Fern Consulting - One Year On

I went freelance one year ago and started Fern Consulting. A friend has encouraged me to write down some reflections on the journey so far, and being a good millennial (well, almost....) I thought I would share. And in my very first LinkedIn article no less.

These musings are primarily for my own record, but possibly someone may find some useful insight in my experiences across the last 12 months.

How Fern came to be

Like many I had some enforced reflective time during the early months of the pandemic in 2020, and the conclusion from those reflections was that it felt time to do something different after over fifteen years hard graft in local government.

As a sector to work in I can't praise it highly enough. It provided a huge range of experiences for me: genuine responsibility from very early on in my career, first class CPD opportunities (including for me a Masters at Imperial/UCL) and the privilege of being in a position to deliver positive change to the environment of the city in which I live. All alongside a generally warm and welcoming set of work colleagues, many of whom are now close friends.

But there is also the ever present need to manage conflict. Local authorities have exciting roles as custodians and curators of public space - but more often than not it is the role of referee that comes to the fore. 100% support for a change to the network is non-existent - there is always opposition and sometimes that becomes very vitriolic and occasionally uncomfortably personal. This anger can also generate tension between work colleagues and of course with elected members.

After being the chief officer for a highway authority for half a decade I needed a break from that.

To start with this felt like an admission of failure, or a lack of personal resilience. Luckily my burnout came at a time when society is more attuned to the need for us to pay equal attention to mental as well as physical health. I was fortunate that I had plenty of people supporting me. They helped me see that I wouldn't keep working out if my body was screaming at me to stop, and I needed to listen equally to my mind when it was sending out similar warning signs.

What have I learned from my first year?

So I stepped out of my increasingly uncomfortable comfort zone and started up my own company, Fern Consulting, and started looking for work.

Here are five key takeaways from me on this journey to date. For most these probably seem pretty obvious, but they were often a source of some surprise for me (sometimes pleasant, sometimes less so).

1. I went looking for work. And luckily I found it. However I had been so nervous of being at a spare end having left the sanctuary of salaried work, I'd said yes to so many things that I had more work than I could possibly fulfil without returning to the sort of stress I was hoping to leave behind. Coupled with all the interesting volunteer opportunities that are always around in this industry I was immediately at or beyond capacity and had to back-pedal hard to get myself out of the hole I had dug myself. It was a valuable crash course in learning how to say no without burning bridges (see no. four below on the importance of that).
2. Linked to above, it is startling how quickly you hit the resource buffers when you are working for yourself. I was used to having a large team and access to countless contractors to push through projects and policies that lead to genuine (and hopefully positive) change across a relatively large geography. Now I wasn't the client, and moreover only had eight person-hours/day in total to get stuff done. It is necessary in part to accept that loss of control and influence when you step away from officialdom and go solo, though it is still something I am struggling with to be honest. Mitigating this by working collaboratively with other associates in a similar situation has been a really positive experience and its something I'm looking to do more of in 2022.
3. I've concluded that working for yourself can be brilliant. But only if you are a good boss... Overall I'm not a bad manager, but like everyone I have good days and bad. A key trick to good management I have found is often to know when you need to push your staff and when you need to let them coast for a bit (particularly relevant during a pandemic when there is lots of extraneous activity going on). That's just as relevant when you're managing yourself - coast too much and you get in a funk and can find it difficult to motivate. Push too hard and you load up the stress and wonder why you made the jump in the first place. It sounds crazy but sometimes its worth diarising a formal 1:1 with yourself to reflect and check everything is going ok. I find a good cycle ride (healthy) or a solo jaunt down the local (less healthy, but occasionally more fun) during work hours can be a good time for those... Strangely it took a while not to feel guilty about taking that time out for myself, but I have found I come back from these 1:1's far more motivated and productive.
4. I have been completely bowled over by the kindness of people I have met along the path of my career to date. People I haven't thought of, let alone spoken to or worked with, in decade or more have contacted me out of the blue when they heard I had made the jump. Sometimes to offer work, sometimes personal support, sometimes professional advice and almost always coffee. Its been a valuable reminder of the importance of avoiding burning bridges and to nurse every relationship you create day to day at work as best as you are able - you never know if that person may be the one to bring an unbeatable opportunity to your inbox years from now. By the by, I also found that it is good to limit coffee to around three cups a day if you want to have a decent nights sleep. And never after 3pm. That might just be me though.
5. This one is cheesy but it's probably my favourite. Before I went solo I used to measure life success by pretty much one bar - how well I was doing at work. When I made the change I promised to try and gauge how successful I was equally across three broad criteria -

a) Personal fulfilment - am I fit, healthy and have some decent (non transport) hobbies? Do I have time to explore interesting charitable and volunteer activities?

b) Family - Am I spending a decent amount of time with the family, including some focussed time with the kids, and quality adult time (no sniggers) with my wife? Do I have the time to support my elderly mum when she needs it and call my brother from time to time (more than twice a year...)?

c) Career - And, yes, am I successful with Fern and in my career generally?

Before I always used to feel guilty when investing time in the first two as if putting deposits into these asset classes were of lesser value than c). Whilst I certainly wouldn't have claimed to have reached any zen like state, the additional control you have working for yourself has helped me strike a better balance between these three than I have ever done.

What did Fern Actually do in 2021?

Well, quite a lot it turns out, here's a list for the record.

