What we all fear about mergers and how to make them safe ...

It is not hard to make mergers safe, you just to need to follow a few key principles. Organizational merger is often first a contest of power, will and influence before it is an exercise about increasing organizational efficiency and effectiveness. If this process is to be fair and result in benefits for the merger partners, there must be a singularly inspiring principle – the vision/mission thing – by which all events and decisions are judged. The inspiring principle must be unassailable and be held valid and self-evident by all parties to the merger.

Program metrics must also align to the unassailable and self-evident ‘truth’ or principle. Otherwise historically more powerful departments with more forceful programs and presentations will win the contest for validation over weaker departments and less evident programs, even if those departments and programs offer more relevant services for the merged nonprofit’s client base. The same holds true for the staff. There is a risk that staff left standing after the merger will be those most ‘wired’ to decision-makers rather than those with less political currency but most capable of delivering services related to the vision/mission.