I’d like to say that when I joined a huge energy trading company in 2006, I did so because I was fascinated by energy and wanted to get deeply involved in the technical aspects of supply, demand, trading and risk management.

In fact, I was “just” a contract developer. I had a solid, full-stack background in building systems from the ground up and in finance, but nothing in energy.

The agency called me with “another six-month contract”, and off I went to the next gig. It could have been anything, but it turned out to be the beginning of a fascinating journey.

I have no doubt that some people target energy as the industry they want to work in. They know it well in advance and have a good idea of how they want to help change the world. But I suspect most find themselves in a role which suits their experience or education — software engineering, financial modelling, legal, HR, accounting, trading — all specific skills which can be applied generally to many industries.

For me, once I was through the initial period of figuring out what the problem was, I started to understand the true size of the energy landscape.

I was fortunate enough to have been given a massive problem to solve — build an Energy Trading and Risk Management system in a rapidly growing trading firm. This gave me the opportunity to work across many departments with lots of experienced and talented people.

But I also saw those who were not exposed to the wider picture. They had also come to the industry as experienced professionals or with good education but were siloed in one department — they didn’t have the opportunity to ‘get’ the bigger picture and their motivation eventually waned.

Apparently content to keep their heads down, they would often be reluctant to change procedures, less likely to think creatively about solving problems, and eventually would leave the business. These people could be experienced and talented; as they left, their knowledge would leave with them.

We can’t always come into work on a Monday morning excited about the week ahead (I often did), but we can be motivated and feel empowered to make a difference.

Something which motivated me was learning about and understanding the industry. Often processes are not as complex as we think — they’re just full of industry-specific jargon. In addition**,** industries like energy are intrinsically connected systems. If we understand how and why one part works, the adjacent pieces of the puzzle tend to fall into place.

Why, for example, are lithium-ion batteries so pivotal in today’s energy mix? Storage has been around for a long time in the form of pumped hydro. Well, it turns out that physical inertia is leaving the system as we move to wind and solar. This is useful to know if you’re working on trading systems. It’s likely that traders will want to manage energy storage as a traded commodity.

Being ahead of that conversation when it comes up will make people feel empowered to be part of the solution and contribute more readily. The alternative is often a feeling of isolation and reluctance to volunteer ideas or questions for fear of showing ignorance.

Of course, this all points to training, but it speaks to a wider human craving. People want to make a contribution and be part of the wider team. In most companies we find ourselves responsible for and focused on a subset of the whole system.

That’s fine, it makes perfect sense, but motivation can be lost if we feel we’re just a cog in the machine.

Encouraging employees to understand the workings of the entire system can bring not just motivation, but innovative problem-solving, retention and knowledge sharing.