmacists and their team. Basically we needed the best new pharmaceutical talent available to succeed.
As part of the process of qualifying as a Pharmacist individuals are required to complete a year of assessed work experience and applied learning. This programme is designed and delivered in partnership between the pharmaceutical organisations and the pharmaceutical society. It is the major way for the organisation to attract, shape, assess and train new pharmaceutical talent. If we could get this right we would have the right people with the right skills and attitudes to build a bright post-merger future.
Each organisation had their own training programme; these two programmes encapsulated the culture, approach and beliefs of each of the two organisations. They were, of course, quite different and neither was fit to deliver the future strategy.
The key challenges in bringing these two programmes together to build something even better were:
• The owners of the programmes had professional expertise and emotion invested in the content that resonated with a resistance to change, and a fear of losing their identity within the newly merged organisation.
• The project required consultation across both organisations with a vast array of stakeholders who may be more obstructive than compliant.
• The aims of the project meant significant redesign of both existing programmes that needed to be achieved by tight and immovable deadlines.
• If we could succeed in this high profile project we would set a standard for working effectively for the future. If we failed we would be highly visible.
How we made it work
The project team, including two Criterion Partnership consultants, learned many lessons together on this journey. On reflection the expertise in managing change, in this successful fashion that we at Criterion offered, involved the following:
• We encouraged, supported and facilitated the team in building strong relationships at the start. This included finding a vision together, agreeing how we wanted to work with one another and offering one-to-one informal coaching when
personal emotional issues that could cause barriers emerged.
• We provided and guided through clear specific praise and positive feedback on the small successes the team made, in order to maintain energy, enthusiasm and the belief that the vision could be achieved.
• We provided guidance on time management and project management to ensure the best tools possible were used. This enabled those tasked with these responsibilities to develop and improve their skills through participation in the project.
• We designed and initiated the cascaded delivery of the sections of the programme on behavioural change. The design was such that both the Tutor and the student could learn simultaneously. A powerful way to quickly realise cultural change.
• We encouraged and, where needed, insisted upon high standards. This was achieved through drawing the attention of the team back to our vision, the strategic aims of the organisation and the importance of every member’s efforts.
What we achieved
The project was a great success. The benefits took the following shape:
• We engaged the existing Pharmacist population, who were to play the role of Tutors to their trainees, on a level that had not previously been achieved. They began to learn and make the behavioural changes required alongside their trainees. In simple terms the shift was from the ‘all knowing scientist’ to the ‘attentive customer focused professional’. Customer service improved as a result.
• The trainees’ skill and behaviour level, assessed against both the organisational and pharmaceutical society competencies were at a level not previously achieved by either organisation. The nurturing, development and engagement of the new talent the organisation’s strategy required was realised.
• The programme provided country specific versions that were exactly aligned with Pharmacy law and practice in each place. This improved the quality of knowledge and service and even more importantly engaged everyone involved. It sent a great message that the future was about valuing and responding to different needs of employees and seeing all as deserving equal attention rather than the previous England centric approach. This is one example of how the project showed we could achieve more together than we had previously apart.
In summary, it was the conversations that were crucial
This project culminated in the successful design and implementation of a new pre-registration pharmacist training programme that would attract and develop the best pharmaceutical talent who would take the organisation forward. However this was not the entirety of its achievements as it also succeeded in bringing previously resistant employees from the two organisations together, to effectively create a new shared vision for the future.
The most important part of achieving success together was listening. As well as focusing on this skill ourselves we provided opportunities for those involved to really listen to one another. Where barriers began to emerge we sensitively addressed the root cause. It is the conversations that shape the future culture and this project was a platform to model how those great conversations could be continued into the future!
