The Secret to Successful Mergers? Transparency, Trust & People with Kristin Omreng.

“Daring to say it as it is—being transparent, even when you don’t have all the answers—builds trust and resilience in an organisation.” - Kristin Omreng

Mergers and acquisitions are complex, and one of the biggest challenges isn't just combining business operations—it's integrating two distinct cultures, leadership styles, and ways of working. In this episode, I sit down with Kristin Omreng, EVP of People and Culture at TGS, to explore the human side of organisational change.

Kristin has nearly two decades of experience in HR and organisational development within the energy industry. She’s been at the forefront of integrating teams, managing transitions, and fostering resilient cultures in times of uncertainty. Today, she shares her firsthand experience navigating a recent merger in the energy data sector, including what worked, unexpected challenges, and key lessons learned.

Key Takeaways

• Merging Cultures Effectively: Strategies for integrating different company cultures and aligning employees with a shared vision.
• The Role of Leadership in Change: How leadership communication and role modeling shape organizational resilience.
• Stress Management & Employee Well-being: The impact of clear communication on reducing uncertainty and maintaining engagement.
• Trust & Adaptability: How fostering a culture of calculated risk-taking and learning from mistakes empowers teams.
• Lessons Learned in M&A Integration: Insights from TGS’s approach to communication, transparency, and building alignment.

Bio

Kristin Omreng holds the role as EVP People & Culture at TGS. Bringing nearly 20 years of HR and Organizational Development experience, managing and developing global organizations in the energy industry, Kristin leads the initiatives that enhance TGS people and culture strategies. She joined PGS as SVP Global HR in 2020, and prior to that held leadership roles within several global organizations overseeing HR, IT facilities, communications and legal, including over seven years at Aker Solutions. She holds a Masters of Business and Economics from the Norwegian School of Management, and an additional degree in Entrepreneurship from Boston University. 

Contact

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristino/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/kristinomreng/

Chapters

• 0:16 Introduction to the Podcast
• 1:42 Practical Tips for Everyday Challenges

Transcript

[0:00] Music.

[0:06] Welcome to It's an Inside Job, the podcast where we equip you with actual skills to build resilience, enhance communication, foster well-being,

[0:14] and lead and coach with impact. I'm your host, Jason Liem, and every Monday we bring you expert insights and real-world stories to help you thrive and succeed. And with that said, let's slip into the stream.

[0:27] Music.

[0:34] Welcome back to the show. I'm glad you could join me for another week. This week, we are going to dive into the world of mergers and acquisitions. And so I have a question for you. Have you ever faced the challenge of merging not just two companies, but two distinct cultures, leadership styles, and the ways of working, all while ensuring business continuity and keeping employees engaged? Have you been part of a merger, part of an acquisition, and trying to understand how to lead teams through this? Well, in this episode, I sit down with Kristin Omreng. She is the EVP of People and Culture at TGS. Now, we are going to explore the complexities of organizational change, leadership, and resilience. Now, she has nearly two decades of experience in HR and organizational development within the energy industry. Christine has been at the forefront of integrating teams, managing transition, and fostering cultures that thrive through uncertainty.

[1:29] And so today, Kristin shares her firsthand experience navigating a recent merger in the energy data sector, highlighting what worked, the unexpected challenges, and the key lessons learned. Now, we talk about the importance of clear communication, structured leadership, and the role of trust in times of transformation. Christine also emphasizes how companies can build a culture that encourages calculated risk-taking and learning from mistakes rather than fearing them, a mindset that surrounds both individuals and organizations. Now, some other key takeaways from our conversation include the strategy behind merging two distinct company cultures, leadership communication in high-stake environments, stress management and resilience, and the power of adaptability and trust.

[2:13] So if you're a leader, an HR professional, or simply someone navigating major transitions in your organization, well, I think this episode is packed with insights that will help you approach change with more confidence so without further ado let's slip into the stream and meet.

[2:28] Music.

[2:42] Thank you. Great to be back. Yes, it's been many moons since you've graced the show. So thank you for that. Perhaps for some of the new listeners and people who may not be familiar with who you are, could you briefly introduce who you are and what you do? Yes, sure. So I'm Kristin Amring. I'm heading up people and culture here at TGS. So as you might recall, last time we talked, I was working at PGS. So what's happened since then is that TGS acquired PGS. And we've been spending the last year now merging the two companies. So that's been a very exciting journey. A little bit more about myself. I spent most of my career within the energy space, also a little bit within shipping and leadership recruitment.

