Mike Wistow
- Specialism: People. Processes. Improvement. Governance.
- Track Record:
- Public Sector – Criminal Justice, NHS, DWP, Local Government, Further Education
- Commercial Sector – Consulting, Governance Development, Airport, Manufacturing
- Mutual Sector – Retail and other Co-ops, Housing
- Charity Sector – National Awarding Body, Refugees, Victims of violence, Community Arts
- Offer: I am an accomplished Chair, consultant, facilitator, director with over three decades of experience driving performance improvement, managing structural change, and guiding governance across the public, private, and voluntary sectors.
I blend strategic vision with practical, hands-on execution. Because of the frustrations of ‘being promoted into a life of meetings’, I founded Aegir Consulting in 2011 and more recently co-developed the Wood For The Trees approach.
I have been Chair of two national Research organisations which focus on driving practical improvement:
* UKSCS – the UK Society for Co-operative Studies
* NPRIE – the National Probation Service Information & ExchangeI have also been a Board Member in one of the UK’s largest retail Co-ops, a Community Arts organisation, a Primary Care Trust, a Criminal Justice Charity and a College of FHE.
- Mike says:
“Your questions enable us to get to key issues quickly.” - Try me: www.wfttpartnership.co.uk
I have an unusually broad background and enjoy working with colleagues at every level, from First Line Supervisor through to the Board. In 2011, I established Aegir Consulting Limited, allowing me to focus on helping organisations improve how they work. More recently, I developed the Wood For The Trees approach in partnership with David Leech. It is designed to work across a wide range of sectors, roles, and organisational levels, and reflects the practical, systems-based approach I bring as a Portfolio Executive.
My journey began with a small consultancy in 2007, where I spent a couple of years focusing primarily on Lean, Systems Thinking, and Toyota Production System (TPS) approaches to continuous improvement. I later returned to a large organisation, but soon realised I was no longer best suited to that environment. In 2011, I established Aegir Consulting Limited so I could work more directly with organisations looking to improve performance and create lasting change.
One of my earliest successes came in my first role after university, working at a further education college, where every student successfully completed their course, whether they were studying academic qualifications such as A and O Levels or vocational qualifications such as City & Guilds. It reinforced my belief in the importance of creating the right environment for people to succeed.
Over the years, I’ve learned that people rise and fall by their own talent, but the more you believe in their capacity to achieve, the more they are likely to achieve. Supporting people to realise that potential remains one of the most rewarding parts of my work.
It’s working for me now because the work is active, focused, and leads to meaningful change in the workplace. Rather than being promoted into what can become “a life of meetings”, I’m able to spend my time helping organisations improve the way they operate and achieve better outcomes.
Looking ahead, I want to continue helping organisations understand that change management and continuous improvement can be simple – simple, not necessarily easy – and that there are more than seventy years of proven approaches to draw upon. I also want to demonstrate that how organisations realise the benefits of improvement is a choice, and that achieving a beneficial impact with the resources available is often entirely possible.