Mergers are financial events. They're also human ones. Most integration plans account for the first. Very few consider the second.

Forensic audits evaluate balance sheets. Due diligence maps operational risk. Financial modeling projects net gains. None of these evaluations accounts for what actually determines whether two organizations successfully become one: the people who have to do the work, or whether the cultures they're bringing with them can align, adapt, and move forward together. Organizations often evaluate success primarily through financial outcomes. The bottom line matters, but it is achieved by the humans who happen to be employees. Sustainable performance depends on how effectively leaders understand, align, and mobilize the humans responsible for delivering results.

When a big change is announced, the very first thought that everyone has is: “How is this going to affect ME?” If leadership on both sides isn’t in lock-step with the messaging, intentions and reasons for any big change, confusion prevails, gossip begins, silos are formed all of which becomes the focus of all the “me’s” instead of the work where integration begins. When two organizational cultures, norms or practices operate by fundamentally different rules or intentions, when the people on the ground don't believe in the change they've been told to execute, the integration underperforms; The morale suffers and talent often leaves, synergies don't materialize, and the reasons don't show up on any of the financials that were reviewed before the deal closed.

FIG addresses the variable that gets left out.