[3:40] Going way back. I grew up all around the world in all corners of the world, which is also, of course, shaped me quite a bit. Outside of work, I have two wonderful kids, a daughter that's 15 and a son that's 13, and obviously spend a lot of time with them. And when there's some excess time, I'm deep in the woods with long walks or going on ski trips. So that's me, Jason. Brilliant, brilliant. Well, today we are going to be talking about the complexity of merging two organizations. And you have been a part of that and an integral part of that, as well as your team around you. And so I want to explore that with you when it comes to the integration, organizational change, sort of leadership, the communication and the resilience of everyone involved in such a process at all levels through the organization. And so maybe we can kick off by you explaining a little more your thoughts behind sort of what has been sort of the most critical aspects of integrating to large organizations from a people and culture perspective.

[4:58] Yeah, definitely. So it's obviously a huge question you just asked. Yes, yes. I guess we'll just start where you will.

[5:10] Start at the beginning and then we'll probably dissect with lots of follow up questions. I mean, the starting point is that TGS has acquired many different companies within our industry the last years and really built a really strong and relevant company providing energy data to oil and gas companies and renewable companies all across the world. And with the acquisition of PGS, we've brought together the best of two worlds. I mean, we have fantastic vessels, lots of great acquisition technology.

[5:54] The ability to acquire subsurface data all around the world for both direct contracts for our clients, but also for our global multi-client library. And I just wanted to start there because it's important that people understand the power of combining an asset light company and a company that has fantastic assets and bringing together the best of those two worlds into a combined company, which is actually a very different company than the two legacy companies used to be. So the value add that we can bring to our customers, both within the oil and gas space, but also within the renewable space is a very different value add than we could previously.

[6:45] The starting point has to be that, right? What is the value that we're creating for our shareholders? What's the value that we're creating for our customers? What's the value that we're creating for the energy space in total? And obviously, that's quite a visionary statement. But in the world we live in today, being able to provide energy to the world, energy security, sustainable energy, I mean, that's actually a very, very important purpose for our company and our employees all around the world to connect with. And that's the starting point. So the starting point is combining these two companies creates a fantastic value creation. And when we started off the process of preparing for the merger, we set out some pretty clear goals on what are we trying to achieve. And one of those goals was, of course, to be able to combine the best of the two companies, the best combined cultures.

[7:54] The best combined competence and combination of people, the best combination of solutions for our clients. And being able to really bring together the two companies to become the best company within the energy data space in the world. And that's quite a big, hairy goal. But we believe we're on that journey already. You have to have that guiding star before you start working on the other elements, right?

[8:28] And early on we had these interviews with the two legacy executive teams just gut feeling like what do the cultures look like what do you perceive as the key characteristics of of your own culture what you perceive as the key characteristics of the other company's culture and and where do you think there's common ground where do you see the risks and I actually looked at that analysis again this morning before our talks, Jason, and it's just, it's fascinating because that was not a deep analysis of the two cultures. But when you look at it, it's quite accurate. And since then, we've done a huge engagement survey across all corners of our employee population all around the world. And when you look at their feedback on what are those words that describe, the culture of the combined company and where we're aspiring to move to.

[9:30] It well reflects some of the more gut feeling observations we had in the early days before the merger took place. So, but building one common culture, we all know that that doesn't happen overnight. So that's something we talk about almost every day now, still. And day one in the combined company was July 1st, 2024. And today, we're in the beginning of March, right? And we still have to work on prioritizing bringing the cultures together because that takes months and it takes years before you truly feel like you're part of the same culture, right?

[10:14] Yeah, for sure. I mean, this is not a cakewalk. As you said, it's a very complex integration. I was wondering what have been some of the biggest surprises, both positive or challenging during the integration process that maybe you guys didn't anticipate?

[10:37] Yeah, we have we just did a pretty deep lessons learned on the integration process a few weeks ago. And, yeah, there's some things that went much smoother than we expected and other things definitely were more challenging than expected. In preparation for day one, we had quite a number of months where we were still operating in the legacy companies and, of course, where we couldn't start merging the companies at all. We could only do preparations. that that's of course because all of the legal considerations with the competition authorities and all of those aspects so in that phase we committed to our employees in both the legacy companies that we would answer any questions that they had at any given time so we received questions, all the time and we answered them every week on on portals that were available for all employees in both companies. In the sake of good order, we had to keep separate portals, but we were promised and committed to making sure that we would always provide the same information to both of the legacy companies. And the questions coming from the two legacy companies were different types of questions, because, I mean, there's a context, there's a history related to what kind of things are on the minds of employees, right?

[12:03] But that rhythm of communication, That served us very well. It helped us prepare all employees in a time of massive change, massive uncertainty. Of course, everybody was feeling frustrated.

