Model of the Month - with Tim Carmichael
Model of the Month
Personal Professional Practical - Inspirational Insightful Ideas
Why do we encounter so much resistance to change even when such change could seem beneficial. This month's premium edition explored this challenge and offered a tangible step-wise approach to resolving such situations.
Beyond this, today's bonus edition includes a sneak preview of our first ever "Model of the Month" interview with deep and helpful insights from an accomplished professional who has become notorious for reinventing his career - Tim Carmichael.
As always, this standard newsletter includes easy access to the premium edition which provides even more exclusive insights and incorporates direct access to my calendar with current availability throughout this month and offers other ways to get in direct contact.
Tim Carmichael
The Profile
Today, we are privileged to be joined by Tim Carmichael.
Tim is currently leading an amazing data team that is helping Chalhoub Group - world renowned premium jewellery and luxury brand - accelerate their data transformation, create value and find even more ways to delight their wonderful customers.
Tim embodies the fundamentals of a growth mindset and describes himself by what he learns. Most recently, he has learnt that, as a Data Leader:
1. It's not just about data, it's about culture too. Many business areas are concerned that being "data-driven" is a leap of faith that supplants business leaders' hard-earned judgement. The trick is to turn the conversation into one where data moves to the heart of their business; they don't have to relinquish ownership to see how harnessing data can be transformational.
2. Keeping the message simple and compelling is vital. He has added most value as both evangelist and interpreter. Being passionate about the role of data throughout the organisation needs to be coupled with the communications skill to be equally fluent on both sides of the business user - technical provider divide. Otherwise there's only a dialogue of the deaf.
3. Data is most relevant when it is exploited to generate business value. Without a clear link between benefits and underpinning data, any data effort will just look like a cost centre.
Getting Personal
with Tim Carmichael
In today's interview, we dive straight into Tim's personal experiences by employing a mix of quick fires and provocative questioning to ensure great flow without losing the opportunity to gain helpful substance. It starts by getting straight into the sophisticated interactions between Tim's personal and work lives.
It exposes revealing insights - including the significance of the stark difference between Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings, Tim's goto source of knowledge, a choice between traditional paperbacks and tech apps, and addressing the trending controversial debates that pitch Man against Machine.
Getting Personal - The Transcripts
Edosa:
Okay. So, let's jump into the meat of it. So, we start with some quick fire and really starting with the personal and just breaking the ice.
So, sausage or salad?
Tim:
Salad.
Edosa:
Okay. Pizza or pasta?
Tim:
Pasta.
Edosa:
Okay. Smoothies or shots?
Tim:
Short!
Edosa:
Okay. There was a bit of a hesitation there. Sparkling or still?
Tim:
Sparkling.
Edosa:
Okay, cool. Keeping on the kick quick fire. This one actually shift away from food and drink and a bit towards the work life side of things.
Okay. Life before or life after COVID?
Tim:
Life after - no point in looking back.
Edosa:
Okay. Working from home or working from an office?
Tim:
Both - balance to all times.
Edosa:
Okay. Physical meetings or virtual?
Tim:
Both. They're both parts of our new reality.
Edosa:
Sounds like a bit of sitting on the fence going on. I think with this one it might be hard to sit on fence as it is quite binary.
So, Mondays or Fridays?
Tim:
Mondays.
Edosa:
Ok, there you go.
Tim:
There's so much to look forward to in my week!
Edosa:
Ok, I like that. I really like that.
Okay. We're sticking with life. This is a life work if you like. So how life actually comes into work. Here, this is really trying to dig into what you do and how that affects your work.
So, how do you spend your Saturday mornings?
Tim:
Cycling? Over here in Dubai, there is some amazing cycling in the desert, which is a different kind of space and place to cycle in.
Edosa:
Wow. That sounds incredible!
But how would you spend your ideal Saturday morning? This is trying to pull out whether what you're doing really isn't quite the ideal.
Tim:
I'd be cycling, but with my buddies from England, I've got a great bunch of cycling buddies I cycle with when I'm back in the UK and it would be really cool to have them out here to share that experience with.
Edosa:
Brilliant. Okay. This one might a bit of a tricky one. How do you spend your Sunday evenings?
Tim:
Normally, sadly, preparing for the wonderful Monday so that I can be the best I can be.
Edosa:
And following on from that. How would you, ideally, spend your ideal Sunday evenings?
Tim:
Alongside my wife, glass of wine, gentle music, nothing to do with work. You see how those don't overlap? My reality and my aspiration.
Edosa:
Indeed. That's what that's trying to pull out actually. Okay. So, you already talked about your cycling, but this is a bit of quick fire around wellbeing. So, exercise or diet?
Tim:
Exercise.
Edosa:
Okay. What do you do to decompress?
Tim:
I cook. So I go back to diet.
Edosa:
Oh, very nice!
Tim:
One thing that I've always had between my work life and my home life is the act of commuting and the act of arrival at home - and I soften all of that by cooking. When I get home, it's my way of decompressing and contributing.
Edosa:
Oh, that sounds brilliant. Okay. More quick fire. Cycle or car? I think I know the answer.
Tim:
Cycle.
Edosa:
Yes. Okay. What would you bring on a one way trip to Mars?
Tim:
A reasonable stock of food, water, and shelter. Those basic Maslow needs.
Edosa:
Very, very practical, Tim. Okay. This now shifts us towards knowledge now. And after this, we're going to go into the professional side of things.
Tim:
Sure.
Edosa:
So, quick fire and then we'll jump into the meat of professional. So traditional paperbacks or tech apps?
Tim:
Tech apps.
Edosa:
Okay. Your goto source of knowledge?
Tim:
My network. I'm blessed to have a bunch of practitioners around me who really know their stuff. Some of those I work with now and some of those are my wider network and there's always someone who's got a better idea or answer than I have.
Edosa:
No, that's brilliant. Okay, this might be a tricky one. Creator or consumer?
Tim:
Creator.
Edosa:
Interesting.
Tim:
My job at the moment is working with a bunch of people who create data products that make a real difference for our business.
Edosa:
Interesting. Okay. This, this might be even trickier. Human versus machine?
Tim:
I can't do an OR on that. It's an effective partnership between both it's. It's both. Sorry.
Edosa:
Indeed. It is quite tricky.
Tim:
I can give you a better nuanced answer than that. If you had to make the decision between human and machine, it would always boil down to human for me - because that's where the intellectual property resides. That's where the creativity and the drive and the ambition resides. At the heart of any endeavour, such as ours, which have a, a technical and a data context, it's about people.
Edosa:
Indeed. It's not an easy one. It's either by people or for people.
Tim:
In some ways you can also think about it being with people.
Edosa:
Absolutely! Okay. That's the personal bit done.
Being Professional
What Work Does To You
How can we make things less complicated? Here, we jump into the professional. Here, Tim not only shares deep insights about how he makes things less complicated but also shares his professional journey with inspirational stories of his transition between roles and his acquisition of new competencies.
It is action packed with gripping stories from being rocketed of a rooftop in Basra, Iraq, to solving data forecasting and computational problems in the east African plains of Kenya.
