How Do You Know When It Is Time to Pivot?
By Carrie Cousins
It’s one of a handful of business buzzwords that many of us cringe to hear: Pivot.
The action of changing course is not a trend; often it is a necessity. In a world where artificial intelligence questions – and potential efficiencies – are front and center, is it time for your business to pivot?
The challenges are many:
- Pivot too soon and you can miss opportunities in your current plan
- Pivot too late and you may not recover quickly enough from a challenge or loss
- Any business change can also create unease among your team
So how do you know when it is time to pivot?
This is a question I ask myself all the time. As someone who has pivoted careers and lead wholescale internal business change, you kind of just know.
It starts with a feeling that something is off or data that says your current path is not sustainable. Then the best business leaders start preplanning that change in their heads. What would the pivot look like? What are the benefits? What are the risks?
Then the what-if conversations start happening out loud. Is the idea of a pivot mutually accepted?
Here’s the red flag: You are considering a pivot because everyone “says you should.” That’s been a lot of the emphasis in the AI conversation. Leaders feel like they “should” be using some type of AI technology.
The better conversation is figuring out if it can help you before you make a blanket AI decision.
At LeadPoint Digital, we approached this pivot with a lot of conversation. From ethics to usage to governance, AI has been an integral part of conversations at our company.
We dipped our toe into the pivot like this:
- We encouraged every member of the team to find an AI course or certification this year that interested them and complete it
- We created internal teams to solve problems using AI (they would recommend to adopt or abandon during the course of those projects)
- We picked a toolset and made sure everyone on the team had access and understood rules for usage
- We’ve incorporated training throughout the year and kept conversations open as technology continues to change
- We’re continuing to work on company-wide policies for usage
This is a big pivot that most companies are dealing with right now.
The takeaway is that being a little conservative has helped us develop a path forward without changing the level of service clients get or expect from us. We are learning every day and continuing to pivot almost weekly.
Moving a few degrees at a time has been a lot more successful for us than a full 360, and the change has been of benefit to everyone.
