All systems have inefficiencies. All jobs have opportunities. The question is whether you see them — and whether you do anything about it.
Early in my career as a network engineer, I noticed something. The organization had processes that used to matter — things people relied on — but over time they'd been abandoned. Not because they stopped being valuable, but because they were hard. Time-consuming. Complex. And one by one, people found reasons to stop doing them.
So I picked one up.
It wasn't glamorous. It was a hardware replacement project — tracking dozens of Cisco 6506 chassis swaps across months. I built a tracker, documented every step, and gave leadership concrete answers instead of soft estimates. Nobody asked me to do it that way. I just saw that the gap between "this matters" and "someone is actually doing it" was where I could make a difference.
That one project changed my trajectory. Not because it was impressive, but because it was visible. And it was visible because nobody else wanted to touch it.
Here's what I've learned in 20 years of federal IT:
Start by Learning
Taking the time to understand the business and its processes is an important first step. Without context it will be hard to identify something with sufficient value to elevate your visibility. Observe the flow of business to understand how the organization communicates. Find an organization chart to see where you fit into the business, and where you will need to exert value.
Talk to those that have been in the business for a long time. Ask them what they wish was still around because it was impactful.
If you spend time actively observing and learning about the business you will already have a leg-up on your peers. It allows you to show that you value the business and the time and energy of the people that have built it.
In every business there are things that had value once, but have been neglected because they're hard, time consuming or perhaps complex. The learning and discovery process should help you identify and uncover them.
Choose Wisely
The value you can provide will scale with the impact of what you choose. Spending time to qualify what you will pursue will be well spent as you dedicate your energy and attention to it. You can leverage the relationships that you developed during your learning phase, and see what might still be valuable to the business.
If this is your first time trying this type of value building, it is important to choose something that isn't so monumental that it cannot be accomplished. A small but impactful choice is better than a big project that never gets off the ground.
Leverage Success
Even a small victory will start you on the right path and build your credibility. When you have created value for the business it is an opportunity to evaluate the business. A healthy organization will recognize and perhaps reward this value.
If the first win opens the door, the second should flip the switch and shine a bright light.
It is important to increase the scope of ambition for your second effort so you reinforce the fact that you not only create value to the business, but you can continue to do so at bigger and bigger impact levels. You will need to recruit higher-level advocates within the organization. This is a critical step, and essential to the process. Change without advocacy and recognition is just extra work.
Difficult Things Pay the Best Dividends
Throughout this process you may find that you are simply identifying things that people used to do, but stopped doing because they were too "hard." The quotes are because this is not necessarily a difficult thing, but perhaps something that is complex or requires a lot of time to complete.
Find something that has been neglected and labeled as "hard" because people don't want to spend the time and energy to continue doing it. The characteristic of the work that has labeled it as hard will keep others from approaching it and further serve to differentiate you from your peers.
Find Something That Needs Your Love
Passion can be a major precursor to success. Finding something that aligns with your passion ensures your enthusiasm shines through. It will also be a critical way for you to maintain momentum. Don't underestimate the reasons people have abandoned the hard thing in the past — was it just human nature looking for the easy way?
The passion will also present itself as you advocate for what you've been working on, and bring others to appreciate and pursue it too. A process that is only maintained by a single person is at great risk for being extinguished again once that person has moved on.
What's the thing in your organization that everyone agrees matters — but nobody is willing to own?