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Coaches On The Couch
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Rachel Birchmore, coach and co-host "These four new services… are all to do with the way we coach and the theme that links them together is ‘humanity’.”
31 mins; March 25, 2026
Chris Bryant, co-founder of Alma-nac “Behavioural change is the missing piece in the architects’ toolkit. It should be the starting point, rather than an afterthought."
31 mins; March 12, 2026
Nathan Spencer, MD of UKREiif “The culture we have created makes people want to remain in the business for the long term. We are proud to have a team that is sticking together.”
27 mins; February 18, 2026
Seb Wood "The core of reflection is to have a form of honesty with yourself, and honesty about the situation you are in".
32 mins; December 10, 2025
Sarah Wigglesworth, Architect. “I felt that architecture had crowded out so many other things in my life and I was eager to try to explore all the things I had pushed away.”
35 mins; November 26, 2025
Rachel Birchmore, AreBe and Step Up. “Changing the way we plan meetings so that people get a moment between them can give the brain time to reset. There is no reason why meetings need to be an hour.”
25 mins; November 06, 2025
Chloe Phelps, founder of Grounded Architects and director of BPTW. "It was an opportunity to still be a small, nimble, female-led practice, but with some clout behind us."
26 mins; October 15, 2025
Ken Shuttleworth, founder and director of Make Architects. “I wanted people to benefit from the profitability of the company from the start.”
33 mins; October 01, 2025
Carl Turner, founding director of Turner Works. “Growing the practice and bringing in more people was part of a strategy for me to be less involved in the day-to-day."
33 mins; September 10, 2025
Binki Taylor, community activator and placemaker. “Belonging for me is an important topic...indeed it's been a life-long enquiry.”
29 mins; August 06, 2025
Amandeep Singh Kalra, Greenflip “I was wedded to the idea of solving a problem, not fixated on a particular solution.”
32 mins; July 23, 2025
Gareth Atkinson, Civic “There was a strategic approach but also some happy coincidences, based on exploring who would be a good fit and aligned with our values.”
34 mins; March 19, 2025
Andy Puncher, design director "It was about identifying what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be and there was no role out there on any of the job sites for that, so I had to invent it."
27 mins; February 26, 2025
Aga Szedzianis, DSDHA “Since 2016, the mid-level career or associate salaries dropped by 25%... quite a big drop!”
43 mins; February 12, 2025
Miranda MacLaren, Director of Orms “When you first arrive, you just have to really listen”
32 mins; January 29, 2025
Hari Phillips, co-founder of Bell Phillips Architects. "It doesn't seem like the really big names in the profession want to rock the boat and speak out about these important issues."
37 mins; December 18, 2024
Nicholas Barrows, Director of Marketing, Trowers & Hamlins “We can't afford to build a culture that upholds our values unless we are commercially successful."
37 mins; December 11, 2024
Christophe Egret, co-founder of Studio Egret West. “I am letting in a little oxygen to allow the hierarchy and dynamics of the studio to develop in a different way.”
27 mins; November 20, 2024
Neil Pinder, educator and activist “The power of the word can shatter or enhance someone’s ability to do great things.”
43 mins; October 30, 2024
Louise Rodgers, “The energy of humiliation is powerful and universal and gives rise to many painful situations in life.”
37 mins; October 16, 2024
Jo Bacon, Allies and Morrison “We have been better at making time to reflect; and to listen, engage and consult with our wider team.”
34 mins; July 24, 2024
Martyn Evans LandsecU+I “The pandemic highlighted the nexus between work and humanity.”
38 mins; July 10, 2024
Jo Wright, Perkins&Will ““I have always enjoyed developing people and for me that is the draw of a leadership role.”
34 mins; May 22, 2024
Lisa Drake, Elliott Wood “We wanted to reclaim the impact that an engineer can have on the built environment, and on society.”
25 mins; May 01, 2024
Tom Larsson, Founder of Grow Places "As the business grows, imparting our values and principles onto the team and selecting the right people is an interesting transition."
28 mins; March 28, 2024
Louise Wyman, Executive Director Strategic Development at CBRE “The thought of networking used to fill me with dread but I've stepped out of my comfort zone throughout my career and learned from it.”
38 mins; March 14, 2024
Clarissa Bromelle, Head of Social Imagination at Human Nature “There are many elements of regenerative leadership that are embedded into what we’re doing at Human Nature.”
37 mins; February 21, 2024
Dinah Bornat, director of ZCD Architects “They (Gen Z) want what the rest of us want. They want to be taken seriously and their ideas to be heard.”
36 mins; February 07, 2024
Keir Regan-Alexander, principal of Arka Works “Generative Design and AI tools will fundamentally change how we practice, and how we design things.”
27 mins; January 24, 2024
Leanne Tritton, founder of ING Media “I have the style and energy that gets the plane off the ground. Damian has the style and energy for long-haul flights.”
