Changing course
The TLDR version (8 minute read)
I’m moving from Synergy to IBM Garage. I used three hypotheses to make sense of the instinct to move and now I’ll build these hypotheses in to my regular check-in and reflection.
No one likes to quit. We’re told to never give up. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again”.
This wisdom deserves to be challenged and this Fast Company article was quite helpful in doing so.
This week, I will leave my second full-time employer in pursuit of the next surge of learning and diversification of skill. It has taken a while to reconcile and distil the ‘why’ behind this move but over the last couple of months, I’ve been able to understand the narrative behind the instinct for change. I’d love to share this with you as an observer, an old colleague from Synergy, a new colleague at IBM Garage or as a partner who I’ll be working with in the near future. In conclusion, I’ll share my framework for this sort of decision making and the habit I’ll be testing to keep an eye on when to change roles next.
Setting the hypothesis
When I left General Electric Oil & Gas (now Baker Hughes) and started at Synergy three and a half years ago, it was for two primary reasons that informed a hypothesis for why I should go with Synergy. In 2017, at GE:
The content and goal of my work no-longer aligned with my personal values of sustainability and equality.
A path of professional development had become tenuous despite attempts to create new opportunities for growth
The hypotheses that I formed for my new role at Synergy as a Continuous Improvement Analyst were along the lines of this:
Hypothesis 1:
I believe that by resigning, I will find a role that is more aligned with my belief in sustainability and a desire to be at the forefront of energy transformation. I will know the hypothesis is validated when I feel that the work is more impactful regarding decarbonisation than my current role.
Hypothesis 2:
I believe that by resigning, I will find a role that challenges me professionally and personally. I will know the hypothesis is validated when the rate of learning and magnitude of challenge exceeds that of my current role.
When I started, hypothesis 2 was being met from day one with the potential in my role to reach out to every segment of the business, to learn how it worked and to offer support in it’s improvement. It took a year and a half before I felt that hypothesis 1 was being validated due to how indirect my initial role was to the decarbonisation aspect of the business. The learning (hypothesis 2) was really what drew me in at the beginning. At some point, I reset my expectation for the pace of learning that has been quite consistently high given a new industry. It’s only now that I realise that it’s the same hypothesis which is now telling me that it’s time to move on.
These hypotheses are continuously tested, in this case driven by perception vs a baseline expectation.
1 hypothesis for, 1 against
So what about sustainability and the decarbonisation mission (hypothesis 1)? Is that experimental pursuit not enough to maintain the allure of a role at Synergy?
That’s the one I’ve struggled with which has made it harder to decide whether to move on or not. I truly believe that Synergy is uniquely placed to lead a transition to a more distributed and renewable energy system for the people of Western Australia. The state’s geography, politics and affluence make it a globally unique environment to prove on the world stage that an energy system with high penetration of renewable energy can be stable and economic. It’s legislated monopoly over relationships with residential customers that are playing a bigger role as participants in virtual power plants makes it a unique place to be and the only place in Western Australia where you can be at that front line. So why move away? Time for more hypothesis testing!
Early agitation for alignment with vision
It took me around 6 months to figure out the three most impactful areas of the business regarding decarbonisation: The first was a small team coordinating the procurement of grid-scale wind and solar assets; the second was a strategy team that reviewed and recommended inclusion of investments within a strategic portfolio and the third was a team that explored retail product offerings in the ‘new energy’ space. The first team was essentially fully subscribed by the time I learned of it’s existence and didn’t have any openings over my time at Synergy. Over time, the second team appeared to represent a culture that didn’t match my values of openness and inclusion. The third team gave some opportunities to engage where I offered research insights and digested dense technical content in to more palatable chunks. Ultimately, that team wasn’t growing the the extent that they could take me on either. It wasn’t till around 6 months ago that these barriers for teams 2 and 3 all came down. It has simply been a question of timing and readiness for transformation.
Interesting paths along the way
What did I do in the meantime? Develop and grow by leveraging the opportunities that were available at the time. At the beginning, I chose Synergy based on the above hypotheses, on it’s values and in particular, the way I saw them manifested in my one-up manager at the time, Josianne Fortin. She continued to be a shining light, offering interesting ways to be impactful to Synergy that I would not have considered if I had fixated myself on the three teams above. She introduced me to alternate strategic thinking exposure via Digital and Innovation strategic development as well as giving me a taste of what working in consulting teams was like. Ultimately, it’s through her interest and leadership that I was able to continue having a significant impact on Synergy throughout it’s continuing agile transformation. Surprisingly to me, this growth was a lot to do with improving ways of working and led me to a role as a ‘Value Delivery Consultant’. This was a more diffuse and influence or coaching based way to derive impact than I had originally anticipated but it was equally rewarding. If it wasn’t for Josianne’s mentorship and support, I would have left Synergy long ago without having explored that side of my development as a leader of transformation.
Pressure testing hypothesis 2
The way the above hypotheses were posed indicates that they must be continuously validated. What could I do to bring back that pace of learning?
When looking to grow, I pursued two opportunities to try alternate roles at Synergy to test whether they were viable alternatives to leaving the business.
With the support of excellent peers, I was able to try out two opportunities in new areas that I had identified back in September. This was an effort to ensure that all stones were turned over before deciding to explore roles outside of Synergy.
Opportunity 1 was to scale my thinking around prioritisation of investments from the tribe to the organisational scale. This gave more insight in to the culture and impact of the strategy team on decarbonisation. It was a great opportunity to inject provisions for uncertainty in investment assumptions and how to de-risk early. Interesting, relatively brief and enough to tell that a role in that space would not be fruitful or sustainable. Hypothesis 1 supported briefly but not sustainably.
