Welcome to our second issue of the Performance Improvement Journal (PIJ) under our new publisher, Allen Press! This issue marks my second editorial as Editor in Chief with gratitude to Dr. Nancy Crain Burns, our ISPI President, whose consistent leadership and guidance continue to drive our Society's evolution into an organization ready to lead for the twenty-first century. As always, we also express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to our associate editors and contributing authors who offer us such interesting and engaging perspectives from the field.My thoughts...We are quickly approaching the end of 2022 and looking forward to a less turbulent 2023, so it feels like a good time to review and revisit our ISPI Mission, Vision, and Guiding Principles.ISPI and its members use evidence-based performance improvement research and practices to effect sustainable, measurable results and add value to stakeholders in the private, public, and social sectors.Performance improvement practices are recognized globally as an essential part of every organization's competitive strategy.I must admit that when I began my professional journey with human performance improvement, these statements, though often inspiring, appeared to me as platitudes that looked good on company posters typically hung in hallways, meeting rooms, and sometimes the elevators. The true value and significance of these ideological guideposts and mile markers did not really resonate with me until I was deep in the weeds of organizational assessments and transformational efforts.Around this time, I started to realize that at the end of the day, “It's the people, stupid!” that either make or break an organization. Of course, the leadership drives direction; however, it is the belief system of the human capital that keeps the momentum going and whose day-to-day behaviors bring about the truly transformative meaning of a mission, vision, and its core values. Powerful change in individual attitudes may be seeded and nurtured over time, if created through an engaging approach such as design thinking and implemented with care, compassion, and much encouragement. As ISPI has now turned the page on its first 60 years as a Society and we look forward to envisioning a new tomorrow, how will each of us help spread the seeds of our mission, vision, and guiding principles?Our world is in desperate need of thought leaders and teachers that can help light the way out of the darkness. The organizations in which many of us design and deliver our professional products and services can and should be part of these efforts. So, how might you help in changing attitudes and behaviors that are counterproductive, not just to the organization, but also to our planet? How will you support the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion that are essential in bringing new and different perspectives to twenty-first century challenges? How will you uphold our Code of Ethics when it feels like it is being forgotten?As ISPI moves forward with our collective efforts in continuing to engage our membership, we will be looking to highlight our Mission, Vision, and Guiding Principles with our contributing authors as we encourage them to contribute and share their experiences and perspectives across the articles we publish. We always enjoy hearing back from our members and readers to also learn how the authors and their submissions to PIJ have helped you to expand your range of available options for improving human performance. Let us know what you think as you examine their work in each issue's contributions. Here is a brief description of what you will find in this issue.According to Gary W. Craig, the last several decades of mergers and acquisitions have had abysmal success rates of less than 30%. Misunderstanding and misconceptions about organizational culture and human capital issues in general remain. He highlights where performance improvement practitioners can step in to act as advisors and facilitators in this critical process in “A roadmap for successful mergers & acquisitions: Research, roles, and responsibilities for performance improvement practitioners.”Tiffany Oakes shares her research on how instructional designers who design self-directed learning experiences sometimes select inappropriate instructional strategies because they do not always plan well, as she conveys in “Instructional designers' strategies for online activities enhancing self-directed learning: A basic qualitative study.”In “Reviving the nation's public water utilities to reduce plastic pollution in the United States,” Syed Ahmed, Shannon Oldfield-Blanks, and Brendan Moore offer insights into developing a reliable utility in the public sector, though it poses many unique challenges.Once again, Judy Hale introduces and interviews two ISPI members so that we can all continue to learn more about our colleagues: thought leader, Carl Binder, who leads the Performance Thinking Network, and has been my guru since he kindly permitted me to reference his Six Boxes ModelTM as part of my doctoral dissertation study; as well as the notable Robert Damelio, who leads Paladin Continuous Improvement. Do you know either of these two ISPI members?Lastly, we share Ria Roy's timely reflections on utilizing a digital compliance scorecard to drive performance improvement in “Digital compliance and risk assessment: Did the field of performance improvement miss the plot?”We are always so grateful to have the opportunity to share diverse perspectives from so many talented and dedicated contributors to the PIJ! We are also thankful to our members and readers who look forward to reviewing the contents of each issue. We also hope we are continuing to engage our membership through our online events and perhaps consider submitting a proposal to present at our 2023 ISPI Annual Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia from April 23–27, 2023! Have you submitted your presentation proposal? The deadline is quickly approaching!Do you have an idea for an article? Have you seen a great presentation that should become an article? Are you a little short on Certified Performance Technologist recertification points? PIJ is actively seeking articles that cross the boundaries of domains, enhance creativity, introduce Human Performance Technology (HPT)-related innovations, or simply teach a new HPT tool or method. Readers enjoy seeing the application of performance improvement standards that will inspire them to action. Please submit articles by sending an email to pij@ispi.org.Please send questions to pij@ispi.org. We look forward to seeing your contributions, comments, or questions. Again, thank you for reading!