In business, if we are making a pivot, it’s usually a change in our core offerings or products.
I don’t know if I heard the word pivot that much until the pandemic began. I guess I wasn’t looking for it.
In the beginning weeks and months of the pandemic, the pivot was the most heard word in business. We also saw many adjustments made in companies. Did you ever imagine driving up to Target and waiting for someone to bring out the one item you ordered with a smile! Amazing!
In this example, Target didn’t make a pivot in the way we sometimes look at a pivot for ourselves. They didn’t throw out everything that was working and the things that weren’t working and start over. Instead, Target made some changes they adjusted.
I believe we can learn from adjusting. Adjusting is very powerful and has some advantages over a quick pivot.
When progress slows down, when the fun runs low, or when everything feels like it’s falling apart, it’s easy to say everything is all wrong; I’m changing it all! I’m starting over, and I’m blazing a whole new path. I’m making a pivot! There are some cases this is needed. But, for this post, I invite you to consider an alternative.
I’ve been watching Julia (HBO Series), and you are sure to hear more of my thoughts on this later as I enjoy it very much! Something about history unfolding into the future gets me every time!
In this series, Julia has already written her book and feels the need to adjust or add television to her offerings! She was fighting an uphill battle to do so. For example, her husband thought television was a fad and utterly ridiculous.
She had no experience, and cooking shows were not a thing. Yet, something in her gut told her to pursue it.
She didn’t abruptly tell everyone that reading cookbooks are a thing of the past! She didn’t say I don’t care about books! My days in books are over. No, instead, she adjusted! She first made an omelet on a tv show meant for interviewing authors. She didn’t say I’ll need a kitchen on the first day she made an omelet. Today, many of us would have had this idea and immediately gotten caught up in needing to build a set with a kitchen. She had an idea, a moment of intuition and inspiration. She decided to try a little something new!
When she tried the little something new, she got some feedback. She also trusted her gut to go to the next step.
Again, she isn’t telling everyone an extended version of “wait and see, it’s going to be great'” She didn’t have a long list of things she needed to get started. She took one step at a time! I don’t even know from the show that she had visions of a grand proportion for her future in entertainment! She took one adjusted step after another and continued to focus. She focused on the next logical step based on what happened in the effort before.
She almost ignored those around her who doubted. Each time she was reminded about her second cookbook and what she needed to do, she adjusted. She did what she needed to do to maintain that success but, at the same time, continued to push forward toward what would lead to even greater success.
If Julia had considered this a pivot, as I’m seeing some do today, it would have become a disaster. We might not even be remembering Julia Childs today. She would have risked all her progress toward success and seemed a bit flaky! She would have given up what was good in hopes of something great.
But Julia didn’t pivot. Julia adjusted until a clear pivot happened! Julia became an entertainer while being a cookbook author, not a forgotten author of a little-known book from long ago.
Let’s consider one adjustment at a time instead of an abrupt pivot in many cases. There is a reason for the saying, “it was a pivotal moment in history.” I believe only history can sometimes show us a pivot built one adjustment at a time.
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