If there is one thing I know for sure, it is that I can’t predict the future. I didn’t expect the Cyber Truck to be as beautiful(?) as it would be, I didn’t think a Gilmore Girls reboot would be announced, and I didn’t expect a Rage Against the Machine reunion. All this to say, I didn’t expect the happenings of the last days and weeks would pan out the way they have. Did you?
As a result of the past weeks, I’ve seen planning from major organizations go from years out to companies like Pepsi and Nike (among others) opting to not add any forward-looking statements on their Q2 financials. Why? The future is just too hard to predict. The world is changing too quickly and the idea of being truly agile and pivoting on-the-fly is more real now than it has ever been.
Where does that leave us?
And what do we do about it?
Consider this: success isn’t static, it is a moving target. Our goalposts are moving and we have to keep shifting like the world around us does in order to score. What might have been the right thing to do yesterday may be off-the-mark today. And that’s ok, so long as we can pivot and accommodate, too.
For me, understanding when and how to pivot comes down to looking for, and then eliminating friction. If I know I’m on track, I feel less resistance and more flow. If I’m off track and have that feeling of pushing a rock up a hill, I know there should be a change that needs to be made.
With that said, consider these five questions when looking to pivot on a more regular basis.
1. Where is there friction?
Where are you feeling that something is off track? What isn’t coming easily and where do you feel that something just isn’t feeling right?
2. What am I supposed to do about it?
Chances are that if you’re feeling that something is off, you’re already in action. You’re doing what you think is right, but it just isn’t working.
3. Where is it going wrong?
Here is where we start to isolate the issue. Identify where its going wrong. Likely the numbers aren’t adding up, you’re not getting traction, or sales aren’t happening. But is that really the issue?
4. Where is it really going wrong?
Often if the numbers aren’t adding up, we’re not addressing the root of the issue. If sales are low, that isn’t the problem, that is the result of the problem. The real issue might be that the conversion rate is low or that the market has changed and there needs to be something that shifts in order to boost the numbers again. Isolate the real root of the issue first.
5. What is the Smallest Viable Change I can make?
By looking for the smallest viable change you can make, we start to run a series of tests that allow us to not only isolate the root of the friction, but alleviate it as well. If we can make that one-degree shift, that small, small change over and over again, we start to build change into our process and culture and learn that iterating and changing isn’t something that we wait for, its how we do business.
More posts
Given the Pandemic, There is Currently Something More Important Than Our Company ‘Why’
Over the past months, the pandemic has dominated the headlines. Greta Thunberg and the acute…
Most of us can vividly recall the nervous feeling right before our teachers would take…
More Than Just an Office: The Potential of the Workplace of Today
“I just want things to go back to normal.” Perhaps you have either heard or…
Categories
With change being the only constant lately, and the need to be agile and pivoting on constantly, we have to appreciate that unless we’re dynamic and consistently learning and growing, we’ll be falling behind and missing the mark. The world isn’t going to slow down, and neither are we, so are you going to make the most of your time with where you work and the problems you solve?
Questions to ponder (in order):
- What doesn’t feel quite right?
- Am I intuitively doing something about it already?
- Why isn’t what I’m doing really working?
- What is the smallest change I can make today?