The Integration Dr Blog

I am a transplant from the northeast.  Although I have lived in Austin for almost 15 years, I still have many remnants of northeast living within me:

1)      I’m perfectly happy with the windows open (vs. the A/C on) if it’s not too hot;

2)     I look forward to colder weather, hot apple cider, and using my fireplace;

3)     I do think that 113 degrees is just TOO DANG HOT

4)     I think that swimming in a pool less than 80 degrees is OK.  [In fact, I think that many pools in Austin, in the middle of a hot summer, are more like swimming in a bathtub than taking a refreshing dip…]

However, over time, I’ve adapted to living in the south:

1)     I no longer own 14 different wool suits (in fact, I don’t own any since Austin is not a ‘suit’ kinda place);

2)     I have learned to appreciate a milder winter – there’s something to be said for not scraping ice off your windshield on a daily basis, or removing snow from the driveway in order to get out;

3)     I like the outdoors-y-ness of the South – walking/biking trails, etc. that encourage us to get out and get moving;

4)     I like living in the middle of the country (for those not intimately familiar with geography, Austin is pretty central in the south – equidistant from both coasts, which helps when commuting to one of ‘em.)  I also like living in the central time zone for the same reason…

In order to make this a reality, I had to integrate my two lives – my northern life and my southern life.  When I first moved here, I found out that my summer wardrobe was not sufficient to bring me through eight months of warmer weather, and my winter wardrobe was way too extensive for four months of cooler weather.

When integrating management systems, a similar recognition is necessary.  Although there are great things, in and of themselves, about each of these systems, some of these great things are in too high a percentage (woolen suits); others are in too low (summer suits).  Some things have to go by the wayside entirely (our snow shovels, snow blower, ice scrapers, etc.)  Notice that I did not say that these were lousy tools, or tools that had outlived their usefulness; they were simply tools that didn’t fit our new system.

Do you have tools, techniques, etc. that work great for one system but may not fit well with the new integrated system?  Don’t feel bad about whittling them down; although they served their purpose when it was needed, they are not needed any longer.

Do you need to make things work better together?  Look at ways that you can do so easily (keeping the wool jacket – sans skirt – as a winter jacket to pair with slacks) – can you implement the internal auditing program across multiple systems easily?  Can you expand management review to incorporate multiple systems?  What works and what doesn’t?  Adapt your system to make it work better together.