Last evening, I was driving my car through a busy stretch of road. The car was filled with many backseat drivers who wanted me to go this way and that.
Keep going straight. No just take a left. Take that fork at that roundabout.
The inputs came fast and furious.
I said “yeah sure” to all of them and took a u-turn, because I knew the pivot would work. And hey, the car is mine, and the hands driving it are mine, no matter those protesting back seaters.
Unfortunately, work life isn’t like driving a car. The company isn’t mine mine. The hands driving it are many.
So what do we do when we want to execute a successful pivot?
Most pivots at work, large scale ones at least, go through four key stages. The DANH framework (that’s mine own, yes).
Denial: No, we have never done it this way. No, it will never work because there’s no proof it has worked in the past even though we have never tried it at all. No, it’s too much investment for a new strategy. No. No. No.
Anger: No way. Your facts are wrong. I don’t believe you. You can’t randomly use gut feel. What innovation. That means nothing here. Now don’t disturb me while I am pushing the cart, by offering some wheels and all.
Negotiation: Ah well. No harm listening to what you have got to say, doesn’t mean we are gonna do it. Sounds silly, if you ask me, even though you have packaged it well. But what if we tweaked it here. A bit more? No? Why not? Hmm… I am getting used to this.
Hope: Oh. This pilot actually works. I want to get involved more. When can we scale up? How do we scale up? This is amazing output, I told you then only remember, this pivot will work.
All that is great, you are thinking. Frameworks don’t mean delivery. How do we operationalise a pivot after all?
Pivots take time. People take time getting used to the idea as they go through the four stages of the pivot, the DANH.
Pivots take conviction. Because there will be so many naysayers along the way. We are all human enough to doubt our own paths if we keep hearing too many ifs, buts, and no-ways. It is important to take a pause every now and then and reassure ourselves why we believe in this, whatever ‘this’ is.
Pivots take patience. Convincing stakeholders to go along with us and our initially whacky but slowly “makes sense” ideas takes an enormous amount of patience. And it is important not to succumb to anger or prescription in the process, because an unwilling partner is a detrimental partner.
Pivots take courage. The courage to fail. To go back to the drawing board. Admit we are wrong. Not minding the naysayers’ jibes.
Which stage of pivot are you in? Which side of the table? What are your learnings? Care to share?
P. S. Views strictly personal.