We just acquired a smaller competitor and need to merge their leadership team with ours, but the cultures are clashing and we are fighting over who owns which seat. How do we use the Accountability Chart to design a unified structure?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Merging two leadership teams is a recipe for political warfare if you try to fit existing people into a combined org chart. You must throw out both existing charts and use the Accountability Chart to design the right structure for the combined entity first, completely blind to the individuals.

Start with your V/TO®. Define the core focus and the three-year picture for the newly merged company. Once you are aligned on where the business is going, design the structure needed to get there. Build the Accountability Chart by defining the essential seats and the five key roles for each seat. Do not look at names or resumes yet.

Once the optimal structure is agreed upon, evaluate the leaders from both companies against the new seats using the GWC™ filter. Ask who genuinely gets, wants, and has the capacity to run this seat. You will inevitably have two people fighting for the same seat, such as head of sales or head of operations. You must choose the single best person for that seat. There can only be one name accountable per seat.

For the leaders who do not get a seat on the new leadership team, you must handle them with respect. Offer them key individual contributor roles or structured exit packages. Do not create artificial co-seats to avoid hard conversations. Use our Charter as your guide, establishing trust and love and respect from day one of the integration.