Leaders are backtracking, organizations are backtracking their mission, and some for very legitimate reasons, right? What does this create when we find ourselves in situations where we're saying one thing, but then our actions are living something else? based on whatever pressures we're maybe dealing with at the time, whether it's stakeholder pressures, customer pressures, or internal employee pressures, or whatever may be happening in the macroeconomic realm in which we live and

work.

There's a lot to unpack there.

I'd like to take a quick step back and talk about culture for a quick minute because I think that that's important for this conversation.

Often you see the definition of culture as this shared way of doing things or shared belief system.

And that's great, but I don't feel that it's accurate because it's not very actionable.

And to me, when I think about company culture, I think of it the way it's described in science, which is to culture something is to create conditions under which you want things to grow or not grow.

Any response to that?

When do you think they should really start making sure that both parties are communicating in the ways that you suggested?

The earlier, the better.

Now, again, I know there's a lot of, you know, regulations around when certain companies can speak to each other, like in, in public sit- in a public company situation.

But realistically, the sooner the better.

If you're discussing a press release to make an announcement, you should already at least be creating a plan that identifies how you're gonna communicate with people once this announcement is, is out and live.

Because too often I see that companies are so focused on the external, which is very important.

Don't get me wrong, right? You wanna make sure that all the relevant external par- external parties are, are, are clear on what's happening, but they forget that the people doing the work also need to understand what that means for them if they want this to succeed.

If we could summarize three action steps that you would give to a deal maker, maybe it's an investment banker, maybe an M&A attorney, somebody that's bringing people together, or even those that are in a private equity company, they're involved in those acquisitions and those mergers, what would be three action steps you'd give them related to what you talked about today?