In the first 30 days after an acquisition, your job is closing the gap between the questions people are asking and the answers anyone is giving them. Colby Morris calls it the Answer Gap.

The deal closes in an afternoon. The people take a lot longer. And while leadership is working through slide thirty-one of the integration plan, the breakroom is writing its own version of what happens next, and recruiters are already messaging your best people. Colby has been the interim COO dropped into exactly that kind of chaos after a private equity acquisition: no one knew who they reported to, projects had stalled, and high performers were already walking out. This episode covers what he did about it, how it turned around in six months, and how a middle manager with no answers of their own can run the same playbook with their team.

Colby Morris: "I have never, not once, seen somebody quit a job because their boss told them too much."

What is the Answer Gap?

The Answer Gap is Colby Morris's name for the distance between the questions employees are asking after a deal and the answers anyone is actually giving them. In the first 30 days, someone fills that gap. If leadership doesn't, the breakroom and the recruiters will. The episode covers the three moves Colby uses to close it.

Why do employees leave after an acquisition?

Research from Ernst & Young (EY), cited by Gallup, found that 47% of key employees leave within a year of a deal and 75% within three years. MIT Sloan research using Census data on roughly 4,000 acquisitions and 350,000 employees found acquired employees leave in the first year at nearly three times the rate of regular hires, about a third versus 12%. The people most likely to leave first are high performers with options, and uncertainty drives it more than money.

What should leaders do in the first 30 days after an acquisition?

Get in front of people fast, tell them what you know and what you don't, and lead beyond your own reporting lines. Colby walks through exactly how he did that as an interim COO, including a one-on-one cascade that carried information down and concerns back up, and what happened when a departed high performer heard about it.

What can a middle manager do when their company gets acquired?

You can't control what the company says, but you control what happens on your team. For the people who report to you, you are the company. The episode covers what to say in one-on-ones when you don't have answers, the one question to ask your own boss, and how to keep your team moving while everyone else stalls.

Research and references in this episode

• Colby Morris: "Two opposite things can be true at the same time."
• Ernst & Young (EY), as cited by Gallup: 47% of key employees leave within a year of a deal, 75% within three years.
• MIT Sloan research on acquired-employee turnover: about a third leave in year one, versus 12% of regular hires.
• William Bridges, Managing Transitions: change versus transition.
• Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: overcommunicating clarity.

Related episodes

• Leading Through Corporate Restructuring & Layoffs
• Stop Running Your One-on-Ones
• One-on-One Meetings That Work
• Your Boss Isn't Ignoring You

Connect with Colby Morris

Colby Morris is the founder of NXT Step Advisors, helping founder-led and PE-backed companies stabilize through leadership transitions, acquisitions, and disruption, along with executive coaching and leadership training.

Learn more at NXTStepAdvisors.com or connect with Colby on LinkedIn.

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