This document summarizes a webinar on managing conflict during and after nonprofit mergers and collaborations. The webinar addressed the top three causes of conflict as underestimating complexity, differences in organizational culture, and poor communication. It provided tips for managing conflict constructively, including listening without judgment, understanding multiple perspectives, and addressing the interrelated issues of organizational culture, communication, and conflict management. The goal is to create a new, stronger combined culture through open discussion of challenges and differences.

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Managing Conflict During (and After)
Non-profit Mergers and Collaborations
Claudette Rowley
June 26, 2013
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Today’s Speaker
Claudette Rowley
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5. P R E S E N T E D B Y C L A U D E T T E R O W L E Y
F O R N O N P R O F I T W E B I N A R S . C O M
J U N E 2 6 , 2 0 1 3
Managing Conflict:
During (and After) Non-profit Mergers and
Collaborations

6. Today’s Takeaways
 The top three causes of conflict during
mergers/collaborations and how to avoid them
 How to manage conflict in ways that bring deeper
issues, concerns and understanding to the surface
 A process for successfully managing the three C’s of
collaboration and merger: communication, conflict
and culture

7. Addressing the Human Element
Allows the merging of operational and technological
functions to happen more easily.
When the human element isn’t fully addressed, results
can include:
employee disengagement
systemic organizational conflict
a merger or collaboration that falters

8. Top Three Causes of Conflict
1. Complexity of the process is underestimated
2. Differences in organizational culture
3. Communication isn’t clear, effective or affirming

9. Complexity of the Process
 Planning doesn’t start early enough in the process or
doesn’t capture the necessary level of detail.
 Successful plans address:
- executive and name identification
- governance structure
- how staff and systems will integrate
- communication planning
- analysis of cultures
- legal and financial issues

10. Differences in Organizational Cultures
Culture develops over time as:
organizations integrate individuals into the larger
whole
as they adapt to the (often changing) external
environment.
Over time, organizations create a set of shared
assumptions and beliefs we call “culture”.

11. Differences in Organizational Culture
No two organizations share exactly the same culture
– just as no two families are alike.
Research shows that cultural alignment can be the
most challenging aspect of a merger or collaboration.
Failure to create a new culture can derail the merger
or collaboration process.

12. Communication Isn’t Clear, Effective or Affirming
Effective communication:
 Sets expectations, maintains credibility, and
reinforces trust among staff and other stakeholders
 A communication plan helps reduce resistance, fears,
and changes beyond employees’ control
 The goal is to prevent misinformation and drama.

13. How to Manage Conflict
When conflict occurs, it can be used as an opportunity:
 To surface deeper issues and concerns
 Create understanding that moves organizational
functioning forward
 To understand the change that is trying to occur

14. Tips for Managing Conflict
Seek to understand by listening, asking questions
and acknowledging others’ point of view
Give others a chance to tell their story without
interruption
Stay off of the “Four Horses of the Apocalypse”:
Stonewalling, Defensiveness, Blaming/Criticism,
Contempt

15. Tips for Managing Conflict
Listen for and document agreements.
Where do we agree?
Listen for and document differences.
What’s most important?
What do we need?
What can we each give?
What needs to be addressed?
What’s not clear?

16. Tips for Managing Conflict
Phrases to use:
What’s really important to me is…
I need help with…
What I find most challenging is…

17. Tips for Managing Conflict
Try to bring empathy into conflict. Even when it
doesn’t look like it, people are often doing the best
they are capable of doing at a particular moment in
time.
 This isn’t an excuse for negative behavior.
 Empathy can allow for objectivity and alternative
perspectives to emerge.

18. Tips for Managing Conflict
Invite people to step outside of the situation:
“If we were on the outside looking in, what would you
see? What would we say about what we observed?”
The goal is to bring deeper understanding and new
perspectives.

19. Tips for Managing Conflict
 During times of change and uncertainty, it’s easy to
get rooted in a position or perspective.
 Encourage people to make a list of perspectives.
 Without judgment, what are five or ten other ways to
view this situation?

20. Manage the three C’s:
Culture, Conflict, Communication
Culture, communication and conflict – Which
comes first?
Because they so deeply affect each other, it can be
difficult to address one without addressing the other
two.

21. 1st C: Culture
Culture is everything that surrounds the workplace –
values, attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, norms and that
define and influence how an organization operates.
During merger and collaboration, the goal is to create
a new culture together.

22. Cultural Issues to Address
 Business environment and organizational strategy
 Skills that are valued
 Ongoing rites and rituals (spoken or unspoken)
 Style of staff – close, distant, collaborative, siloed,
mission-driven, creative, analytical
 The ways information is communicated
 Hierarchical or flat structure?
 What are the core values?
 Management style
 Decision making: formal, informal, ad hoc

23. Ways to Address Cultural Issues
If these cultural issues needs to be addressed,
organize a meeting to discuss. Identify the right
stakeholders to participate in the meeting. Focus on
where there’s cultural “agreement” and where there
are cultural “gaps”.
Assess the state of your new organizational culture.
How is it functioning? Are staff comfortable? Is a
new identifiable culture emerging?

24. 2nd C: Communication
Part one: Assessment
 What’s the communication plan?
 Who owns it?
 How is it working?
 Is communication clear?
 Are people engaged and comfortable?
 Are they confused, overwhelmed or apprehensive?

25. Communication Guidelines
Part two: Communication Guidelines
Are communication guidelines in place? Guiding
principles can include:
 Values (respect, truth, clarity, seek to understanding,
effective listening)
 Time frames (responding within 24 hours business
hours)

26. Communication Guidelines continued
 Methods (when to email, when to speak, how to
conduct important conversations)
 Handling important conversations (includes known
conflict, content could be emotionally charged,
complex or easily misinterpreted)

27. 3rd C: Conflict
Conflict signals a need for improvement, situations or
relationships that need attention or aren’t working.
Having a set of Conflict Guidelines in place can be
helpful: “In our organization, here’s how we handle
conflict…”

28. Address Conflict
Address conflict by:
 Scheduling a time to talk
 Preparing for the conversation
 Seeking to understand
 Asking questions
 If you need help, ask for it – your manager, your
human resources representative, an outside
consultant

29. Tips for the 3 C’s
Below are concrete steps:
Identify who can shepherd culture, communication
and conflict. A leader? A manager? An outside
consultant?
If you are a leader, what attention do you need to
devote to communication, culture, and conflict?
Suggest a course of action to the leaders in your
organization.

30. Tips for the 3 C’s
Be solution-focused. Select one area to address first.
Making a positive shift in one area will often lead to a
positive changes in the other two areas.
Small shifts can make a big difference – what’s one
small change that can be made?

31. In Closing…
A successful merger or collaboration is one in which
the new organization is more robust than the sum of
its parts.
It’s a new organization in which people address
differences by saying “Isn’t this interesting? Let me
investigate?” instead of “I don’t understand this.”

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