You are the Director of a large information management division at your company. Your staff consists of a Manager of Inventory Systems and a Manager of Order Processing Systems as well as a team administrators and programmers. You report directly to the VP of Operational Technology.

Your department is nearly three quarters of the way through the most important project you have been given since taking your post. Your division has been charged with creating an in-house system to replace the model you currently use, which is hosted on the server of a vendor. Recreating the system to include what your company needs without losing the current system capabilities is crucial.  Your entire department is spending at least a quarter of their time dedicated to this project.

It was recently announced by corporate management that your company is being purchased by a competitor from the same industry. The companies are approximately the same size but have completely different approaches to the marketplace. There is no avoiding some culture clash.

Out of the acquisition planning process has come a directive that similar headquarters administrative departments from the two formerly separate companies, such as Finance, HR and IT, will be combined, and "excess" positions will be eliminated. Preliminary expectations are that you and your VP will be retained, but about one half of your existing staff (including one of your managers) will be let go and several of the other companies programmers will become part of your new organization.

 Additionally, the senior corporate management team has stated that the combined departments must quickly become effective teams that find and fit together. Obviously, you realize that these changes will have major effects on both your staff members and on your ongoing project.

At this point you are safe, however you need to determine quickly how to make two different staffs from two different approaches come together and get them on track for your project to be completed. As a leader, what would your teambuilding approach be to this situation?