Big move, big break, and 10 takeaways from 10 great years at Salt River Project
Much has changed in the last couple months.
I moved out of my apartment and sold most of my stuff.
I quit my job at Salt River Project (SRP), where I’d been working for more than 10 years.
I left Phoenix.
And now I’m in Gdańsk, Poland, living out of a duffle bag, facing an exciting future that’s wide open.
This post gives some background on the big changes underway.
In addition, I wanted to reflect on my experience at SRP and lay out some of the big lessons I learned.
Finally, consider this post my way of sending a big THANK YOU to my friends and colleagues at the Valley’s community-based, not-for-profit, public power and water utility.
The big move
January 8, 2020 seems like a lifetime ago. That was my last day at SRP.
Everything was going great: I liked my colleagues, I was working on fun projects, and I had cool opportunities on the horizon.
I had also been taking math courses on the side for two years, partially to beef-up my analytics skills, and partially to prepare for a PhD in economics or accounting, which I had been considering.
As the fall semester wrapped up, I took a step back to reflect on my trajectory at school.
I had completed Calculus I, II and III, Mathematical Structures, Modern Differential Equations, Linear Algebra Applied Statistics, Experimental Statistics, and Exploring Data in R and Python. Classes were going well, and I was particularly enjoying the courses in statistics.
However, I slowly realized that a career in academia was not for me. I probably would have done fine. But I enjoy being creative, working with people on teams, and tackling diverse projects too much. I’d sorely miss those aspects of work if I took the research route. Thus, I closed the door on academia (for now at least).
Then I took another step back to reflect on my trajectory at SRP.
Like I said, life was good. I was excited about my prospects to have an impact and climb that corporate ladder.
Despite the great momentum, I couldn’t shake the sense that I was done with Phoenix and longing for a new city — preferably one with more of a focus on walkability and less of a focus on cars.
I decided the timing was right to make a big move and leave Phoenix. And since SRP is a subset of Phoenix, that meant I’d also be leaving SRP.
It was a tough decision, but it felt (and still feels) like the right move.
Instead of hightailing it to get started in Seattle or Denver — my top picks at this point — I took one more step back.
Ever since I read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, I’d fantasized about taking a mini-retirement, or pseudo-sabbatical: dedicated time to disconnect, go off, open up, relax, travel and generally do whatever random stuff seems interesting.
I saw this window as an opportunity to take one of those breaks, so I took it.
The big break
I booked a one-way ticket to Europe for an open-ended adventure that would start in — of all places to go in the dead of winter — Poland!
I moved out of my apartment, got rid of my stuff, and on January 9, 2020 hopped on that plane. Since then I’ve visited Przesieka, Kraków, Zakopane, Katowice, Wrocław, and now Gdańsk, which will be my hub for at least the next month.
It’s been a nice breather so far. A time to slow down and reflect on where I’ve been, where I am, and where I want to go next.
Naturally, I think a lot about SRP: the people I worked with, the projects I’m proud of, the moments that jump out on the timeline, the person I was before SRP, and the person I am now.
At the end of the day I am left with an immense sense of gratitude.
I learned and grew a ton at SRP, and so much of that development came from working with, and getting to know, so many great people.
The following list is my attempt to highlight some of the many lessons I learned during that time.
Just a heads up: I go kinda long and abstract on the first two items below. The remaining eight are more concise and tactical.
My hope with this list is that you find a few (or even just one!) useful nuggets that give your career and mindset a boost, whether at SRP, or elsewhere.
10 takeaways from 10 great years at SRP
1. Positive, Negative or Neutral
When I first started at SRP, one of my daily responsibilities as social media manager was to keep track of SRP-related comments online. This entailed categorizing public comments as either positive, negative or neutral. It helped us better analyze trends in online brand sentiment.
Similarly, I now find it useful to categorize other stuff in life — people, places, experiences, inputs, outputs, actions, reactions — using the positive, negative and neutral labels.
The positive stuff builds you up and helps you get where you want to be.
The negative stuff tears you down and holds you back.
The neutral stuff is just there; it’s everything in between.
Granted, this is an oversimplified view of the world. That’s why I find it so useful. The idea is to break the messy world down into something more digestible, and to fill up the positive bucket as much as possible.
