Have you ever made a list of words and phrases you don’t like? I have. Mine are broken into categories:
General Words I Hate:
- Smoothie
- Slushy
- Ointment
- Latte
- Veggies
Words I Hated in The Navy:
- Secure (meaning “finished”)
- “The Leadership” (referring to the people in charge)
- Bulkhead (the wall)
- Scuttlebutt (a drinking fountain or rumors)
Corporate Words I Hate:
- “Table that”
- “…at the end of the day”
- “Circle back”
And finally, 2020 Words I Hate:
- COVID
- COVID-19
- Coronavirus
- Social Distance
- Contact Tracing
- “new normal”
- Zoom
- Webinar
- Virtual Anything….(happy hour, meeting, training, social hour, etc.)
AND……
PIVOT.
PIVOT! I’m really tired of that one. Maybe because everyone is using it and many think it’s novel and new.
It’s been around a long time. Pivot has two meanings:
- the central point, pin, or shaft on which a mechanism turns or oscillates
- turn on or as if on a pivot.
Right now, everyone is pivoting. I think it means they are reimagining themselves, their job, or their business. It’s a drastic move, made in order to adapt to and stay relevant and profitable in a very sucky 2020.
At Boss Builders, we didn’t really pivot. We just realized that people weren’t going to be comfortable doing in-person training, so we leveraged technology. Pivoting for us would mean we’d start selling wedding dresses or making mud flaps for pickup trucks. A pivot is a change of business that will be different but may or may not be successful.
Pivoting sometimes means making a radical, quick decision without really thinking it through. This is the part that concerns me. Maybe before pivoting, we ought to ask a couple of questions:
- Am I rational or emotional when making the decision to pivot? Emotion isn’t your friend in a crisis. If your decision to pivot is being made after carefully weighing pros and cons, it’s going to be a better decision.
- Am I rushing this decision? In most cases, you are the timetable. What are the sources of pressure causing you to pivot? Are they a crisis in the moment or do they seem to be part of a long-term trend?
- Am I good at what I’m deciding to pivot to? If not, you’re combining a rushed decision with incompetence. Which will probably make you want to pivot again. Be honest with yourself before deciding.
- Is this pivot going to be relevant if and when conditions go back to normal? This is like a moonshine distillery PERMANENTLY deciding to manufacture hand sanitizer. What’s going to happen when hand sanitizer isn’t a priority item anymore.
Nothing seems right or normal these days. All the more reason NOT to rush into any radical decision. If you’re going to pivot, do it carefully and for the right reasons. If not, be patient and let’s see what the rest of the year looks like.