34 mins; January 10, 2024
Jennifer De Vere-Hopkins, Jestico + Whiles “It is important for people to see that architecture, and the people who make up the profession, is very broad.”
35 mins; December 20, 2023
Holly Lewis, We Made That “I have personally come to embrace that word ‘leadership’ more.”
35 mins; November 23, 2023
Susan David, psychologist and author “Emotional agility is about loosening up, calming down and living with more intention. It’s about choosing how you’ll respond to your emotional warning system.”
32 mins; October 18, 2023
Emma Keyte, brand strategist and writer “Glue can also be born out of things going a bit wrong. Out of trouble.”
39 mins; September 06, 2023
Tina Norden, Conran and Partners ‘’I try to lead from the front. I'm very involved and very passionate about what I do. And I'm very hands on, or as much as I can be.’’
30 mins; July 19, 2023
Linda Thiel, Partner, White Arkitekter “Within the Swedish culture, it's about the group effort. That’s embedded in many Swedes’, or Scandinavians’, upbringing.”
33 mins; July 05, 2023
Eric Bull, SEW “We need to remember that sustainable design is just about the same thing as good design.”
24 mins; May 24, 2023
Ruth Oates, Buro Four “Part of the sustainability journey is about empowering us as individuals to do the right thing.”
25 mins; May 21, 2023
Andrew Lerpiniere, Director of Webb Yates Engineers “We’re consciously thinking about what we do, and how we do it, and how we can make a positive difference to society.”
33 mins; April 05, 2023
Natalia Uribe, Director of AFK Studios, “You need to understand not only the skillsets of your team but their passions and how they want to grow as designers.”
30 mins; March 15, 2023
Hanif Kara, Founding partner, AKT II. “I think that idea of a genius engineer is gone. We’re in a post-genius world. The product of the practice is more important.”
32 mins; February 16, 2023
Martyn Evans, Creative Director, U+I “If you've got an opportunity to rethink, then you've got an opportunity to rethink better.”
46 mins; December 07, 2022
Denise Bennetts, Founder of Bennetts Associates. “What EOTs are about is common purpose. It’s much more than the financial bottom line.”
34 mins; November 23, 2022
Damien Sharkey, Managing Director of HUB. “It's been said to me a lot in my career that you need to be old and have grey hair, to sit on a board or to have an opinion or voice. I disagree with that.”
28 mins; November 09, 2022
Simon Henley, Director of Henley Halebrown “People have been saying recently that there's a real clarity to our work, now more than ever."
37 mins; October 11, 2022
Jas Bhalla, Jas Bhalla Architects “Leaders need to be flexible and adaptable because times are uncertain. We are all going to have to learn to adapt.”
38 mins; September 28, 2022
Chris Williamson, Chairman of WW+P Board “We are keeping our name, our identity, our brand. We will keep on doing what we’re doing.”
30 mins; June 22, 2022
Jon Ackroyd, Ackroyd Lowrie “As soon as you start to build a team, you realise the power of the team.”
30 mins; June 08, 2022
Karen Mosley, HLM “I learnt early on that there are certain things in life that are really important. That sense of belonging, feeling respected, having opportunities. Money isn't everything.”
36 mins; May 25, 2022
Emily Slupek, Buro Four “You need to be able to listen and observe and sift through a lot of information and identify opportunities that you feel that you can bring into the company”.
31 mins; May 11, 2022
Andy Matthews, Roach Matthews “Getting to know yourself - how you react, how you respond, how you think - is, I believe, a really important part of leadership.”
27 mins; April 27, 2022
Jenni Montgomery, Barton Willmore “There are a whole range of different ways to participate in business development and you need to find a way that you’re most comfortable with.”
35 mins; April 13, 2022
Carl Turner, Turner Works “We felt the term ‘architect’ was holding back the practice and limited people’s perception of what we can do.”
31 mins; March 23, 2022
Scott Grady, Haptic Architects “Collaboration has been within the Haptic DNA from the very first few months of the practice.”
30 mins; March 09, 2022
Annalie Riches, Mikhail Riches “We have turned down work…and it drives our decisions on whether to take projects on or go for bids.”
21 mins; February 23, 2022
“A year on from our first ‘Made Visible’ event, we explore, with special guests, how leaders and business are adapting to the new reality of flexible working patterns.”
29 mins; February 02, 2022
Louise Rodgers, Step Up - At EOT and BCorps with their newer structures of ownership they are about a less literal and more emotional ownership over an organisation’s purpose’
26 mins; December 22, 2021
Connie Ivanova, Stride Treglown “If you approach leadership in a more collaborative way and look out for people’s interests and inspiration, and connect with them..this helps to build future leaders."
30 mins; December 08, 2021
David Gabe, Core Five “Growing and leading our team through a period of rapid growth has been far harder than delivering on a technical level.”
35 mins; December 01, 2021
Neal Shasore, London School of Architecture “The worst thing one could try to do would be to emulate one’s predecessor, when they are a founder.”
