Boiling Rice in Still Water: From Merger to Mindshift

Session Submission Type: Presentation

Short Description

Many of the challenges erupting from a merger — such as new teams working together in different ways, access to resources, cultural differences, and unclear lines of authority — are also commonly encountered in other organizational settings. A leadership consultant/scholar and a senior vice president will present a case study on the merger of Canon and Océ to highlight the common adaptive challenges encountered and explore the processes and approaches implemented to create conditions for success. Using the dialogical leadership model, the presenters will be in conversation with one another and the audience as they describe the journey from merger to mindshift.

Detailed Abstract

In this session we will take you on a journey with the Board and Senior Vice Presidents of Océ-Canon. Starting point of the project is that after the merger with Canon the playing field for Océ from an organizational-, client perspective and market outlook point of view changed dramatically. The mindset of the SVP’s and the way of working required together was not yet adapted to the new situation. There are several ‘wicked issues’ (Grint) or ‘adaptive challenges’ that have to be discussed and brought to execution, but how to create a context where this is going to happen in an effective and productive manner?

We will demonstrate three phases of the journey in our presentation:
- Creating conditions for dialogue and mutual respect as the starting point for the journey.
- Dealing with impatience and practicing ‘listening’ and ‘suspending judgment’ (rational, emotional and non-verbal) before ‘voicing’ your view: professional change and personal transformation go hand-in-hand
- to build a stronger team effectively requires developing trust, openness and mutual understanding, cooperation to create consensus, deal effectively with conflict and a feel of personal autonomy even though you’re part of a team
- Dealing with wicked issues, an illustration.

There will be room for Q&A.

The theme of the lecture is described in chapter 7 of the recently published book by Rens van Loon titled Creating Organizational Value through Dialogical Leadership. Boiling Rice in Still Water (Springer 2017).

Rob Rutten is Senior Vice President HR of Océ -Canon focusing on leadership mind shifts

Rens van Loon is Professor of Dialogical Leadership and Director Deloitte Consulting in the Netherlands

Sub Unit

• Business Leadership

Presenters

• Ernst-Jan Minnema, Oce - A Canon Company

• Rens van Loon, ; Director of Human Capital, Deloitte Consulting