Every M&A has two integrations running at once. One gets tracked in steering committees. The other happens in the mid-layer, in break rooms, on side Slack channels, in the quiet decisions people make about whether to stay and commit or stay and watch. Most organizations plan for the first one. The one they’re ignoring is usually the one that decides the outcome.
Surface. Recognize that two integrations are running, whether you’re tracking both or not.
Examine. Run the break room diagnostic. Map where informal experience diverges from the official plan.
Activate. Engage the mid-layer at both organizations as partners, not recipients of the plan.
Make. Build the mid-layer bridge and commission a lighthouse project, something the two organizations build together that neither could have built alone.
“Keep me posted” is not an integration strategy.