Course Highlights
This full-day workshop for combined teams will:
- Give participants a structured way to identify where two groups agree, where they do not, and what to do about the gap.
- Introduce practical tools for understanding how people work, make decisions, and handle conflict differently.
- Examine the types of collaboration that help newly combined teams build trust and the types that backfire.
- Help participants recognize their own conflict tendencies and choose more productive responses under pressure.
- Build skill in delivering honest, caring feedback during a period when people are still deciding whether to trust one another.
- Close with a team-built integration plan grounded in everything the day surfaced.
Course Overview
When two groups become one, the announcement is the easy part. What follows is harder. Different histories, habits, expectations, and definitions of what good work looks like do not disappear because an organizational chart changes. The real work of integration happens in the day-to-day, in how people communicate, make decisions, navigate disagreement, and build something shared out of what was separate.
“Finding the Fit: Tools and Skills for Combined Teams” is a full-day onsite workshop that gives combined teams the frameworks, tools, and practice to do that work well. Throughout the day, participants work alongside a running case study of two fictional colleges navigating a merger, applying each tool to the case before turning it toward their own situation. The case keeps the learning concrete and the conversation safe. The tools make it transferable.
The following outline highlights some of the workshop’s learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).
Program Objectives
At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Identify the areas where two combining groups most need shared understanding and begin building it.
- Describe how individual and team workstyles affect collaboration in a newly combined environment.
- Distinguish between types of collaboration and choose the right approach for a given situation.
- Recognize common conflict reactions in themselves and others and select more productive responses.
- Apply the HEART model to a difficult conversation that the integration requires.
- Articulate specific next steps for their own team in an integration plan built during the workshop.
Workshop Modules
The Alignment Audit: Agreeing on What Matters
The workshop opens with the question every combined team eventually has to answer, usually under pressure and without enough time. What do we actually agree on? Participants will meet Garrison University and Rivermont College, two fictional institutions whose merger is three weeks old and whose joint curriculum committee has just held its first meeting. It did not go well. Using the case as a starting point, the group will examine four areas where alignment is essential when cultures combine: purpose, values, standards, and priorities. Participants will then audit their own team against each dimension, identify where genuine common ground exists, and surface the gaps that need deliberate attention before they become fault lines.
The Style Lens: Discovering How People Work Best
A newly combined team does not just have different opinions. It has different rhythms, different decision-making habits, and different assumptions about what a good working relationship looks like. This part of the day focuses on understanding individual and team workstyles and what happens when styles that have never had to coexist suddenly share a conference room. The case introduces a Garrison administrator managing a newly combined team that includes Rivermont staff who are accustomed to a deliberative, consensus-driven culture. She moves fast. They move carefully. Neither approach is wrong. Participants will use the Communication Jungle to examine their own styles and consider what the combined profile of their team makes easier and what it makes harder.
The Collaboration Map: Knowing When to Work Together
Collaboration is not a default setting. It is a choice, and the right choice depends on the situation. When two groups combine, the instinct is often to collaborate on everything as a way of building goodwill. That instinct is not always wrong, but it is not always right either. This section examines the different forms collaboration can take and the conditions under which each one serves the team. The case moves forward: Garrison and Rivermont have launched cross-enrollment, and two faculty members from different institutions are now teaching the same students. They have very different ideas about grading, participation, and rigor. Participants will map the collaboration types at play, identify which fits the situation, and practice applying that thinking to their own team’s most contested shared work.
The Conflict Decoder: Navigating Reactions and Responses
Conflict in a newly combined team is not a sign that something has gone wrong. It is a predictable feature of two groups that do not yet fully trust each other trying to make decisions together under pressure. This part of the day addresses the unproductive reactions that make conflict more expensive than it has to be, and introduces a range of approaches that give participants more options when tension arrives. The case reaches its sharpest moment: a Rivermont faculty member has publicly criticized the merger, and a Garrison faculty member has responded in kind. Both statements have reached the president’s office. Participants will decode what is driving each reaction, assess which conflict approach fits the situation, and examine their own tendencies using a self-assessment built into the workshop.
HEART in Practice: Having the Conversations That Matter
The day closes with the skill that makes everything else sustainable. The HEART model gives participants a framework for delivering honest feedback and navigating hard conversations with both directness and care. In the case, the shared provost needs to tell a 22-year department chair that her program is under review for consolidation. The chair does not know it is coming. The conversation has to happen before the board meeting. Participants will work through the case conversation using HEART, identify where it could go wrong, and practice a version of a difficult conversation from their own integration using the same framework.
The Integration Plan: Building What Comes Next
The workshop does not end with a debrief. It ends with a deliverable. Using everything the day surfaced, each team will build an integration plan that captures their alignment agreements, their workstyle insights, their collaboration commitments, and the specific conversations they still need to have. The plan is practical, not aspirational. Participants will leave with something they made together that reflects what they actually learned, not a generic list of next steps. Teams share their plans with the full room, and the closing conversation connects the day’s work to the specific moment their combined team is in.
Target Audience
This workshop is designed for groups that want to:
- Build shared understanding and alignment after a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or team combination.
- Give people on both sides of a combination practical tools for working better together.
- Address the conflict, communication, and trust challenges that integration creates before they become entrenched.
- Leave the day with a concrete plan rather than a general sense of progress.
Frequently Asked Questions About This Combined Teams Training Workshop
How is this program different from the two-hour virtual version?
The virtual program introduces the five areas at an overview level. This full-day workshop goes deeper in every section, incorporates a running case study that participants work alongside throughout the day, includes self-assessment tools, and closes with a team-built integration plan. Participants leave with a concrete deliverable rather than notes.
When is the right time to run this program?
The workshop works at any stage of a combination. Teams that run it early establish shared language and agreements before bad habits form. Teams that run it later use it to address integration work that was never fully done. If the combination is still fresh, the case study tends to generate more energy. If it is older, the self-assessment and integration plan sections tend to do the most work.
Who should attend?
Any group navigating a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or significant team combination benefits from this program. It works well for mixed groups that include members from both sides of a combination, as well as for leadership teams responsible for managing the integration process.
Can the case study be customized for our industry or situation?
The case study as written is set in higher education and designed to be industry-neutral enough that participants in any sector recognize the dynamics. For clients who want a case study closer to their own context, we can discuss customization options as part of the planning conversation.
How long is this program?
The standard format is a full-day onsite session. We can adjust the duration and emphasis based on your schedule and priorities.