M&A Integrations

Only about 30% of Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are ultimately successful.  This is often the result of poor integration but can be avoided with the proper approach and follow-through.  My approach is to bring a “workstream methodology” to this most crucial and difficult challenge.  The workstream methodology consists of: compartmentalizing the various aspects of an integration (financial, legal, strategic, sales, technical, HR, etc.,); assuring each workstream has the right leadership, mission and tactical plans; and then facilitating progress over an established timeframe of integration.  I was privileged to learn these skills while integrating new acquisitions during my tenure as President of CDM Industrial Services, and then on a major scale by leading the integration activities of the Environment & Infrastructure division of AMEC Foster Wheeler during its merger into the Wood Group.

Clients find that I am able to provide a level of integration focus that is difficult to achieve internally due to the many conflicting and competing responsibilities of managers and executive leaders who have the competing interests of day-to-day responsibilities against integration demands.

Change Management

Wise old Benjamin Franklin stated, “When you’re finished changing you’re finished.” While this is true, poorly executed change management can be worse than no change, so careful implementation is critical to success. Having experienced a multitude of strategic, organizational, and countless other changes over my career, along with being a student of change management theory and methodology, I have the skills to help clients derive effective change management where needed. I assist clients by using a Change Management Playbook (CMP) built on my Triple-A method (Alignment, Action, and Assurance). The CMP is essentially the work-breakdown-structure and schedule to apply the Triple-A approach:

• Alignment - that change is needed, and the selected change is the best alternative

• Action - to set the change in motion and put the teams, systems, and tools in place to complete the change

• Assurance - to verify that alignment continues, actions are being completed, and desired results are achieved

Are you Interested in further discussing change management?  For starters, feel free to ask me to present Change Management Fundamentals, a brief introduction to the keys to successful change management using the Triple A method.

Operational Troubleshooting

Any business operation has room for improvement and sometimes needs considerable troubleshooting. For this, I developed an Operations Management Review (OMR) to optimize success.  The OMR is a process of enhancing operational delivery:

·       Interview executive leadership to understand concerns and expectations for the project

·       Understand mission, strategy, goals and timeline expectations

·       Conduct individual interviews of key members of the operations leadership team (OLT) and other select people

·       Compile a prioritized listing of themes and findings into observations and recommendations for improvement

·       Facilitate action planning to prioritize and drive critical actions

·       Conduct follow-up OMRs as needed to help assure success

The OMR approach supports success by both advocacy and blunt feedback where needed.  The one-on-one interviews result in insights that are difficult to identify in a group setting alone where interpersonal dynamics might prevent full and open sharing of important concerns.  The deliverable is an OMR report with recommended actions and tracking system.  I then support implementation, monitoring and reporting if requested. I am confident you will be pleased with the outcome of an OMR for your project or operation.

Stakeholder Facilitation

Do you ever wonder why it is so hard to make headway with so many heads in the way?  Usually this is because everybody has an agenda and if allowed to flow freely in an uncontrolled manner stakeholders can rarely align effectively around a common mission.  Take kicking off a complex multi-stakeholder project as an example.  There are usually many different interests at play such as a project owner, consulting engineer, legal representatives, regulatory authorities, technical experts, etc.  Often, complete trust does not exist across all stakeholders, so competitive positioning can interfere with alignment.  Agreement on goals, priorities, systems, communications, schedules, and the multitude of other important matters is often best accomplished by way of an independent facilitator.  An independent facilitator, with no “stake” in the project, but with the skills necessary to navigate stakeholder alignment, can be invaluable to project success.  I have provided facilitation services on many endeavors and developed the copyrighted HNC STEP (Stakeholder Teaming & Execution Planning) approach to effective stakeholder alignment and action planning.  STEP builds on the Pareto Principle (or 80/20 Rule) in pursuit of clarity around the roughly 20% of issues that address 80% of the important consequences. Those issues are addressed in an intensive, fast-paced manner to keep stakeholders engaged.   The outcome of STEP is a stakeholder-agreed mission along with action plans including:

• Stakeholder “key expectations”

• Mission agreement

• Critical activities and responsibilities definition using the RACI matrix (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed)

• Stakeholder output on perceived Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)

• Critical success conditions (CSCs) required to achieve the mission

• Priority “MUST DOs” (MDs) and “owners” to address the CSCs

• Triple-W action planning (what, who, when) for the MDs

 Recently I provided a STEP workshop for a multi-party carbon-capture project at a petrochemical facility. This project has stakeholders from the federal government, the petrochemical company, three major engineering companies, and providers of socioeconomic analyses. The STEP helped assure alignment of stakeholders’ interests, clarity of roles and responsibilities, and priority actions needed to kick off and maintain successful project delivery.

STEP results in a project success “blueprint,” invaluable for complex project kickoff and implementation.

Client feedback on STEP:

“It’s one thing to have a strategy, but even more importantly is the plan of attack to implement the strategy. Hunter used his STEP process to develop a detailed plan of attack on our strategy to develop our design-build services, and we are benefiting greatly from the outcome.” Design-Build leader of an engineering and construction company.

