Beginnings in cultural curiosity
Erica’s career journey so far has been one of adaptability and fluidity, shaped by a multicultural upbringing and a sense of being both an insider and outsider in various contexts. She was born in Jamaica, grew up in the Bahamas and moved to the UK as a teenager – with family still living in Nassau. Now living in France, she developed a nuanced understanding of culture, belonging, and privilege.
“I’m three times an immigrant… recognising that with that, I also carry huge amounts of privilege and the places I’ve lived in have mostly afforded me welcome, space and time and grace to integrate and contribute. I can still move freely back and forth between where I’ve lived and where people I love are still based. But I still have that experience of being “other” in a new place, and that learning the shape of a new culture is hard. The grief of where and who you left, of lives carrying on without you. That sense of belonging and not… It’s something I recognise that lots of other immigrants and people who move around carry with them.
But at the same time, that lived experience of “seeing” cultures and how they’re expressed in different places has been part of me from the start – from that position of being both in and out.”
This perspective was further informed by discovering sociology and politics at university – and how these subjects provide a framework for making sense of the world’s complexity.
“It was something that made me go ‘Oh, that’s interesting!”’ That’s a way of looking at the world that speaks to me, or that helps to make sense of what I see and feel around me. Somehow all of this stuff that’s in my brain has a proper place – there are academics that do some stuff that is as busy and messy as my brain…”
These early experiences became the foundation for a career defined by curiosity and a desire to understand – and connect – across boundaries.
Connecting dots to consultancy
Erica’s first job, as a communications officer for a wind energy company, aligned with her values around climate and social responsibility. But a subsequent move to a corporate role, which included ‘more money and a BMW’ felt empty and unfulfilling, and quickly solidified the importance of meaningful work. What followed was a transitional period of travelling, new motherhood and eventually a job working with IBM through a technology consultancy. This work helped her explore and contribute to emerging cultural practices around virtual and distance technologies, in the early 2000’s when team working across distance (using video conferencing, collaborative tools and shared data storage) was only in its infancy.
The work developed into a spinout start-up, offering organisations (such as UK’s DFID, a university, a youth charity, and social change movement 38 Degrees, then in its infancy) very large facilitated online discussions and action processes. While the start-up didn’t really take off in the way that she had hoped (thanks dot com bubble burst) it did prompt Erica to develop her thinking about how organisations, people, and groups organise themselves, and think about and learn from what they do. Fuelled by a heady dose of optimism around the potential of early Web2.0, this included asking questions about how organisations could bring in different perspectives, access the wisdom of crowds, and make better decisions as a result. It also introduced her to consultancy as a “real job” and within IOD PARC, where she’s worked for 14 years, she’s managed to make it her career.
“I stumbled into this practice of consultancy. I found it offered variety, interesting things to do with interesting people. In a way, it worked with that sense of distance – of being “outside” but also coming into and alongside organisations or networks or groups to work together, and do useful things.”
Each step, both planned and serendipitous, led Erica to seek out work that means something to both her and her clients. This also meant embracing variety, moving between roles, disciplines and perspectives, and in a sense, mirroring the diversity of needs in the sector.
Working flexibly allows her support organisations in holistic, creative ways as they respond to complex challenges. The Learning Partnership approach she’s developed, and leads within IOD PARC, is rooted in this idea of accompaniment.
“[At] the very core of my practice starts with questions “Okay, what’s going on? What do people need? How can we bring to bear our varied skills and experience and expertise – what we know and what we don’t know – to help people work through some of this? Particularly in periods of really extreme change, there are opportunities to do things quite differently, I think.”
This philosophy underpins her approach to every project, fostering environments where learning, communication, and insight are integrated and valued.
Adaptability for a world in flux
One feature of Erica’s role now is that she doesn’t define her work too narrowly, believing that adaptability is essential in a world of constant change.
“Defining things is always useful, up until the point that that definition becomes a barrier to paying attention, making sense of things and acting with good intent. And at the moment, I’m not sure anybody knows what is going to happen – we have no idea what the world’s going to look like.”
For Erica, consultancy is a tricky balance – the core is deeply human and relational when you are in it, but to get the work, you have gone through processes that strip out much of this.
“I feel our practice is more helpful when it’s relationship and trust based and a shared endeavour. Quite hard to lead with that, though. A lot of our work is through complex tender processes where you can’t really forge that relationship side of things in that first instance.
We need a way to easily convey that we’re smart people, we’ve got decent experience across lots of other organisations and projects and contexts, and we can help you with what you are trying to do. It could look like any of these things, depending on what you need…”
A continuing journey
And for her, consultancy is less about delivering predetermined solutions and more about facilitating inquiry, reflection, and action.
“I think the work has to retain that fluidity – moving from big, system-level concepts, ideas, models, processes and systems … into quite concrete, human and tangible ways of supporting the work of social change that feel doable and possible. Otherwise, I feel we can get lost in the complexity or distance of it all, and lose the chance to make that human difference.”
As she looks to the future, Erica is clear about what it looks like within IOD PARC: to continue working at the intersection of big ideas and tangible action, and to support social change in ways that are human, impactful and sustainable.
Erica’s journey to Intentional Generalist captures the essence of this series – that careers need not follow a straight line, and that meaningful work can emerge from a willingness to embrace uncertainty, reflect deeply, and stay true to one’s values.
