18 November 2025
The first ninety days after a merger announcement
The announcement is a legal event. The next ninety days are a social one. Local managers will be asked questions the pack did not anticipate, usually in a car park.
Give those managers a speaking brief that admits what is unknown. “We do not yet know the depot manager’s reporting line” is more usable than “we are stronger together”. People can work with a named unknown. They punish a slogan that pretends the unknown is already solved.
Merger Narrative Lab exists because acquired sites hear family language as a wipe. In Whyalla we watched a mixed group wince at “one family”. We retired it the same afternoon. The replacement was dull and specific: which systems stay for six months, which pay cycle is unchanged, who to email about uniforms.
A ninety-day cadence that is not a branding campaign
Week 1: facts that affect next Tuesday. Week 4: a listened session that is allowed to be angry. Week 8: a constraint calendar that names whose shutdown is whose. Week 12: a pause check — what should stop being integrated because it is hurting service.
None of this replaces legal or industrial advice. It is business consulting for change management in the narrow sense: helping the organisation tell the truth at the speed the floor requires.