The emotional force field at work and in M&A
There are many force fields within companies: innovation and risk-tolerance force fields, or the shared knowledge force field across an enterprise that carry specific languages all their own. Fundamental to them all is the emotional force field (EFF) of trust and respect and inclusion that employees sense in their bones as they experience work dynamics day by day, zoom meeting by zoom meeting.
Much of this EFF is missed and overlooked in a ‘data first’ world. It is under-estimated regularly as a force for business success. One Brit business superstar knew a lot about the EFF. He knew poetry captured the EFF better than data. Ralph Windle was known as the poet of the boardroom, or his stiff upper lip British pen name, Bertie Ramsbottom. He was a Procter and Gamble trained marketer, and Oxford educated—the perfect pedigree for a business based poetry—The Poetry of Business Life: an anthology, Berrett Koehler, 1994.
He celebrated much about commerce in his and others’ poems. And he could point out what it misses or distorts as well.
Here is part of his poem on mergers and their not working so well. Take in his language on the EFF and the heart and soul of business—people.
Death by Merger by Bertie Ramsbottom
A corporate entity, which starts
As just an aggregate of parts,
Evolves in time within its whole,
An idiosyncratic soul.
This personality defeats
Analysis by balance sheets,
The way your character eludes
The X-ray and (MRI) tubes
These tell us much about our health,
As balance sheets of corporate wealth:
But neither takes us very far
Towards clarifying what we are.
But what we are, on this strange earth,
Defines our value and our worth;
Not, for a man, his ears or throat,
Nor, for a company, its quote….
This may be why we see the trail
Of acquisitions, doomed to fail…
Above all, it’s the people presence
That permeates this corporate essence,
And catalyzes, through the whole,
Its special chemistry and soul.
So synergies from mergers fail
Because the soul is not for sale;
Just as, when plants and factories close,
More dies than most of us suppose.
Most of us have big respect for those masters of business analytics and evidence-based, data driven decision-making. Even more, because it is harder to do, let us honor those who master the intangibles of relationships and trust and interactions. I enjoy measuring emotional intelligence (EI) with assessments. And I enjoy even more EI as it happens, like observing my client extending some metaphor-based thought that gives her team more options for improving touchy team dynamics.
Do what Bertie says to do: focus on the people presence that permeates that corporate essence.