20 mins; November 17, 2021
Pete Swift, Planit-IE “To achieve continuous improvement it is absolutely vital to hold yourself accountable to the B Corp framework.”
33 mins; November 03, 2021
Alex Ely, Mae Architects “In the early years I was more of a chess master….now I am more like a gardener.”
23 mins; October 20, 2021
David West, Studio Egret West “Our relationship has matured as we have matured.”
35 mins; October 06, 2021
Pooja Agrawal, Public Practice “I think it is important to understand and to own your strategy for making change”
36 mins; September 22, 2021
“Working virtually has in some ways been a great leveller. That’s one of the positive things to take forward.”
26 mins; May 17, 2021
Adam Scott, FreeState “There is an opportunity to rethink the office as a kind of perpetual field test.”
27 mins; April 15, 2021
Jacob Willson, Sarah Beth Riley, and Luke Tozer “We like to think we put in a lot of the ground work as designers to help the projects fly.”
33 mins; March 31, 2021
Angharad Palmer and Bernadette Keane, Landsec “Influence requires a certain level of self-confidence.”
31 mins; March 18, 2021
AJ’s 40 under 40 “I had an ethos I wanted to see through.”
41 mins; March 03, 2021
Paul Monaghan, AHMM “Zeev Aram once told me that he had never seen his own candle diminished by the light of someone else’s. And that stayed with me.”
29 mins; February 25, 2021
Dan Whittingham “I have certainly felt a weight of responsibility in terms of our people, who are giving the best years of their career to us. We have to make sure those years are well-served.”
30 mins; February 17, 2021
Jo Bacon “We have taken the opportunity to reconsider our workspace and make a bigger commitment to long-term flexibility.”
32 mins; February 03, 2021
Grimshaw, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Gbolade Design Studio “How can leaders maintain connectivity, presence and visibility in distributed teams”
36 mins; January 28, 2021
Domi Oliver and Alexis Butterfield “How do you retain the culture in a workforce that is more agile? How do you continue to do things that live and breathe the brand?” Domi Oliver, PTE
32 mins; December 17, 2020
Catherine Greig, make:good “It feels incredible to be heard and to be seen. We don’t even have to agree with each other.”
33 mins; December 09, 2020
Allan Dunsmore, Conisbee “For everything to function you can’t have everyone wanting to be a leader.”
23 mins; December 03, 2020
Rachel Birchmore, Coaches On The Couch Co-Host “Leadership comes in many guises from different personality types and from different levels of the organisation.”
16 mins; November 25, 2020
Hari Phillips, Bell Phillips “Whether you are two or three you need enough common ground so that you’re pushing in the same direction.”
32 mins; November 19, 2020
Matt Mason “We have some responsibility to make sure that all of our teams are functioning properly and that the people are well.”
30 mins; November 04, 2020
Harbinder Birdi, Hawkins Brown “The apprenticeship route is a way of relieving some of the unnecessary stress that qualifying as an architect entails.”
34 mins; October 29, 2020
David Ogunmuyiwa, ArchitectureDoingPlace “Reverse mentoring allows you access to a world that you are incapable of experiencing.”
35 mins; October 21, 2020
Joe Morris, Morris+Company “It is our responsibility as leaders of the practice to liberate people to explore with more abandon different ideas.”
24 mins; October 14, 2020
Rachel and Louise discuss the impact of “The ‘disorientating dilemma’ that has broken an inertia around flexible working and is presenting quite a few opportunities.”
26 mins; September 23, 2020
Ross Hutchinson, Hutchinson and Partners “We wanted to take control of our own destiny rather than waiting for the politicians to sort out what Brexit looks like.”
33 mins; September 09, 2020
Bradley Webster, Baily Garner “What I yearned for was clear, strong, experienced leadership which people may perceive now as being autocratic or dictatorial.”
33 mins; September 02, 2020
Leanne Tritton of ING Media “You’ve got to get back, show yourself and hustle for new work.”
25 mins; July 28, 2020
Nick Searl of Argent “One of the most important characteristics of a good leader is optimism and it’s optimism that leads to inspiration.”
30 mins; July 22, 2020
Leah Stuart and Andrew Ruck, Civic Engineers “We have to be prepared to decline a commission if it doesn’t fit and if it’s not appropriate, and that takes soul-searching and courage.”
30 mins; July 15, 2020
Kirsten Lees and Katie Atkinson, Grimshaw “We can’t ignore the fact that there has been a massive shift in our expectations of working life.”
22 mins; July 08, 2020
John McRae and Colin McColl, ORMS Architects "An Employee Ownership Trust still needs leadership."
31 mins; July 01, 2020
Priya Shah, BAME in Property “We all have unconscious bias, acknowledging it is the first step.”
23 mins; June 25, 2020
Martyn Evans, U+I "I can't believe you made me say oatmeal."
25 mins; June 18, 2020
Welcome to Coaches On The Couch
3 mins; June 09, 2020
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