[12:19] Feeling different emotions around what will it be like what will it be like to be a part of the combined company what will it be like to get all these new colleagues what will it be like to have a different business model a different leadership team a different office location all these things right so I think that continuous communication dialogue was extremely valuable and was very structured it was very well planned that we would answer all these questions every week and then we also brought many of these key messages into to town halls in both of the legacy companies in parallel with the same time of type of information and we had the same structure around communication also after day one in the combined company but then what we noticed when we did our lessons learned is at a certain point after we'd rolled out the leadership levels in the combined company there was suddenly a little bit of a gap where our operating rhythm around answering questions, it kind of deteriorated a little bit. And we've talked a lot about why did that actually happen? And I think it's about we were starting to feel like now we're in the new company.

[13:32] We've established these new teams, these new leadership levels. And we were kind of thinking, OK, now the company, we've set the company, we need to use the communication lines in the new company. And we didn't follow up with the more centralized approach. But in retrospect.

[13:50] It it it didn't serve the purpose because people were still so new in their roles. Right. So I think that was a pretty big lessons learned. It surprised us that.

[14:01] And I mean, in retrospect, it doesn't surprise me at all. It takes time. It takes time to build that new rhythm of communication.

[14:09] What types of information do you share? Where? When do you actually make sure that you update the different leadership levels and what communication channels make sense to maintain also in a phase like that? And over time, I feel like we've learned a lot about information and sharing. I think one of the things we often read in textbooks about how do you secure communication reaches all employees or everyone in a company, you have to communicate it in seven different ways, right? And that is true. You have to just keep communication flowing from all different channels or else it doesn't reach people in such a huge time of change, right? Especially with the complexity and the different layers of what TGS is. I mean, it's a multifaceted company with many different disciplines. So I can understand, at least from a layman's perspective, I can see the complexity that, you know, the team was working with. So I'd just like to sort of sidestep a little and talk about lessons learned, because I think that's such a brilliant approach, because a lot of companies, they will just go through a process because things are coming at them so fast that they don't take the time to invest in lessons learned. And just briefly, to the extent you'd like to share, Kristen.

[15:36] How did that process work? I mean, did a lot of you sit down for an hour? I'm just trying to get a little more nuts and bolts because I think it's such a salient point to take the time to look at things that really worked well and what didn't and to adopt and apply those lessons. Mm hmm. And it is a very important it's very important to always capture lessons learned after any process, even if it's even if it's a success or not a success or or just a regular delivery to any client. Right. There are always things we can learn. Why did things go really well? Why did things maybe not go as expected? Would we have done things differently if we could turn back time? And it's not about being hard on ourselves because...

[16:27] I mean, the amount of things we've worked on in parallel before the merger and after the merger, it's massive and it's super impressive, the amount of dedication and hard work we've seen from all corners of the organization. So we're super impressed with our workforce and the enormous capacity people have had to wrap their mind around a new reality and adjust to that. Right. But lessons learned are super important. And there are many arenas. The specific lessons learned I refer to now was in our executive team now a month ago, where we spent a couple of hours just really deep diving into the different goals of the merger, where we feel we've delivered really, really well, and where we feel like we could have done things differently. We've also shared those learnings, both the things that went well and less well, with the leadership teams in our different locations around the world. We also have different types of arenas with local unions here in Norway, with the Work Environment Committee here in Norway, with other types of employee representative groups across the world.

[17:43] So we've spent we've used those types of arenas to to share those reflections and also ask for their feedback and in addition to that during the last months we've also had roundtables with local leaders together with our ceo and myself and other executives where we've also had that open dialogue around uh you know reflecting on the past what went well what went less well but also what are those things that really matter now right because the merger integration the cultural integration that it's not over we're still just eight months in right so what really really matters now and so how important do you think you know because you've the two organizations or TGS now has gone through an extraordinary change going through challenges and complexities as we've already sort of articulated but the the process of lessons learned do you think this is something you would encourage and how important is it to to encourage moving forward as things become more day-to-day business as usual as you know as the process sort of the the fluctuations and the undulations of this process sort

[19:02] of flatten out a little and things become a little more normalized, if I can use that word. How important is that lessons learned process to encourage through the organization?

[19:12] I think it's critical in any stage of an organization's development. First of all, just asking the question, what went well and what went less well, it just creates an acceptance of the fact that we don't expect everything to be perfect every day, right? And it also creates an acceptance of the fact that we want to learn. We want to learn every day. The most important isn't that everything went exactly according to plan or that we'd actually thought about everything beforehand. The most important is that we together talk about how can we improve, how can we continuously improve together.

