New leaders with new hearts and new spirits pivot from a solid base. (511 words, read time 3 minutes, 15 seconds)

One of the most vital actions for the person playing second base in baseball or softball or the person playing the center position in basketball is that of the pivot. The act of pivoting for the person playing second is necessary to make a throw to first base during the execution of a double play. So, too, the basketball center must change physical orientation in order to pass the ball or take a shot. For both types of players pivoting is better achieved from a solid base that is not held too long or too briefly. Being off base and imbalanced, and in some cases not coming to a complete stop, impairs performance and results. Good pivoting enables good results.

As success in basketball often requires multiple pivots, so does managing organizations post-COVID-19 and post-social unrest. The old notion for organizational change (thaw and refreeze differently, then repeat) is likely to be replaced with pivot and pivot again, because there is not likely to be any conventional new normal. If there is any new normal whatsoever about what is yet to be, then it is likely to be continuous abnormality and an incredible challenge for all who desire to lead.

When playing sports, or when leading people or managing things, a pivot should not occur prematurely or the pause just before a pivot be held too long. A pivot is a temporary tactic. Too much pivoting creates dis-ease, confusion and lack of trust.

I’m concerned that during the post-COVID-19 and post-social unrest, leaders will attempt their pivots too soon having not established a bona fide reason for them. I am not saying don’t pivot. Just don’t pivot too soon or too late but when pivoting makes the most positive impact for everybody and everything.

Having grown up in Michigan among the many economic and cultural dimensions of the automobile industry, I am gratified how the auto companies pivoted from making trucks and cars to making ventilators. They did this because of the need and because their awareness of the need proved they had new hearts and new spirits. They could have said “No way! We make vehicles and we cannot and will not help,” but they pivoted. Other manufacturing companies jumped into the gap and pivoted although to a new abnormal. Thankfully, we all continue to benefit from their choices.

Note that skillful pivoting requires a solid financial, intellectual and operational base, as well as, a substantial cache of human talent. New products or repurposed assembly lines do not create themselves.

The pivoting task carried out by American industry required skilled and willing engineers, assemblers and management. (See PD + HW + E + GL = GS page 7 of GOOD SUCCESS). Our country needed PPE’s, ventilators and ingenuity, and US industry responded. The fact that they came through for the nation is an act of pivoting because new hearts and new spirits caused it to be so.