Dr Felix Janeway BSc, PhD, FHEA

Felix loves to jump face first into problems. Using the tools collected from teaching, science, leadership development, performing, assessing, directing, creating and caring he attempts to not fall flat.

Starting out in leadership during high school, Felix finds needs, tries to understand the root causes of those needs, and begins the scientific process of implementing transformation from the ground up until those needs are met.

With a PhD in inorganic chemistry, he understands that causes are often multiple, hierarchal and sometimes unobservable, as well as understanding that solutions which require constant input are weak points that will break at the next stress point. Felix tries to make transformation cost less than the status quo – not more – for everyone involved, though sometimes this involves pointing out the not-yet-realised cost of doing nothing.

10 years of teaching, assessing and leading at a Russell Group University in the UK built experience of the diversity of approaches to thought that can easily slip through the cracks of understanding in a workspace. He advocates for an understanding that, whether recognised or not, the truth and animosity are in your and that comfortably ignoring them can only work for so long.

Throughout this work Felix realised that his clients often needed a tool they lost their permission to play with – performance. While their jobs expected them to do tasks in the moment for which there was no second chance to correct, they did not understand those tasks as being small performances. Phone calls, client meetings, talks, appraisals; all performances which are underserved by professional development which should be artistic direction but is more often approached through prescribed exercises and tips than accepting and enhancing personal style.

Felix set out to find the most extreme performance environments and finally settled to become director of improvised musicals for ComedySportz UK, playing the score of entire musicals at the suggestion of the audience, playing over 200 musicals on the spot while working.

As an director of In The Room UK, Felix started melding scientific diagnostics, leadership theory and performing arts into a cohesive set of coaching practices, working with global businesses on a personal scale. While most professional development is made up of certificates and expected levels, Felix expects to meet each colleague where they are and for the whole group to raise each other with bespoke planning for bespoke groups as standard.