[19:53] And of course our customers also appreciate a lot that we drive those lessons learned also i mean it's it's not just about the merger integration process it's it's about any process and uh let's do it today also jason after this podcast talk let's talk about what we could have done better right it's about learning every day and i love how our ceo keeps on emphasizing the fact that he doesn't expect us to be perfect. He doesn't expect us to not make mistakes. He just expects us to think about it and fix things if things didn't go as well as we expected. And people appreciate when you're open and honest about where you feel like we could have done things better. And just the other day, I was talking to some of our local leaders here in Oslo and they were saying, you know, it's so frustrating that we haven't been able to answer out a couple of those questions that employees asked a while back. And I said to them, you know, I completely understand that, but the bandwidth doesn't allow us to handle everything all at once. So although we're still looking at it, we're not going to be able to conclude before probably early Q2. And, uh, and they said to me, you know.

[21:10] We understand that, but it would have been so much better if you just said that to us, Kristen. And I said, good point. I agree. I should have just said that instead of focusing on all the other things that we are ready to communicate. Sometimes you have to communicate the things that aren't ready also. And that's also OK. But I guess that's another big lessons learned for me. And I know that we've heard it before. But even if you don't have an answer, even if there's nothing to communicate, sometimes just showing up, being there, answering questions and sharing what we're still working on makes a huge difference. Right. Yeah, just to circle back to the CEO's mindset of not having everything perfect, I think that that is a very important thought process that can be infused throughout an organization. Because what I hear, it's the ability to learn. Because if you can learn, adapt, evolve, and then execute on those lessons learned, that makes you nimble. That makes you resilient as an organization. And if this can be infused as part of the culture, as part of the value systems, as part of the day-to-day.

[22:27] That makes you guys, as I said, nimble. You're able to pivot depending upon market forces. And financially, obviously, that's super important. But I think at a cultural people level, that's also very important. Because that means you can look at people are not willing to, people are willing to take calculated risks. They're willing to take a chance. They're willing to try something. And if it doesn't work, then you have to learn from that and then apply it, not repeat mistakes, of course.

[22:58] But if a culture does not have that ability to make mistakes, to learn from those mistakes, and you're constantly afraid of putting your head above the parapet again we've talked about this many times christine then you have a very fragile and brittle organization it they're afraid to take chances and in in the volatility and the uncertainty of 2025 and as we migrate further into this year i think that mindset you spoke about the ceo spoke about is so important at least that's my, particular take on things.

[23:41] I fully agree. And it does. I mean, when leaders express these types of attitudes and opinions related to learning from mistakes and just making sure that we keep moving and learning together and grow together, it brings a massive empowerment and energy to the organization. So I just love that part of our culture. And if we think about what the culture looks like in the combined company, I feel like we're really managing to bring together the best of the two legacy companies. There's a lot of passion and energy in the combined company we have teams that really enjoy working together and when we look at the engagement survey results from november december.

[24:35] It's extremely strong results when it comes to the the the trust and passion and energy within our teams i'm not going to sit here and say that everything is perfect because obviously in the middle of a merger integration process, we see lots of pains related to the fact that we're in the middle of a merger. And that's completely natural. And that's also why we chose to do the engagement survey now to make sure that we connect with our organization, connect with every employee and listen to their voices and opinions related to what do we need to do now in order to really help the organization combine and grow together as one combined culture. But this strength of having teams across the whole company in all corners of the world that trust each other, want to work together.

[25:24] Have this massive energy to come together and just get work done and create results together, it's powerful. And we have lots of work to do still when it comes to making sure that our teams across the different units and across locations are able to collaborate well. So I'm not going to sit here and say that everything is rosy, but there's some great strengths in the people we have, people with an energy and passion and willingness to just go the extra mile and create fantastic results. And it also helps that we have a lot of extremely intelligent people that really know what they're doing, right? So I think we've really achieved bringing together the best of two to worlds.

[26:11] On the resilience piece, Jason, it's.

[26:17] When you go around waiting for a merger, we waited and waited and waited almost a year, right, from the day it was announced that this merger was going to happen until we could have day one in the combined company. And those times bring a lot of uncertainty. and uh for for our employees all around the world i mean some people felt super excited about the opportunities of being a part of such a big merger and others felt concern concern related to what it would feel like and um and what type of role they would end up having and and you know there are a million concerns you can start listing right and uh how do you deal with that time period and that's something I've thought a lot about because we we don't want people to feel stressed we don't want people to feel concerned we don't want people's well-being to deteriorate through a merger integration but some uncertainty it's there you're not going to be able to remove it all and sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade and just call it out and say it as it is I I mean, we don't have all the answers and that's what we had to communicate continually throughout the merger integration preparation.

