An interview with Tim Mitchell, Global Integration

Tim Mitchell, Oregon-based training consultant, has recently been awarded his Global Integration long service award. We caught up with him for a sixty second interview:

How did you come to join Global Integration?

Serendipity! I had just moved back to the UK after eleven years in Asia and I’d decided to take a year off. I saw the Global Integration advertisement in the Sunday Times the weekend I left my old role.

Any stand out moments?

My screening interview with Kevan. [ed: Kevan Hall, Global Integration’s CEO]

I was wearing a suit, he was dressed in shorts and a floral shirt.

Favourite quote: “Just wanted to make sure you weren’t a pratt.” [ed: Kevan is English – the word is used there to mean idiot. Which, we’re pleased to report, Tim turned out not to be.]

How have you found travelling so much and having a relatively young family? What tips would you pass to others to help get the balance right?

– Be home when you’re home ie use the benefits of working from home to balance being away and drive your kids to school/take them to events.

– Have a wife who doesn’t allow you to use the ‘I’m a bit tired’ excuse for getting out of social events.

– Have a hobby.

So when did your wife persuade you to make Oregon your home? 

I wasn’t given a choice! A couple of English summers after being in Asia made up her mind for us.

Have we Americanized you yet?

Not very much, except that I get confused as to how to say certain words (schedule, progress etc) and whether to give old friends a hug a la American or shake hands stiffly a la Anglaise. I still don’t approve of ranch dressing or making tea without BOILING water.

What’s changed in the past twelve years at Global Integration?

We now have far more sophisticated audiences – a bigger focus on ‘what do I do about it’ than ever before.

There’s also a greater realisation that e-learning isn’t the answer.

Sadly, travel is now more stressful.

Which parts of your role do you find most rewarding, and why?

I really love the web-based follow up where people share what they’ve done as a result of our interventions, and the impact. I regularly have people saying that they’ve saved four to six hours a week by implementing some ideas that seem really simple. It makes you feel that you’re actually helping people.

Those who know Tim will know that this is the question we just HAVE to ask: Tim –  how’s Arsenal going to do this season? 

We’ll finish higher than the soon to be Stratford Hotspurs – hard to win when your manager’s….. [Ed: We took this bit out on the grounds that we might end up in court, even if it was meant as a joke!  Arsenal is the UK soccer team that Tim passionately supports. We can take the boy out of England, even marry him off, but we can’t take the England out of the boy. Tottenham Hotspurs is Arsenal’s arch rival North London Football Club – a rivalry which is played on to appeal to British humor. The club’s ground may be moving to Stratford and the manager was arrested last year for alleged tax evasion.]