Shell just sold Jiffy Lube to private equity for $1.3 billion—the same month oil markets went haywire and the Middle East went back to war. The deal is done. What happens next won't show up in a press release.

Every layoff solves a number on one ledger. Few leaders track what it costs on the other. A look at the belief-level damage behind 2026's layoff wave — and what it means for the deals and transitions built on top of it.

The return gap is growing. But it was there before the rollout started. Three belief gaps nobody closed before the AI implementation began.

There's a calculator for the cost of meetings. There's no calculator for what it costs when leadership direction doesn't survive the cascade — but that cost is real, and it compounds.