[27:34] We knew that there would be some headcount reductions and we completed those last summer. So that was a part of the plan that those would happen in the first quarter after day one. And we delivered on that and we completed them in that quarter. So that was good because we needed to set a line in the sand that people knew that we've now completed those reductions related to the merger integration process. But we had to be transparent about those kind of things, right? Because a part of building trust and resilience in the organization was also talking about the things that were also driving concern and stress among our employees. Um so i do think you're never gonna be able to avoid that there would be more stress throughout a merger but but what i think you can do is by having those open spaces and talking about it and making sure that the teams feel like they can ask the questions and feel like they can.

[28:36] Have discussions in their teams around what they their concerns and both things they're looking forward to and not looking forward to, that at least takes the air a little bit out of everything. And I think it does support the organization with bringing some resilience to the organization through the phase. I think you can come out of these processes with an increased resilience just because you learn to talk about stuff.

[29:06] Music.

[29:11] In my first part of the conversation with Christine, she shared insights into the strategic reasoning behind the merger, explaining how combining an asset-like company with one that held valuable assets, well, it created a greater value and scalability. The newly merged company now serves both oil and gas as well as renewable energy sectors, positioning itself as a leader in global energy data solutions. Christine emphasized that the integration process started with clear goals, ensuring that they retain the best of both cultures, competencies, and client solutions. You know, a successful merger isn't just about combining operations. It's about aligning strengths and ensuring that the new entity is greater than the sum of its parts. On top of that, a merger isn't just about business strategy. It's about people.

[29:57] Christine highlighted the company's deliberate approach to integrating two distinct organizational cultures. They began with executive interviews to understand the cultural dynamics, followed by an engagement survey to validate initial insights. She pointed out that merging cultures takes time, often months if not years, and that ongoing transparent communication is key to keeping employees aligned. One crucial lesson they learned was the importance of centralized communication, even after new leadership structures were in place. Employees needed consistent updates, including weekly Q&A sessions and town halls, to navigate uncertainty and maintain trust. The team also conducted a lessons learned exercise, gathering feedback from across the company to refine their integration approach.

[30:43] So cultural integration is a long term process. Leaders need to invest in continuous communication, feedback loops and engagement strategies to maintain alignment and trust. I think one of the most compelling parts of our discussion centered on how organizations can foster resilience by encouraging a culture of calculated risk taking and learning from mistakes.

[31:04] Kristen and I agreed that a fear of failure stifles innovation while a culture of adaptability will enable organizations to pivot effectively in response to market shifts. For any company, profitability and performance are high on the list of maintaining that and going through a merger. It's about how do we continue business continuity by supporting our people in such volatile times where there is a lot of uncertainty, where there is a lot of unknowns, where there are a lot of questions that cannot be answered. And what is needed in such times is strong leadership, clear quality of communication, and the building of trust and transparency.

[31:45] So now let's slip back into the stream with my fascinating conversation with Christine Omering.

[31:55] I mean, how do you keep leaders at all levels in the organization? How do you help them to navigate and communicate this change effectively. I know you've touched on it, but can we just open that up? Because I'm sure there's a lot of people going, okay, how did they do it though? What specifically? Maybe if we can look and go into the weeds a little here. Yeah, sure.

[32:16] I think there are many layers to the answer to that question, Jason, but we have all of these fantastic leaders at all levels of the company and we need to truly tap into all of their capacities all their energy and all their skills in order to connect with their teams and drive those open conversations and make sure that information is shared across all levels but that doesn't happen overnight because the way that you communicate the way you talk about things uh it's a lot it's shaped a lot by the context the business uh the culture of the company and that's actually been one of my huge uh learning learnings from this merger integration process that there's so much more to culture than you than you think there is uh it's it's not just about the words that you use and the the plan you've put together but what do those words mean and what does the plan mean, the way you execute on it, the way you talk about it looks different from company to company. Yeah.

[33:29] Making sure that there's a lot of clarity around communication from the top, I think, is the starting point. We have a very charismatic, very clear and passionate CEO, and that makes it super easy for all of us to understand what's the focus, what's the priorities, how do we want to get stuff done here in our company? And that's the starting point. But that's not enough at all. That's just one piece. And then you need to make sure that all the leadership levels throughout the rest of the company are prepared to translate what do all of those words mean to the different parts of the business? What do those things mean for our everyday roles and priorities? What does that mean for our location? What does that mean in relation to how we go deliver to our customer? And that's where you need those strong leaders at every level, both throughout the merger, but just throughout any regular day in the business.

