Marshall Goldsmith, in his book ‘What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,’ describes Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp, responding to a Harvard Business School student’s comment about the lack of synergy in IAC’s various online businesses. “Don’t ever use that word synergy. It’s a hideous word,” Diller said. “The only thing that works is natural law.”
Mr. Goldsmith agrees, and says, “You can’t force people to work together. You can’t mandate synergy.” He adds that people will do something, “…only if it can be demonstrated that doing so is in their own best interests as defined by their own values.” And that people’s self interest, “…usually boils down to four items: money, power, status, and popularity.”
Synergy is often cited as an expected benefit of restructurings and acquisitions. I served as director of corporate marketing in a Fortune 100 division that restructured from independent business units to a matrix organization, and I’ve worked as a consultant to integrate the marketing operations of several acquired companies. Only one method has consistently worked for me:
Learn the self-interests of people who are essential to organizational change, and convince them that helping achieve it will contribute to their personal success.
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