Still, even with the oversimplification, assigning these positive, negative and neutral “charges” can be tricky in a few respects.
First, you need to think of these charges as individual observations rather than fixed properties. For example, one person may be positive one day and negative the next day (maybe they didn’t get enough sleep the night before they turned negative — it doesn’t necessarily make them a bad person).
Second, keep in mind these charges can change over time. You live, you learn, new information comes to light, context changes. You may look back and decide that an observation needs to be recategorized. Maybe something happened that seemed negative in the moment turned out to be positive in the long run.
Third, and most importantly, it’s entirely up to you to categorize each observation. You have your own set of values and goals. Sometimes it’s easy to see something is clearly positive (e.g. a great boss, a fun project, a big promotion), or clearly negative (e.g. losing your cool, nasty criticism, dishonesty).
But what about the neutral ones, or the obscure experiences that leave you scratching your head? One person might consider them positive, you might consider them negative…
You need to try and find a way to turn them positive.
Changing the context, being friendly and helping out are a few approaches that have worked for me.
For example, sometimes @SRPconnect would receive a negative tweet from someone who was upset about a power outage or angry about some issue, maybe a mistake on their bill. This happens, and it’s OK to toss it in the negative bucket — perfectly understandable.
However, oftentimes if I responded (as @SRPconnect) in a friendly, conversational and helpful way — at the very least to show that we were listening — they’d come back at us with something positive, appreciative of the response.
Negative turned positive — it’s a beautiful thing.
Another approach for this concept is to label yourself as either positive, negative or neutral in a given situation. Are you serving as a positive charge for others? If not, how can you switch over and make the situation better?
Obviously that transformational magic is not not always possible. Sometimes the negatives just want to be negatives. That’s fine too, so we just move on. Maybe apply a containment strategy to limit the reach of that negativity! And if you are the one who’s being negative, give yourself a timeout to mitigate your destruction.
If you can develop the skill of actively looking for sneaky opportunities to turn the negatives, and the low-hanging-fruit neutrals, into positives, you’ll be a superhero.
And to be clear, I have by no means perfected this skill: I get frustrated, and caught up, and defensive, and negative like everyone else.
But now, I make it a priority to be mindful of the positive, negative and neutral charges; to load up on the positives whenever I can; and to look for ways to steal a few on the margins for the positive bucket.
2. Change yourself, change others
In addition to developing the ability to charge stuff up in your own unique way, another big lesson I learned over and over again was to not let yourself get too set or fixated on one path.
I touched on this a bit in my post, Mythology mobility, in the sense that I like to think of free will as being able to set the right context, recognize the narratives at play, and jump to the storyline that serves best.
In the career context we’re talking about now, though, I’d apply Mythology mobility to suggest the following:
If an opportunity seems interesting and feels right, go for it, even if it doesn’t make much sense or fit the narrative you have going at the moment. Maybe there’s a better story in development and it’s time to cross over to that path.
For example, while I was still working social media in corporate communications at SRP, I decided to go after an MBA at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
But before I committed, I remember going back and forth on whether or not it was the right move for me. After all, I’m a words guy — how much is an MBA going to help me as a writer? I also wasn’t sure I could handle all the numbers in statistics, finance and economics.
Turns out, the experience helped me a ton as a writer, and it sparked a newfound love for the quant side of things.
My writing grew stronger, not only thanks to all the papers we submitted, but also because the courses gave me new ideas, topics and vocabulary to incorporate into my writing.
In other words, the MBA threw more tools in my writer’s tool belt.
On top of the surprising benefits to the writer in me, the MBA also served as a strong positive charge that helped build me into a better leader, not to mention a words guy who can also tackle the numbers.
The list of benefits from my MBA go on and on. I bring it up here because if I would have typecast myself as exclusively a words guy, and convinced myself that I’m precisely not a numbers guy, I would have missed out on all the great things the MBA brought into my life.
Another big factor in my decision to change things up and go after an MBA was the encouragement I received from my boss, co-workers and so many friends and family. They recognized my drive to learn, they believed in my abilities, and they pushed me to go for it. That support made all the difference.