1. Provide lead consultant support for the Heathrow Strategic Planning Group :: Home (HSPG). HSPG is a collaborative success story between Heathrow and a wide range of authorities and local enterprise partnerships representing the community of businesses and residents that neighbour the airport. It's a real privilege to work with some hugely talented and committed public servants across a wide range of local authorities and local enterprise partnerships. It's also very enjoyable in particular to bring people together from across the GLA boundary - there are very few opportunities for west London and west of London people to speak to each other in my experience. Here's a good summary of what we got up to: https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/fernconsultingltd_welcome-to-the-latest-update-from-theheathrow-activity-6877961756761735168-i9LD. It's been a particular pleasure to work with Michael Thornton and Kevin Lloyd on this one, two the most inspirationally intellectually curious people I've met to date.
2. Independent Expert support for Val Shawcross's Heathrow Area Transport Forum (hatf.org.uk)). From representations to change the economic regulation of the airport to favour decarbonisation, to a series of special interest groups to help coordinate Bus Service Improvement Plans across the sub-region, it was a varied year for the forum. Here's a summary of what we got up to in full. HATF-Chairs-Annual-Report-2020-21.pdf. Val in particular has been a huge support for me over the past year for which I would like to offer a massive thank you. Tony Caccavone and the team at Heathrow have also been a joy to work with, despite the unprecedented challenges to their business over the last 20 months.
3. Working with the excellent University of Westminster Active Travel Academy to develop guidance for the LGA on the Stakeholder engagement in an emergency: Stakeholder engagement in an emergency: Lessons from low-traffic neighbourhoods | Local Government Association. Many thanks to Dr Tom Cohen for taking a chance on me with this one at a time when I needed some reassurance that I had something useful to offer in this space.
4. Together with ITP consultants, supported the London Technical Advisors Group (LoTAG) Strategic Transport Forum. We revised their terms of reference, helped plan the year's programme, supported advocacy work with TfL and DfT and set up the incredibly successful LoTAG@Urban Design London training and peer:peer best practice sharing sessions - covering everything from staff well being to local transport decision making frameworks and their impact on outcomes. We also developed a new mentoring programme for London Borough officers interested in completing the Transport Planning Society Professional Development Scheme (tps.org.uk), the first time many borough staff have had access to the industry standard CPD scheme for transport planners. Geoff Burrage from ITP in particular has been a great sounding board for me across the year and it's been fantastic to be able to work more closely with Dominic Millen and Sam Margolis at LoTAG - two more committed borough officers you'll struggle to find. It's also been great to build stronger partnerships with Esther Kurland and the Urban Design London excellent team.
5. Provided ongoing strategic advice to Royal Borough of Kingston and Westminster City Council to develop the Low Carbon Transport Plan (LCTP) for London, a partnership project between London Environment Directors Network and London Councils Transport & Environment Committee: TEC-LEDNet Joint Statement: Climate Change | London Councils. This is a really exciting project that could deliver real change across the city over the coming years, and one I need to offer a massive thanks to Matt Hill from Kingston in getting me involved with from the outset.
6. Provided further support to RB Kingston in scoping studies around town centre air quality and parking, to be used as evidence bases in a new spatial strategy and to inform the development of interventions on the highway to improve the environment. Huge thanks to Tava Walton for asking me to help with this one off the back of our work together on the old Golden Mile Transport Group.
7. Supported Placemaking London on a Public Realm strategy for the new Brompton Road Business Improvement District in Knightsbridge. This was a really enjoyable return to some proper traffic management and highway engineering optioneering in the highest possible profile location, with thanks to Dan Johnson for asking me to assist with this one.
8. Developed a new training package for PTRC on 'Essential Highway Legislation' - Michelle Wood was quick off the ball to get me in to support this which was a real vote of confidence, looking forward to delivering this in 2022.
9. Supported Crane Valley Community Interest company in developing an access study for the river catchment as part of the Thames Water Smarter Water Catchment project. It's always a privilege to work with people as knowledgeable and committed as Rob Gray who has been a driving force behind environmental improvements along this river corridor for as long as I can remember.

In addition, I was elected chair of the Transport Planning Society, which was a genuine honour and has been a great learning experience. In particular, chairing the majority of sessions around TPS' Transport planning Day campaign, the theme for which in 2021 was Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, really opened my eyes to where we needed to do better as an industry to avoid unconscious bias and support access for all (in many meanings of the word). I've also continued to chair the LGTAG Strategic Transport Board and sit on various panels and working groups, including ICEs Transport and Mobility Community Advisory Group and CIHTs active travel working group which have been a real pleasure to be involved with.

I was interviewed by the BBC (Never mind going electric, where will we park? - BBC News), had the time to pen a couple of thought pieces for the ever excellent Local Transport Today from Landor (e.g. https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/fernconsultingltd_local-transport-today-article-on-demand-management-activity-6868500713895473153-laO6) and even found time to post a couple of times on LinkedIn from time to time...

Conclusion

So, that's my journey to date as a freelance. It's been fun, and whilst it won't be for everyone I certainly have no regrets in making the change at the moment - and if anything 2022 is looking like it will be even more exciting. If anyone is thinking about taking a similar path and wants to have an informal chat please feel free to DM me. Alternatively if you are in a similar position to me and are looking for other freelancers to collaborate or share the load on any projects I'd also be delighted to chat further. (With or without coffee). (Preferably with). (If before 3).