[34:30] We have leadership forums for our senior leaders where we meet virtually once a month. Those leadership forums is a space where we empower our senior leaders with the information, additional analysis, reflections and open space to ask those questions, to try to empower everyone to be able to have what they need in order to go out there and talk to their teams and embrace the key messages and create clarity and role clarity across and within their organizations. So that's one of those areas. But it's also about securing that our HR business partners are updated and close to all their teams and all the leadership levels across the company, because they also bring a lot of that information flow and make sure that our leaders are held accountable for that role. Because a part of leadership is connecting the dots, connecting the dots between what's important from a holistic perspective, what's important for our location, our team, our team members, and our deliveries. And it's an art, right? It's an art being able to adapt the messaging to the right context, to the right team, to the right level, to make it bite-sized, to make it easy for people to understand. And also...

[35:52] To make it a possible for people to connect to the message. And I've noticed that aspect also the, what one message means in one context or company culture, it can mean something very different in another and aligning how we talk about

[36:10] stuff and actually taking the time to explain what does it actually mean?

[36:15] What does it mean for us as a team? What does it mean for you as an individual taking that time and even being patient enough to create the space right create the space to to listen and the atmosphere to to help people dare ask those follow-up questions because communication is a two-way street it's not just one channel it's it's many channels it's not just one voice it's a it's a dialogue and that's a key part of the leadership right no i think communication is the connect the connective tissue but the quality of communication is very important it's not just sort of randomly spitting out words but what i hear you are saying kusine is that your team the executive team what have you the leaders at all level what's important is to take the time to invest the time to craft the message it's to understand what are the values what are the pain points what are the needs of the particular crowd or group or people that you're addressing and to create a bespoke message for them so it resonates for them to understand that that's the key of communication it's not what i communicate it's but it's how it's received on the other end i i want to be i want to be conscious i want to be cognizant of the intent of my message but i also need to align it with the impact that I want it to have on that particular group or that individual.

[37:43] That's what I kind of are interpreting what you're saying. Have I kind of got the message or have I missed the target a little? No, definitely. No, that definitely aligns with what I was trying to communicate.

[38:01] Leadership and communication, it also has to match the culture and the company and the business and the context of where you are. Right. So when we were preparing for the day one in the new combined company, we we defined together with our CEO, what are those most important leadership skills and capabilities that we need to see in the phase in the company that we're now becoming? Right. And a lot of that definition and transparency around what does that leadership, what does that communication look like, is also an important factor here, because role modeling behavior, role modeling actions is, of course, extremely powerful. But sometimes you need to just articulate what we're looking for. Also, why do we actually believe that these types of leadership behaviors is going to support our business, our culture, our integration, our performance? Right. And I think that's another aspect of it also. So one of them is the role modeling. Another one is actually talking about this is what it is. This is actually what we're looking for. Right.

[39:11] And leadership and culture go hand in hand. Leadership forges the way to support and develop a culture. And our leaders at all levels of the company are a key component of developing the combined culture, right? So from your experience, what do you feel that some companies make mistakes when they're communicating change? I mean, what are some mistakes that companies or leadership or individuals can avoid when communicating change?

[39:45] Mm hmm. There's so many things there. And I know that we've also made mistakes. Right. So it's and there are so many opinions. There are just as many opinions as there are employees. Right. So, and I said as their employees, because a lot of the communication internally, that's where people have all the feelings and all the concerns.

[40:12] Our external communication related to the merger is a whole different ballgame, of course. I mean, we connected with all our clients and suppliers and shareholders, and that's a completely different story. I think the whole business rationale was pretty clear. When it comes to communication lessons learned internally, I have some pretty big takeaways. And one of them is that you have to dare to say it as it is. I mean, if you beat around the bush too much, if you become too vague, if you become too avoiding difficult topics, it hurts everything. And sometimes people have said to me, oh, now you're answering very politically, Kristen. Oh, very diplomatic. And sometimes I just have to answer that I can share a lot, but I'm never going to be able to share everything. And I can share, and that's also very important, that sometimes you can share everything, sometimes you can share pieces, and sometimes you just need to say it as it is, that this is what I can share at this stage, and I promise to share more when I can share more. Daring to say it as it is, is also very important. And sometimes people say that things move too fast, sometimes people say things move too slow.

[41:40] But on a general level, I think it's important to move things along as fast as is sustainable. You don't want to break something along the way, but at the same time, you need to tear off the band-aid. So daring to make a plan that will get you through the hard time faster, I think, is very meaningful for the business. When people know when things are going to happen, they know, OK, it's going to be difficult for a time period now. but they know that at that and that date, it's complete, then it's easier to be resilient through that phase. If you feel like it's a never-ending, never-ever-ending time of change, it might be more challenging.

