Welcome to our new series of blogs where we interview people in a wide range of roles across different think tanks and ask them the how, why and what their job entails. Our first interview is with Adam Terry from the Future Governance Forum.
What is your formal job title?
Deputy Director, The Future Governance Forum (FGF)
How did you get into think tanks?
I’ve worked in policy and politics for the best part of 20 years, from a range of different angles. I started my career in the civil service, and since then have worked for a campaigning charity, for a private sector consultancy, as a political adviser in both the European and Westminster parliaments, and then as the Head of Policy Development for the Labour Party. I moved from that role over to FGF in 2023, just before we launched publicly.
Was this always what you wanted to do?
I left university wanting to become a stand-up comedian (an ambition that it’s in everyone’s best interests was never realised), and it wasn’t until I followed a friend’s footsteps into the civil service graduate scheme that I really caught the politics bug. Since then I’ve enjoyed the variety of all my different roles, but the appeal of a think tank was to do more in-depth, strategic thinking about the future of the country and hope to influence – and add bandwidth to – those in government and progressive political parties who can put it into practice.
How does a typical day start for you? And at what time?
I’m a father of six year-old twins, so a typical day starts with searching for misplaced school books and negotiating with children who are highly reluctant to clean their teeth. By the time I’ve successfully dropped them off at school at 8.45am I’m basically ready for anything.
What do you enjoy most about working at FGF?
The team at FGF – from the Director Nathan Yeowell and the Chair Helen MacNamara on down – are the best group of people you could hope to work with. From just three of us on launch day, we’re now a team of eleven core staff and a much wider network of policy associates, advisers and friends. It’s creative and inspiring to work with that group – everyone works together to bring out the best in each other – but also, equally importantly, it’s fun. I look forward to going into work every day.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Cliches about “there are no typical days” aside, my working days tend to be a mix of checking in with each member of my team to see what they’re working on and where they need me; getting out and about to meet the people we’re working with on current projects or hoping to work with on future ones; overseeing FGF’s communications outputs – which could mean signing off blogs or reviewing reports ahead of publication; and then diving in to contribute on a particular project wherever our priority is for that day. As a small outfit there’s a lot of everyone chipping in on different things, and having to be as ‘agile and productive’ – to borrow the Prime Minister’s phrase – as we can be.
What excites you most about your work?
The prospect of having an impact on the way the country is run, and in turn changing people’s lives for the better. FGF’s mission is to reform the state to renew the nation, and that combination is really inspiring. We want to get into the thorniest problems about the way the country is run – thinking creatively about how you can rewire a state operating system that is woefully out of date – without ever losing sight of the fact that the reason for doing that is to improve outcomes for people right across the country. That’s been the thread that runs through my career.
What is the most challenging thing about your job?
We’re still less than two years old since our public launch, which means that we are still in many ways a start-up. That’s new for me, and means we all have to do a lot of juggling between doing the things we’ve already committed to while simultaneously looking ahead to find the new opportunities. You always want to strike that balance between taking the time to make sure everything you produce is of the highest possible quality and carving out the space to scan the horizon and think about “what’s next?”
Can you think of one thing in particular you have learnt since starting this job?
The art of plate spinning. FGF is the smallest organisation I’ve ever worked for, so we all have to be working on a whole range of things at the same time, and jumping from one to the other. To make sure I’m supporting the Director Nathan as well as possible, and then out to the wider team, I have to be able to distill the important from the urgent, and constantly assess where it makes most sense for me to spend some finite time before moving on to the next thing. The key is doing enough to keep each plate spinning without overly focusing on one and letting the others drop. FGF is an acute test of that skill but it’s invaluable.
Which 3 skills do you think are essential for success in your role?
An acute sense of political judgement, so that the recommendations we make stand the best possible chance of success in the world as it is, not in a set of artificial laboratory conditions.
Good people skills, both for getting out and building that network of connections which is central to how we operate as a forum, and for – I hope! – being a supportive and helpful colleague and someone people want to work with.
Strong time management and organisational skills, which are a work in progress…
What tools or technologies do you use most in your job?
Horribly revealing my advanced age, the honest answer is a notepad and pen, and Google docs. Talking to others, thinking aloud, having helpful conversations with experts and then writing my thoughts down – in whatever medium – is how I work best. There are loads of other tools and technologies I use throughout the course of the day, with varying degrees of enthusiasm and reluctance, but it always comes back to that pretty basic stuff.
How do you balance work and personal life?
My sons have a pretty disciplining effect: I cannot start work before I’ve dropped them off at school, and I have a hard stop at the end of each day either to pick them up or to get home and make dinner. And they – quite rightly – have little truck if my wife or I are trying to sneak a look at our phones while they’re still up. Inevitably that does tend to lead to some working in the evenings after they’ve gone to bed, but I try my best to limit that. As someone in a more senior role, I don’t want to be sending a signal to the team that they should be expected to work all hours of the day or be checking their inbox from the sun lounger on holiday. I also always inevitably find that if I properly clock off for the day, rest and recuperate, then I’m much more productive in working hours than if I’d tried to squeeze in just a few more emails the night before…
How much of your day is spent in meetings or working with people vs individual work?
I’d say the majority is probably in meetings or working with others, which is my preferred style and I think is how you get to better answers. At FGF we really try to embody the collaborative, ‘test and learn’ approach that we believe the government should take. And in my case, after a year spent working (very) remotely from a home office in Malaysia – my wife is a diplomat, so we have had various stints overseas – I am very much enjoying working with people face-to-face again!
What would be your one piece of advice to someone considering a similar career?
Think not just about the field you want to go into (politics, government, etc) or the type of organisation (civil service, political party, think tank, charity) but the particular role that you would most like to do. What do you enjoy most, and where do you get your energy – from researching things in great detail, from advocating passionately for a cause, from working in the cut-and-thrust of the most pressing priority of the day, from stepping back and taking a look at the big picture? Then try to follow that. I always come back to the fact that we spend an enormous proportion of our lives at work so making sure your job is something that’s fun and that you enjoy is a pretty good starting point.
