Creating Thriving Workplaces: How Phil Burgess and Felix Koch Are Redefining Success Through Connection

10/10/23 • 34 min

Testament to their belief that relationships are the source of results, Phil Burgess and Felix Koch have worked together for more than a decade.

As joint Managing Directors of marketing services agency, C Space, their people-centric leadership approach to culture transformation led to various awards including ‘Best Place to Work’, ‘Best Agency’ and ‘Learning Team of the Year’ at the Learning Performance Institute’s Global Learning Awards.

They were jointly listed on Management Today’s ‘Agents of Change’ Power List for men championing gender equity in business and in 2022, Felix was listed on the InsideOut LeaderBoard which celebrates senior-leader role models who are working to smash the stigma of mental ill-health in workplaces.

As Chief People Officer and European CEO of C Space, they commissioned an award-winning mental health and connection programme which had a phenomenal impact on participant wellbeing and their sense of connection.

This inspired them to leave their corporate careers to set up WITHIN where they now work with leaders to drive results by creating cultures of connection where people can thrive. Their award-winning, group-based approach strengthens relationships, significantly improving wellbeing and delivering sustained impact over time.

The topics we covered:

How people feel connection and disconnection in the workplace.
Where employee disconnection might show up in the bottom line.
What positive impact working on connection could bring.
How people’s best efforts often miss the mark.
And what you can do that will really make a difference.

If you want to hear more from Phil and Felix sign up to their free workshop:

Unlearning 3 leadership habits that prevent connection. https://calendly.com/within-business/within-workshop-unlearn-3-habits-that-prevent-connection?month=2023-10

Or connect with them on LinkedIn:

Felix: www.linkedin.com/in/relationships-are-the-source-of-results/

Phil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipburgess/

Edited by Steve Woodward at podcastingeditor.com

Testament to their belief that relationships are the source of results, Phil Burgess and Felix Koch have worked together for more than a decade.

The topics we covered:

How people feel connection and disconnection in the workplace.
Where employee disconnection might show up in the bottom line.
What positive impact working on connection could bring.
How people’s best efforts often miss the mark.
And what you can do that will really make a difference.

If you want to hear more from Phil and Felix sign up to their free workshop:

Unlearning 3 leadership habits that prevent connection. https://calendly.com/within-business/within-workshop-unlearn-3-habits-that-prevent-connection?month=2023-10

Or connect with them on LinkedIn:

Felix: www.linkedin.com/in/relationships-are-the-source-of-results/

Phil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipburgess/

Edited by Steve Woodward at podcastingeditor.com

Previous Episode

Philippa Kindon: Is it possible to manage without managers?

Philippa Kindon and the team at Mayden think so and they've captured their journey of creating a self-managing workplace in their recent co-authored book, 'Made without Managers'.

Mayden is a 140-person strong health-tech company based in Bath, providing market-leading software to NHS Mental Health Trusts, charities and third-sector providers. Mayden takes an agile and self-managing approach, having broken free from traditional people hierarchies and instead is organised around teams that manage themselves and their work.

The team at Mayden wanted to share their stories, not because they think they've got this way of working all right, but rather because they want to provide examples of how it can work, and also give a real account of some of the challenges.

A lifelong student of organisational behaviour, Philippa earned her PhD from the School of Management at the University of Bath with research into identity in the workplace. Passionate about people at work, she believes that everyone deserves to be happy in their work. Not the lighthearted laugh-at-a-film surface-level happiness, but a deep, fulfilling sense of purpose and joy through connection to a meaningful endeavour.

Philippa's role at Mayden spans business development, innovation, coaching and championing self-managing ways of working.

Topics include:

What was the problem that Mayden wanted to solve with self-managing teams?
How Mayden was able to take ways of working from software development and apply them to the entire organisation
How career growth and progression work in self-managed teams
Does self-management mean there are no hierarchies?
How do work-placed investigations progress in a managerless organisation? What about interpersonal conflicts?
Did the Mayden team face surprises or objections?

Connect with me on LinkedIn
Visit Visibly Different

Read Made Without Managers: One Company's Story of Creating a Self-Managing Workplace
Visit Mayden
Read A Brief History of the Agile Methodology (InfoWorld)

Edited by Steve Woodward at podcastingeditor.com

Next Episode

Breaking Down the 'Yes, But...' Excuses for Busyness with Neil Jurd

Neil Jurd is a former army officer and RMA Sandhurst instructor. He served in several operational theatres, including the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Yemen. Since leaving the army he has worked in leadership development and coaching for more than a decade, Neil has an MA from Cranfield University, is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management and an Entrepreneur in Residence at Lancaster University. He was awarded the British Citizen Award in 2020, and appointed OBE in 2021.

He is the author of the 5* rated ‘The Leadership Book’, written to make Leadership easy to understand and easy to apply.

Topics we covered: