The creation of Virgin Media O2 brought together two substantial organisations, two histories and two cultures. The leadership challenge was not simply to communicate a new identity but to help people begin behaving as one VMO2.
Early work identified some of the conditions making that difficult: incomplete clarity around common purpose, limited connectedness, a strong sense of hierarchy and points of tension between the legacy Virgin Media and O2 cultures.
MJA contributed to a systemic approach that deliberately looked beyond individual leader development. The model connected three levels: how leaders showed up personally, how teams operated together and what the wider organisation reinforced.
Three behaviours provided a practical expression of the emerging culture: Customer First, Play at Pace and Speak Up. The design question was how to stop those ideas becoming another set of attractive words on a wall.
The High Performing Team Play work translated them into observable behaviours and team practices. Teams could examine what each behaviour looked like when it was working — and how they blew it when speed became activity without impact, customer focus was lost or people stayed silent rather than challenge. Team diagnostics, coaching, practical activities and wider leader development were designed to reinforce the same messages.
Behaviour change could not be left to development alone. The work explicitly recognised the importance of role-modelling, organisational story, skills and the systems surrounding people. Asking leaders to speak up, collaborate or act at pace achieves little if authority, processes or senior behaviour signal something different.
Integration therefore became a leadership and organisation-development challenge rather than a communications exercise. One organisation would be created through repeated interactions in which people experienced whether the new culture was genuinely different.