The Herding Squirrels Podcast!

Jose Cruz is a talent development executive with more than 25 years shaping talent, culture, and organizations, from luxury retail floors at Saks Fifth Avenue to global teams today. In this episode of Herding Squirrels, he makes the case that the three hardest words for a leader to say are also the ones that build the most trust. We get into why “would you like my thoughts?” lands better than “can I give you feedback,” why so much training never changes behavior, and how the first 90 days decide whether a new hire stays engaged. If you’re leading a team through AI, remote work, or any change you can’t fully explain yet, this conversation gives you a practical way to say so out loud.

Jerry Oliveira is the Director of Training and Development at Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, home of Barclays Center. In this episode of Herding Squirrels, Jerry walks through the Brooklyn Way, a four-hour culture training built on the 70-20-10 learning model, with cross-department problem solving and a scavenger hunt that taught real arena knowledge. He also shares how he tells real engagement from the performative kind, what employees ask to learn when given the chance, and the mentor who told him she wanted to see him doing her job. If you're designing learning for a hybrid, multigenerational workforce, you'll leave with practical ways to make training stick.

Dennis Richter is the Chief Business and People Officer at Fullscript, a billion-dollar healthcare platform, with prior leadership roles at Meta, Google, Deloitte, and 12 years in the Army. In this episode of Herding Squirrels, Dennis explains why people aren’t actually tired of change. They’re tired of change that feels disconnected, unfinished, or poorly explained. He shares why information travels down an organization far faster than it travels up, what a live town hall teaches that a scripted one can’t, and why the people holding your company together rarely show up as critical on the org chart. If you’re leading a team through change and wondering what isn’t reaching you, this conversation gives you practical ways to get the real story sooner.

Sachin Gulati is an M&A integration leader at HP with almost 14 years of deal experience across HP, Google, and management consulting. In this episode of Herding Squirrels, Sachin explains why M&A gets sold as a financial transaction but wins or loses as a human transition, and why even a good playbook only gets you 50 to 60 percent of the way there. He shares the three things he listens for on day one (fear, pride, and uncertainty) and the three habits that build employee trust during a merger. If you're leading a team through an acquisition, a divestiture, or any big organizational change, you'll leave with the conversations to stop avoiding and a way to make change painful but predictable.

In this episode of Herding Squirrels, Kit breaks down why roughly 80 percent of founder led companies acquired by private equity for the first time go off the rails, and the five specific failure points that cause it. If you're leading a team through a PE acquisition, a board transition, or any high stakes change, this conversation gives you the exact questions to ask and the timeline to ask them on.

Lucas Liu is the Managing Director at Risecore, a boutique consulting firm specializing in M&A integration, carve-outs, exit readiness, and AI strategy for private equity firms and their portfolio companies. In this episode of Herding Squirrels, Lucas breaks down why so many integrations fall apart at the people level and what leaders can actually do about it before the cracks appear. If you're navigating an acquisition, advising one, or leading a team through serious organizational change, this conversation is direct and practical.