Following our commendation for EO Transition of the Year Award at the EO Conference 2025, we recently gathered the entire team for a dedicated day to translate the momentum into a strategy for shared success.
The idea for this day began back in November, from mixing with the UK’s leading employee-owned businesses at the EO Conference. We were inspired to bring some of the conference experience and insights back to Coda HQ to share with the team.
Our EO Day was designed to help our team navigate the journey from ‘employee’ to ‘employee owner’. We curated a programme to reveal the reality of the role of Trustee Director, we had external insights from EO Award winners Grapevine IT, and we ran a series of interactive ‘EO Labs’ workshops to help cultivate the Employee Ownership mindset across the business.
In a transparent look at our governance, re-enacting one of our EO Conference highlights, we travelled “Behind the Boardroom Doors” to explore how our Trust Board Directors Andy Brown, Chris Lawrenson, Jayne Witheyman and CEO, Jen Swain navigate decision making. As part of this, the wider team was invited to discuss and vote on a series of hypothetical business scenarios.
During the session called ‘Employee Ownership Labs’, we explored the key principles involved in a great EO mindset, including business literacy and shared responsibility.
We finished the day by writing EO Commitment Cards, where each of us identified and committed to change one behaviour this year that will have a positive impact on the agency, our clients, and the team.
What we learned
The day wasn’t just about listening; it was about understanding. The top-level takeaways were clear:
Being an employee-owned agency means we are all invested in the success of our clients and the wellbeing of our peers. What we’re building at Coda is exciting, and best of all, it belongs to all of us.
One of the differences about being an Employee Owned business is having a Trust Board who work with the agency’s senior leadership to help shape strategies and plans.
Luckily for us, we’ve got a pretty great bunch of people doing that here at Coda!
Independent Trustee
Team Voice Lead
