Context
The VBA JV (3 construction and design companies) had successfully delivered a complex, high-performance roads contract in Sydney over seven years. By 2019, with the end of the contract in sight, focus shifted from long-term delivery to a new challenge: how to finish strong and leave a strong legacy, while preparing for the next phase in both business and people terms.
The key question was: how do we maintain performance, retain key people during the uncertainty, and hand over with pride?
What did we do together?
Vibrant Frog was engaged following a competitive process to build leadership strength and support the transition. Over 18 months, we designed + delivered a tailored program focused on team alignment, capability building, and purposeful closure – the program aimed to serve individual career needs, the JV, and best client outcomes.
Key elements included:
Team Effectiveness Workshops – reconnecting teams with their shared goals (the vision of ‘Finishing Strong’) and reinforcing collaboration through energising, high-impact workshops with the extended VBA JV team
Team ‘Action on Purpose’ (AOP) Program – facilitated a custom version of our signature 10-week group coaching program, combining pursuit of team goals and individual growth as well as designing ‘what next?’ for leaders. A focus of the program was to increase the accountability carried by this level of leaders, to allow the senior team space to concentrate on higher-level goals. We shifted from in-person to virtual as COVID lobbed in its challenges
Following the laying of these building blocks, we reinforced individual habit development and collective accountability with:
Team Coaching – providing the leadership group with a safe, practical development space. Lifting the quality of their regular meetings, and their ability to lead teams through this uncertainty
Leadership Cascade – sharing feedback on progress made by AOP participants with their leaders, and providing guidance to them about how to help them maintain the momentum
Where did we get to?
The Frogs delivered on all objectives:
Continued high-performance throughout the contract’s final 18 months, maintained to the final day
A smooth, confident handover to TfNSW
Ventia secured the next generation SRAPC contract in the Parklands region
Key leaders were retained and supported, then left inspired and well-equipped for their next roles
Why it matters
In fast-paced industries, the close of a contract is often treated as a wind-down. But VBA JV finished with focus, pride, and purpose, proving that an ending can be a launchpad for future success and talent development.
Vibrant Frog helps organisations land transitions well. Whether you're scaling up, winding down, or shifting direction, we bring clarity, connection, and capability to the moments that matter most.
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I remember this time at VBA with great pride and affection. After a seven-year contract that had evolved to be a high-performing operation, we turned our attention to its successful completion—and to becoming the perfect reference project to support Ventia’s bid for the SRAPC contract. We agreed to focus on safety, excellence in delivery, and a legacy we could be proud of.
– James Bennett, General Manager
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Together, the Frogs and I tailored their various ways of working to target the areas that would most benefit both the contract and the people involved. The Frogs’ delivery style meant they quickly became part of the team. They formed relationships that have endured to this day.
– James Bennett, General Manager
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Vibrant Frog team, I just wanted to say that it was refreshing for once to do a Leadership course that had a spiritual component included. Not because I personally have a strong spiritual conviction but because it is part of the fundamental core of leadership – working with people to reach a common goal, a common good. In today’s society it is in most cases (well 99% of the time) not discussed... It was handled really well by your team and it is really encouraging to see that there are people (such as Vibrant Frogs) willing to include all aspects of personal development. And we saw from today’s session that there are many different forms of spirituality for different people; I think they would have all felt included in their own way. Keep up the great work.
– AOP member