The MBA, combined with amazing guidance, helped propel me to switch up my career path, moving from communications over to the business analyst rotational program, and eventually to land as a senior business analyst, serving as the “numbers guy” and project manager for some awesome initiatives.
Who knows what would have been if I had stuck to the “I’m exclusively a writer” narrative I was clinging to in my head years ago.
To recap, there are two big takeaways in this section: 1) say yes and go after stuff that is — in the parlance of this article — positively charged even if it’s outside your wheelhouse; and 2) take it upon yourself to support and help others do the same.
3. Nerd out on the culture
Each company has its own unique social norms that govern the way things really work. On one level you have the typical corporate America stuff, like politics, chain-of-command, relationships, giving face, knowing when and when not to rock the boat, etc. I tend to think this level sorts itself out and seeps in pretty easily with time and repetition.
But there’s another level of culture that I find more interesting and fun. This level houses all the quirky things that show the personality of each company and department.
And I got a kick out of going all-in on this type of cultural stuff, even if it got a bit weird.
Three examples are: 1) my creepy obsession with Dewey and Wattson, SRP’s storied water drop and light bulb mascots; 2) my unconditional solidarity with the late lobby Badge Ball; and 3) my eagerness to print PowerPoint slides for meetings now (at first I clung to the idea that PowerPoint slides were for projecting onto a screen — I was young then — now I know PowerPoint slides are so much more).
My main point here is that it’s important to learn and embrace the culture. For me that meant getting creative, nerding out, and having some fun with it.
4. Dominate your email
I made it a point of pride to not get drowned in email. I’m pretty sure it made me way more productive, efficient and less stressed. Here are the nuts and bolts from my process (hat-tip to Steve Kamb at Nerd Fitness):
- Make a folder called “Action” for emails you need to take action on.
- Make another folder called “Archive” for emails you’ll need to reference later.
- Create a keyboard shortcut for each of those folders that marks an email as read and moves it to the associated folder.
- When you check your inbox, ideally in batches throughout the day, attack it like a ninja by filing emails as either Action or Archive; delete the ones that don’t fall in either category.
- After you crank through the inbox sorting, jump over to the Action folder and start slicing! Send each email to the Archive folder after you’ve taken the necessary action.
- The goal is to have an empty inbox and a pretty clean Action folder by COB.
5. Prioritize presentations
Public speaking has a major impact, no matter who — or how big — the audience is. Prepping for public speaking is stressful, draining, and time consuming, but it’s entirely worth it. Give yourself the time to think through, and put your heart and soul, into your presentations. Find a way to make it your own, add a bit of your personality, and have fun with it (weather permitting). You may not be able to do this for every presentation, but the more you put in the more you’ll get out. You’ll enjoy the experience more, and the audience will appreciate your efforts.
6. If you’re not giving feedback it means you don’t care
Share your opinions, and tell people what you think they need to know to improve. Don’t be mean, and don’t tear people down.
And don’t be honest — be brutally honest!
People can take the feedback as they like, but you have a responsibility to yourself, your work and your colleagues to contribute your perspective to help — again in the parlance of this post — make the situation as positively charged as possible.
7. When you see a paper towel on the floor, pick it up and throw it away
8. Be a pro, a fun pro
Work hard. Take pride in your work. Be professional in how you conduct yourself. But also find ways — subtle ways even — to lighten things up and have fun. Add some comic relief without derailing the meeting. You don’t need to be a comedian or a clown. Sometimes you just need to smile.
9. Go out of your way to help other people advance their careers
Many people looked out for me during my time at SRP, and it meant the world to me.
Managers and executives are in the best position to do this, but I think it applies to everyone. You can praise people, introduce them to friends, give them ideas and tell them about opportunities that you think would be great for them. This also requires you to be familiar with people’s goals, which requires you to get to know, make friends and play nice with your colleagues.
10. Say thank you
This is an easy one, but it’s crucial that you truly mean it when you say it.
In my case I am genuinely and forever grateful to the many people I had the privilege of working with and learning from over the past 10 years at SRP.
I am honored to have contributed to so many different parts of the company, and I’m proud to be an SRP alum.
Thank you for everything, SRP, and I’m excited to pay it forward in the chapters that follow.
Adam