Creating A Positive Culture In Merged Entities

The last couple of days, I’ve shared some thoughts around culture in M&A. Today, I’d like to talk about the power of employee listening for understanding the target company’s culture and powering cultural integration. Before the announcement, we can only get the perceptions of people who are under the tent, outside parties, and what’s been shared in the media. That means we’re only getting part of the story during the cultural due diligence phase. To learn the rest of the story, we want to hear what employees have to say. We usually do this with surveys, interviews, and focus groups. They provide invaluable insights to help us understand potential areas of both cultural synergy and culture clash. I’ve found there are frequently disparities between how leaders perceive their organization’s culture and how employees experience it. Employee listening helps to bridge this gap, offering a more nuanced view of the culture. A few years ago, I worked on a deal where the value drivers were rooted in warehouse efficiency. None of the target’s leaders have ever worked in the warehouse – in fact, they really didn’t think about the warehouse much during the sale, and they saw the warehouse workers as fungible. Everything was focused on the office where they worked. So, of course, all of the cultural questions were answered from the perspective of an office worker who was not a key value driver. After the deal was announced, the integration leader and I spent time in the warehouse, listening to the employees there. They had great ideas about how we could make the acquisition more successful, including inexpensive ideas that would drive efficiency, which was the entire goal of the deal. We worked with their leadership to implement several of the ideas. We drove amazing synergies in this deal – synergies that never would have happened if we didn’t spend time listening to employees who were overlooked during the formal diligence phase. This experience underscored the importance of comprehensive employee listening. It's not just about the boardroom - it's about every room. In your experience, how have you used employee listening in cultural due diligence? I'd love to hear your thoughts. #MergersAndAcquisitions #CulturalDueDiligence #EmployeeListening

When doing any M&A - are you purchasing the intellectual property or the business? Because if you're buying ANYTHING more than the intellectual property, trust is at the core of the integration. You can (maybe) integrate systems in 90 days. Integrating trust takes a whole lot longer. One of the most overlooked risks in M&A? The human one. I’ve been through multiple integrations, due diligence cycles, and post-close transitions. And I can tell you: spreadsheets may win the deal, but it's trust, communication, and culture that determine whether the value actually materializes. Circling back to one of my previous posts - it is also making sure the "say" and the "do" match - ALL the way back to the initial due diligence. Here's what often gets missed: 🔹 People interpret silence as threat - and in the absence of information will create their own story - which is often significantly worse than the truth! Communication isn't just a courtesy—it's risk mitigation. 🔹 Culture is an operating system. Every team has embedded ways of working. If you force alignment without understanding those patterns, you may inadvertently shut down what made them successful in the first place. 🔹 Integration is emotional. Titles shift. Power moves. Identities blur. Benefits change. The process isn’t just technical—it’s deeply personal. And without a strategy for that, and a proactive change plan (that is HEAVY on the communication) you’re leaving value on the table. The most successful integrations I’ve supported had three things in common: 🧩 A shared leadership narrative grounded in purpose and clarity. 🧩 Early identification of cultural hotspots—not just red flags, but areas of pride and strength. Coupled with the understanding that the acquired organization may often have things to teach the buying organization! 🧩 A deliberate, empathetic, and transparent approach to change management—because speed without humanity breeds resistance. M&A is an incredible opportunity to reset, refocus, and rebuild stronger. But only if the people inside the business believe they have a future in the new version. The real synergy? It’s not just in the balance sheet. It’s in the belief system. I'd love to hear from others—what’s something you’ve seen work (or not) when two organizations become one?

Mergers are like marriages of convenience. Necessary but not necessarily desired. Are you helping people grieve their losses? Mergers and acquisitions are typically treated as financial deals. Legal, accounting, and operations teams take the lead. Spreadsheets are reviewed. Synergies are projected. But where is the space for grief? As an Organizational Ombuds, I’ve seen this play out time and time again: people aren’t just adjusting to a new org chart—they’re mourning the loss of the company they knew. Their familiar language, inside jokes, unspoken rules, even who gets the last word in meetings—all of that changes overnight. Each organization is like a sovereign nation with its own customs. A merger isn’t just a deal—it’s a cultural collision. If integration teams aren’t equipped to address that, resistance builds, trust erodes, and your top talent quietly disengages. What if we did it differently? 🔍 What if M&A teams included an Ombuds from day one? Unlike consultants focused on systems or advisors focused on valuation, Ombuds serve as confidential thought partners—listening to fears, spotting friction early, and helping leaders communicate in ways that feel human, not corporate. 🧠 We help people process change before it becomes conflict. 🗣 We teach leaders how to listen, not just announce. 🤝 And we translate between cultures—so that both legacy teams feel respected and heard. Because behind every stalled integration or culture clash is a simple truth: no one was tasked with helping people feel safe enough to adapt. So, I’ll ask: ➡️ Who on your integration team is responsible for emotional fluency? ➡️ How are you equipping leaders to communicate with empathy? ➡️ Who’s listening when people feel lost, angry, or overlooked? The numbers matter—but the human experience is what determines whether your integration thrives or fractures. Let’s not treat grief like a risk to be managed. Let’s treat it like a truth to be honored.

Culture clash is real when you're in acquisition mode. When companies merge, you can't just have an operational onboarding check list and call it a day. Companies are people. You are merging people. If you skip the onboarding, the relationship building, the cultural alignment, employees feel confused, customers feel disconnected, and suddenly, the brand feels "off". Here’s how our clients make M&A transitions look easy 💅 : 👉 Clarity: Establish a clear vision that’s shared across both teams. We do this through surveys, realignment around archetypes, sharing stories of past wins, and defining together who we are as a merged team, and where we're going. 👉 Alignment: Internalize your vision with your employees. Create internal campaigns that reinforce the messaging, conduct workshops to teach real world use cases for telling our story, and make it fun with teasers and merch drops. 👉 Activation: Get loud and clear with your audience. Rollout language to customers and partners in ways that speak to their problems, reinforce their decision to work with you, and show them the future you are building together. Have you been through an M&A brand project? What did I miss?