[42:25] Now, I think some people would say to me now, from my colleagues, they would say, yeah but we still have so much change going on and that's correct because merger integrations are, a long list of different items that need to be integrated and adjusted and some things need to be removed and some things need to be added but what we're working on now is processes tools leadership practices how we do things in our company it's more like the nuts and bolts of our culture and leadership and processes and ways of working and our approaches. While if you go back to last summer, it was about selecting our leadership levels and forming our new teams. So it's a very different type of setting. So I think being very transparent around what are the different phases that you go through, what's happening when, makes it easier for people to be resilient because then they don't have to go around stressing about things that aren't going to be happening in that specific time period. But none of us know what the future holds. So that's a part of being a part of the world. It's not just about being a part of a company, right?

[43:41] If I may shift it towards yourself, I mean, how do you personally maintain resilience, sort of a buoyant mindset as a leader when managing such a large scale change?

[43:57] Yeah, we as leaders all have a big responsibility for managing our own resilience and energy. Energy and we're all different so we need to understand for ourselves what what gives value what makes sense for each and every one of us the way I work on my own resilience is definitely a little bit what I talked about last time when I joined you here at the podcast Jason and that is having time to take those long walks and just reflecting gives me a chance to have some white space and just sort out my thoughts. Because the biggest challenge when there's a lot going on is that there are too many things to think about. And our role as leaders is to make sure we're thinking about the things that make the biggest impact, the things that are the most important for the company here and now. And that's why people trust us when they see that we are focusing on the things that matter. And sometimes we have to focus on things that are difficult. And sometimes we can focus on things that are less difficult and bring more positive energy. But our role is to do both. And people need to trust that we are spending our time on the things that matter for the business and for our employees.

[45:23] What gives me resilience is also just saying it as it is. And with my team, I always do that. And both the executive team that I'm a part of and also my people and culture leadership team, my philosophy is I have to just say it as it is. And sometimes there is not time to talk about all the things you want to talk about. Sometimes you have to just focus on the things that will make a big difference, short term or long term, if we do or don't do them, right? And that's also my role, to make sure that if I feel.

[46:02] We are prioritizing things that aren't the right ones, I have to call it out, right? So that's a part of all our roles as leaders. And for me, that gives me a feeling of empowerment. It gives me a feeling of, I don't want to use the word control, but resilience is also rooted in feeling that you have control of the things that make a difference at any given time, right? And sometimes just calling it out on the things that we know that we don't have control of and just stating that, you know, these are the things I know that we can make happen in the time to come. These are the things I'm worried about. And I don't know if we know what we're going to be doing. Just saying that also gives me a feeling of resilience, actually, because the more minds you have around the table, being able to dissect an issue and think about that issue from many different perspectives, the more resilience you're bringing to the leadership team that you're sitting and talking with and to the organization as a whole.

[47:06] You can plan for a lot of stuff, but you can't plan for everything. And so the plan is there to also help us bring robustness and resilience to whatever lies ahead of us. But you also need to have enough space and mind space and energy to think about those things that are coming in from left field that might actually make a massive difference also um so resilience i think also is rooted in everything from psychological safety to managing your own energy levels to having good people around you that you can just talk to about anything and everything feeling free to talk about anything and everything i, I feel like I have a lot of people I can trust around me both in the workplace and outside of the workplace and being able to just talk to people about things that are on my mind like do I have blind spots now am I thinking about this from the wrong perspective.

[48:10] Because we're not able to be we're not always able to have enough critical thinking on our own But you need to be open-minded enough to ask the questions to others, to check in. Am I approaching this holistically enough, right? I think there's such a wealth in having people that support you that you can open up and talk about.

[48:33] To be able to articulate abstract thoughts and concerns and worries and emotions to someone, right? Because we've talked about this many times, but by talking to someone else...

[48:45] You are explaining it to them, but maybe it's the first time you've thought your, or spoke your thoughts out loud, your emotions out loud, and that in itself can lead to insight. And I think another astute point you made is the discipline of focusing on things that you can control, that you can influence, and not going down the rabbit hole of all of the uncertainty, all the unknowns, all the question marks.

[49:10] Because then itself, that creates resilience. Because to some extent we can't totally mitigate it but it stops rumination it stops negative thinking and overthinking and getting locked in some sort of confirmation bias that doesn't really help us and when you said when you have a number of minds sitting around a table trying to crack the code of some conundrum that in itself when you're talking about actions and efforts right how we can deal with it maybe you don't know what the final outcome is but if you can focus on the effort and the actions that gives a sense of confidence not overconfidence far from it but it allows okay so what's the first step the second step maybe you don't know what the end game is you'd have an idea of what you'd like but you don't know if that permutation will play out but by focusing on those things that you can control and influence as an individual as a group i think that that goes a long way to keep us resilient and buoyant in the storm yeah definitely, As we come close to the top of the hour, I was just wondering, what do you think some of the long-term changes do you see coming into the culture of TGS as a result of this merger?

