How Creating New Values Strengthened a High-Risk M&A Deal

Before Bonterra had a name, the new company—a merger of four organizations—asked Great Mondays to guide the creation of new values and corresponding employee retention strategies. The risk involved in bringing together this many companies is the ultimate case for investing in values; the process and outcome can bring employees together during enormous change improving the odds of its success.

We started by talking with senior leaders and external stakeholders to understand Bonterra's vision. At our request, the executive leadership team nominated 18 culture ambassadors from across the organization to ensure an authentic, employee-created values process. We hosted a series of workshops to understand their concerns and utilize the collective intelligence of these high performers. Together, we then identified behaviors that could embody and enable Bonterra's purpose. By the end, our project ambassadors along with company leaders arrived at four unique values and a unified corporate culture.

Four standout ambassadors introduced the new culture framework at an all-hands meeting. Each selected one of the four new values to present with a personal story about its significance to them. But how would values guide their behaviors? They found out a few days later when the Supreme Court of the U.S. overturned Roe v. Wade. Bonterra's CEO released a response about how they will continue to advocate with one of their core values—cultivate inclusivity—in mind. That is the power of values to guide behaviors.