After Warner Media and Discovery merged in 2022, I predicted the newly combined business would fail. And in fact, last week—after years of weak performance and an earlier attempt to re-split the business and then sell part of itself to Netflix—Warner Bros Discovery became target of a hostile takeover.

Why would I predict the failure of a media merger when I have no background in media? It turns out, a company’s industry doesn’t matter; its willingness to listen to its people does.

***

When the companies merged, CNN—one asset of the merger—had just launched its streaming service, CNN+. I thought CNN+ was a dumb idea (I mean, who wants to pay for more news?), but what do I know?

Apparently, CNN’s new owners must have assumed they knew everything (or close). Without even much of a real hearing from CNN’s people, they shut down CNN+. It was clear to see—even from my vantage point—that they had their minds made up beforehand and didn’t seem curious enough to care.

CNN’s people probably got a note from the new management that said something like “We’re so glad to be collaborating with you as part of our new family. We look forward to working together.” But what they heard was likely something like “By the way, whatever you think is unimportant to us.” Ditto for people throughout the new organization.

***

Compare this to Pixar, which I featured in my book. Some time back, the animated feature studios needed a 10 percent cut in costs per movie. Even though its leaders had run the studio for years, these movie moguls figured the business had become complicated, and they didn’t know what they didn’t know. So they told their people about the cost challenge and asked them for ideas.

Pixar’s people—excited to be asked—collaborated to generate scores of ideas. The top idea: Here’s how we can cut costs not by 10 percent, but by 40 percent.

***

Change efforts have a two-thirds failure rate. For mergers, it’s 90 percent. It’s usually because the people aren’t on-side. (Organizations don’t change. People do.)

Industries are complex and many factors can kill a company. But it’s not hard to pick a loser when its leaders lack the curiosity to care.