Building an inclusive culture during rapid growth across a complex multi-site energy infrastructure business operating in one of the UK’s most male-dominated sectors.
As the business grew through acquisitions and welcomed new teams, leadership recognised that culture couldn’t be left to chance.
px Group stepped into one of the most significant cultural moments in their history: embedding a brand new organisational purpose, “Creating a Thriving Future Together,” across a business growing through acquisitions.
They needed more than a values statement.
They needed the foundations to make it real.
Opportunity Global supported px Group across two interconnected workstreams, developing their Culture Book and equipping their People team with the knowledge and confidence to lead on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
– Katie Woods-Ruddick
Chief People Officer, px Group
Growing organisations face a specific challenge: culture either scales with intention or it fragments. For px Group, operating across multiple sites in a male-dominated, technical sector, the stakes were high.
The People team knew they needed to step up their EDI knowledge and confidence. They were the ones who would need to set the standard for the rest of the business — to model inclusive behaviours, have the difficult conversations, and embed EDI thinking into everything from HR projects to internal communications.
But they couldn’t do that without the right foundations in place.
And they couldn’t build those foundations alone.
We worked with px Group across two connected pieces of work:
Through a structured three-stage process — Discovery, Development and Design — we worked with key stakeholders including CEO Geoff Holmes and CPO Katie Woods-Ruddick to identify the core elements of px Group’s culture, ways of working and values.
We ran a half-day workshop with senior stakeholders, conducted individual interviews, reviewed internal documents, and developed the messaging framework that became the backbone of the Culture Book.
The result: a living, accessible resource that every px employee — from new joiners to senior leaders — can use to understand who px are, how they work, and what they’re building together.
Co-designed with Katie Woods-Ruddick and Amy Inman, the full-day immersive session gave the People team practical, no-fluff grounding in equity, diversity and inclusion.
Providing real tools, real conversations, and real language to use in everyday work, such as:
Our team found her approach engaging and appreciated her openness about her own experiences — it made the concepts feel real and applicable. The interactive format, clear structure and practical case studies gave us tools we could immediately implement.
Most importantly, we gained confidence in having those crucial conversations about language and privilege — especially critical in our male-dominated engineering sector. We’re now weaving EDI more broadly into everything from HR projects to internal communications.
– Katie Woods-Ruddick
Chief People Officer, px Group
The feedback from the People team was clear:
Pitched at the perfect level.
Michaela’s openness made the concepts feel real and applicable.
Intersective and engaging.
The three things that landed most powerfully across the team:
Most importantly, the work didn’t stop at the workshop. px Group are now weaving EDI more broadly into everything from HR projects to internal communications.
The People team left with the confidence to have those crucial conversations — particularly critical in their male-dominated engineering sector.
Workshop Quality
EDI Workshop Participants
Facilitator Knowledge and Delivery
EDI Workshop Participants
Is your organisation going through growth, change or cultural shift?
If the people stuff feels like the hardest part — the conversations that aren’t happening, the gaps in confidence, the culture that hasn’t quite landed yet — that’s exactly where we work.