“I personally experienced the full value, and saw success from, the STEP process for the formulation of a global digital strategy for my company.  I was new to the company, and the task was to evolve over 6 months.  Hunter helped me fill out the basic building blocks of the STEP process, from stakeholder key expectations, deliverables RACI, critical success conditions, must-dos and down to the triple-W action plan.   For me personally I found the critical success condition exercise a powerful way of being reminded how failure could happen, and how to mitigate those risks by getting clarity on must do actions to address.  Over the 6 month period I referred back to these many times, and was able to track progress on what was getting done.  For someone without strong organizational skills, this was an invaluable tool for me.  In the end the global digital strategy was delivered successfully, and I believe STEP was an important factor in establishing an early framework to work from.” Digital Technology leader for a global engineering consulting company.

Executive/Leadership Training & Coaching

Negotiations Training & Competitive Workshops

If someone is talking to you they want something, and you are in a negotiation.  Negotiation is life and  no other skill offers so much value for competent performance.  Like all skills, negotiation requires study to understand it and practice to develop it. The World’s Shortest Negotiations Course is a fast-paced interactive presentation of negotiation concepts to help participants advance their journey to becoming skilled negotiators.  The course is built on the premise that if one were to read a stack of books on negotiation all that would be learned could be boiled down into a handful of key concepts.  Those concepts make up the building blocks of The World’s Shortest Negotiations Course, which addresses:

• Negotiation is ubiquitous and takes many forms

• Negotiation occurs across two primary behavioral zones: collaborative and competitive; and the art of negotiation includes blending these for each situation

• The pillars of negotiation success are:

  • strategy and planning

  • emotions and psychology

  • tactical methodology

• The pillars are ingrained through competitive, mock negotiation sessions

Participants in this course will enhance their understanding of negotiation concepts and principles and will be able to take those lessons forward in practicing and improving everyday negotiations performance.  For participants who engage in business negotiations the learnings from this training are sure to result in enhanced savings, revenues, and profit.  Attorneys will enhance their abilities to negotiate fees, disputes, and settlements. Everyone will benefit from the practical lessons applicable to everyday life and interpersonal interactions of all kinds. The initial course consists of a presentation including extensive interactive dialogue, plus a fun and challenging competitive scenario where teams compete for the best score in a mock negotiation. The mock negotiation not only helps participants develop their negotiation skills but it is a great team building exercise and opportunity for managers to observe the skills and potential of their staff. More extensive follow-up sessions are offered to further hone negotiations skills with planning workshops, additional competitive scenario challenges, and other hands-on skills development.

Client feedback on the World’s Shortest Negotiation Course:

“…offers one of the best returns on investment for any training I’ve encountered in my 40-year career.” President of a global engineering company.

“All participants were very pleased. The competitive scenario was not done in a way to embarrass people, but showed them where they can improve.” Director of environmental program for a global aerospace/defense company.

“Mr. Nolen was knowledgeable and entertaining. He engaged the team well, provided opportunity for participation, and brought great working examples. Relaxed and conversational versus lecturing.” Participant for a metropolitan area publics works department.

“Great exercise with many learning points, also great for learning about my colleagues!” The competitive challenge delivered on all accounts with respect to engagement, team building, education and most importantly in challenging us.” Participant from a leading global internet sales/distribution company.

Everything that was delivered was based on experiences amassed over many years, so carried massive credibility, which had the team fully engaged. President of an industrial construction company.

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Change Management Training

One cannot be a good manager or effective leader without developing strong change management skills.  Ben Franklin said: When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.  Phillip Chappuis said, Status quo is something that has already been done.  Will Rogers encouraged us to, Go out on a limb, that’s where the fruit is.  So, change is lifeblood to any organization, however, care and effective method is required because, If you are not changing you are going backwards, but if all you are doing is changing then you cannot go forward.

When is it time to change?  When productivity is stuck or faltering. When is it not time to change?  When productivity is increasing, or you haven’t yet analyzed the value/impact relationship of a proposed change.  Effective change management requires great timing, motivation, planning, execution and follow-through; and all this requires process.

My change management training is oriented around a Change Management Playbook (CMP) that I formulated around a Triple-A method (Alignment, Action, and Assurance).   The CMP is essentially the work-breakdown-structure and schedule using the Triple-A approach, which consists of:

• Alignment - that change is needed, and the selected change is the best available alternative

• Action - to set the change in motion and put the teams, systems, and tools in place to complete the change

• Assurance - to verify that alignment continues, actions are being completed, and desired results are achieved

Interested in further discussion on change management?  I can present my Change Management Fundamentals Course as an introductory session.   Follow-up training is designed to further hone change management knowledge and skills with planning workshops, competitive scenario challenges, and other means of hands-on skills development.

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Effective Communications

HNC communications training focuses on certain keys to communications for managers, developing leaders and executives:

• Basic Business Communications – when less is more and when more is needed

• Effective Meetings Management – purpose, process, efficiency, and follow-through

• Difficult Communications – embracing and tackling difficult communications through method and emotional control

• Presentation Skills – teach the audience and they will love you for it

• Persuasive Business Writing - easy, enjoyable reading with a punch

My method of instructing the above topics utilizes proven concepts, personal experience, and hands on interactive challenges, role playing and working sessions.  Participants are sure to benefit from learning methods and tools for effective communications.  Teams build rapport and trust as they challenge one another through breakouts and feedback sessions.