Break the model then evolve it
Opportunity 2 was to move to Project Symphony full time a month ago and this experience has forced me to revisit the 2 hypothesis model for decision making. Symphony is a two year trial of a large virtual power plant leveraging a diverse range of Distributed Energy Resource assets (like batteries, pool pumps or hot water heaters) to support high renewable energy penetration. In many ways, this has been my dream job regarding the intersection of technical interests it touches. It is the premiere project in Australia really regarding energy transformation in practice and it’s been a blast so far.
I quickly found ways to contribute knowledge to the team on the practicalities of home-based DER devices and communication pathways for Internet of Things devices. Pace of learning did certainly pick up due to working with a new team on a new topic.
So if impact was high, why still the instinct to move? Was the learning and pace aspect really up to expectation?
I think the missing hypothesis is a harder one to say out in the open. If the pace of learning and impact is high, it typically corresponds to capability. If you raise your capability quickly, get better as a person and as a worker, is that always recognised in the workplace?
I think the last third hypothesis goes something like this:
Hypothesis 3:
I believe that by resigning, I might find an environment where increasing capability is met with opportunities to be recognised in role and remuneration (a meritocracy). The hypothesis is validated when I am remunerated at or above market rate.
This measure of ‘fair’ pay or role recognition is largely the thing that stagnated at Synergy. This one is a more dangerous hypothesis because it requires an assessment of perceived worth vs current worth to the organisation. Am I getting cocky or getting an over-inflated ego? Perhaps the only helpful validation of perceived worth is when you go to market and see how the market values your skills. At Synergy, in lieu of plausible career paths and traditional career progress, I was awarded prizes in innovation and largely given free reign to move to roles that allowed me to test hypotheses 1 and 2. It was only when I went to market that I realised that my skills were being consistently undervalued that I could validate the hypothesis being in the negative. Perhaps I had created a brand of being able to do anything but having not taken a particular speciality with many years in that space, perhaps I was considered a risky person to promote? Perhaps there was no room for promotion within the business?
It looks like my hypotheses seem to link to Ikigai with the exception of ‘what I’m good at’ (unless I both love and am good at learning) which doesn’t seem to be a big focus for me right now (image source link).
Ikigai
Okinawa, Japan has the most 100-year-olds than anywhere else in the world and they don’t really have a word for retirement. In Japan, ‘ikigai’ roughly translates to the '“reason for getting out of bed in the morning”. There is less retirement and more of making more out of what you do day-to-day.
These three hypotheses now seem to be eerily similar to the 4 axes of Ikigai:
Decarbonisation is what the world needs in my opinion
I think learning might be what I love and what I’m good at but this is something I’m still discovering
‘Fair’ pay is what I can be payed for
This comparison of three hypotheses to Ikigai seems to support that maybe the pay side is something I need to keep in mind going forward in my job choices in addition to the other two hypotheses.
A new horizon:
IBM Garage
IBM is a big business with >300,000 employees over >170 countries. I learned from my experience at GE to be mindful of the benefits and pitfalls of sprawling US conglomerates. In this case, the business in question is IBM Garage which is a little different to the mother company and you could say it’s to the right of the innovation adoption curve which is where I like to be. IBM is a home for inventors and transformationalists. Perhaps I can test these hypotheses there.
IBM Garage often goes by the moniker: Start-up speed, enterprise scale. This appeals to me very much. Many of the elements of the methodology design and client mindset pre-requisites appeared to be in place during the interview process. There is an appreciation that mindset and way of working is important when leading transformation. It looks well set up to be somewhere where I can see the three hypotheses in the affirmative.
My role will be as a Value Orchestrator and Strategic Consultant. As far as I can tell so far, from various sources at IBM and at Woodside who will be my client (see Shelly Kalms, Chief Digital Officer at Woodside share their IBM Garage experience so far at Think Summit 2021), this will connect me with up to 17 squads who are focussed on Operational Transformation as a priority pillar to Woodside’s corporate strategy. Woodside’s 2021 Annual Report details the 30% cost efficiency target over the next 3 years and a 15% cost reduction in 2021 targeting the North West Shelf with remote operations. I have a feeling this is going to be a space where I’ll help squads to refine their value propositions and target valuable outcomes for the business. I look forward to being able to share principles of agility and human centred design that I have experienced at Synergy.
Forming a new habit
So this time, I want to try something new. In my 3rd full time company, how might I keep tabs on how this pursuit of Ikigai is going?
A simple way would be to rate the measure for each hypothesis based on current perception each month or fortnight like I’ve done retrospectively above. Maybe I’ll share the findings from that rhythm in another post later.
In the meantime, what have I learned today?
A recipe for deciding whether to stay or go
Maybe you’re trying to make a similar decision. Try out this framework and let me know how you go:
Think about why you started in your current role. What did you think you would find?
What does good look like in your work and life? Search for the intersection between what you thought you would find in your current role and what your vision of good looks like in your work more generally.
At that intersection, form 2-4 hypotheses to characterise your expectations for your current role and a measure to characterise whether the hypothesis is in the affirmative or the negative.
How many of your hypotheses are currently in the affirmative, how many are in the negative? Are there blockers to improvement?
Systematically challenge your blockages.
If your situation doesn’t improve. Test the market.
Does a new role present an opportunity to bring your working hypotheses into the affirmative?
If yes, give it a go.
From the pre-start IBM onboarding: “We need growth and entrepreneurial mindset. Use your intelligence, reason and our technology to enhance our society for the better”. I’m giving IBM Garage a go and I can’t wait to get started!