[50:26] I go back to one of our merger integration goals, which was all about bringing together the best of the two combined companies. And that's the foundation here. We have so much strength in these two legacy companies, which we're now combining and focusing on continuously developing the best of those two into one combined strong company and culture and workforce. There is an enormous energy and passion and results orientation in both of the cultures. We have a lot of dedication and strength in relation to making sure that things work in a responsible and good way. We have a lot of people that are extremely dedicated and loyal to the company and the history and what we're creating together for the future.

[51:34] I think with everything going on around us in the world right now, there's an even greater purpose for us as a company to contribute to developing to the broader energy space. And that connection between our greater purpose, what we're doing for our customers and shareholders, it just also brings us more connected to what we're doing every day in the company. And connecting the dots between all of these aspects, what we're doing every day in the company, what it feels like to work at TGS, what it feels like to meet your teams, get together and create fantastic results for our customers.

[52:19] That's what we're going to be growing and further nurturing in the time to come together. And having that strength of the combined culture together among all our employees, that's the fantastic strength that builds the foundation for us to continuously develop as the company we are and bring the value that we can bring to the energy space. So I feel very inspired and I feel very engaged in the future that lies ahead. It's not going to be a smooth path because we know that we're a part of an industry that's constantly changing, constantly challenging us. We know that technology is moving at an extremely accelerated rate. AI also means a lot for us in our workforce. And we're doing all we can to help our workforce develop and grow every day.

[53:14] Continuous learning is ingrained in how we think and work here at TGS. The way we did work yesterday is not going to be the same tomorrow. And that has to be a part of our culture also, that we're not only learning from how we delivered on a project. We're also learning new skills and capabilities to be able to contribute to our company results in the time to come, right?

[53:40] Well, as we come close to wrapping up our conversation today, Christine, are there any last thoughts you'd like to leave with our listeners today? I think maybe my last thought would be, when you look back at the last year for us here at TGS, I think many people had lots of thoughts, lots of hopes, lots of concerns. And I guess back to one of your comments on resilience, Jason, we spend a lot of time thinking about and stressing about things that never actually materialize. And a lot of change actually brings lots of new great opportunities, lots of new experiences. And I think most people will look back at the last year and feel extremely proud and excited about what we've achieved together. And I think we should be very proud. Each and every one of our colleagues here at TGS should be very proud. So I guess my key takeaway is don't spend too much time thinking about all the things that can go wrong. Focus on all the opportunities that lie ahead, even if things don't end up exactly how you expected. Change can be really good. And keeping that open mindset and just trusting that there are all these great people around you that will be on that journey together with you.

[55:06] It makes it a good journey. Well, Christine, thank you very much for sharing your experience and knowledge today and a fascinating conversation. It was great to be here, Jason.

[55:18] Music.

[55:25] We wrap up my conversation with Christine Omring. She left us with some valuable insights on leadership, resilience, and navigating change and challenge and complexity. Now, one of the biggest takeaways was the importance of leadership communication and role modeling, not just from the top, but at every level of an organization. She highlighted that leaders set the tone for how change is perceived and how teams engage with new challenges. Clear, tailored communication and consistent leadership behaviors are the keys to maintaining alignment and trust during times of transition.

[56:00] We also explored stress management and resilience strategies, especially in fast-changing environments. Christine emphasized that transparency and direct communication help people process uncertainty more effectively. She also shared her own approaches to resilience, including taking time for reflection, prioritizing what truly matters, and staying adaptable when unexpected challenges arise.

[56:23] Another core theme was building trust and embracing change. Christina and I discussed how having a strong support system, both personally and professionally, makes all the difference in navigating uncertainty. She also underscored the importance of focusing on what you can control rather than getting lost in speculation or fear. Finally, we touched on the idea of building connective tissue for change, ensuring that lessons learned are shared across an organization, and that people feel empowered to contribute to a culture of growth and adaptability. Christine's perspective on trusting in the capability of those around us, well, it reinforced the true transformation happens when leaders and teams work together to evolve and improve. Well, I hope this conversation has provided practical insights and strategies that you can apply in your own leadership sojourn. You know, whether you're navigating a merger, you're leading a team through change and complexity, or simply looking to strengthen your resilience, I think Christine's wisdom and experience today offers a great roadmap for moving forward with clarity and confidence. Christine, personal thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. I found it a compelling conversation. So thanks very much. I really appreciate the conversation today. Well, folks, if you want to reach out to Christine, I will leave her contact information in the show notes. And thank you for showing up for another long-form discussion. Until next time, not until Friday Keep well.

[57:49] Music.