Resistance is Never Futile

Earlier this week I attended an information session targeted for those of us who "are being offered severance packages." My understanding of this meeting was that the future organization would be talking to the soon-to-be unemployed about benefits, 401(K), etc. This sounded a lot like a lion describing its own digestive system to a zebra. The actual session was much worse.

After hearing about the history of the organization, each of the presenters shared how delighted they were about our companies merging together. The leader of the team went even further by stating, "If you look out our history, we've done many acquisitions just like this." I silently wondered if she realized that the only people benefiting from this acquisition were the people doing all the talking.

As a training and development professional, I know that one of the worst things that can happen while facilitating a workshop is to have resistance from the audience and the worst kind of resistance is silence. In my opinion, one of the main reasons for silence in a classroom is lack of trust between speaker and audience. These presenters got silence.

One person was from a "Transition Services" firm (outplacement agency) that the organization hired. She was amiable and made a valiant effort in opening up the crowd. Unfortunately, there were no takers. I finally threw her a bone and asked a question about their services...too bad the answer was so disappointing.

This may sound a bit conceited, but I consider myself to be a relatively nice person and, in general, I try to cut people some slack. At this particular meeting I just couldn't. Throughout the rest of the presentation, the following sentence was repeated at least three times: "The information on this slide pertains to those who are staying through the acquisition. That doesn't really apply to anyone here today."

None the less, the information was good. Sort of. Everything that was shared in the session could have been done via webinar or teleconference or e-mail. The only nice part about the meeting was getting to see my colleagues. Perhaps for the last time.

**Lesson learned: Know your audience.