The power of the pivot: How embracing flexibility can create unexpected opportunities

Plans are wonderful and necessary, but the pivot is what allows you to respond to ever-changing circumstances. I got this piece of wisdom from my training partner, who is always preaching the value of the pivot.”

Doug Phares, managing director, Silverwind Enterprises

You’ve almost certainly heard the saying, “Man plans, and God laughs.” True as that may be, I’m still someone who appreciates a plan. I like my time organized, and if something happens during the day that I didn’t account for, I’ll go back and update my calendar to document the change in my schedule for my records. In other words, I have a lot of confidence that God finds me hilarious.

Over the past year, I’ve been working a lot on being more flexible. As I wrote in a blog several months ago, I’ve made a lot of effort to improve my same-day rescheduling to address priorities. It has mostly been going well. These changes have given me the flexibility to be more respectful of people’s time and to make last-minute alterations to my schedule that are often better suited to my long-term goals than what I initially planned.

Which brings me to the crux of today’s gospel: the pivot. Plans are wonderful and necessary, but the pivot is what allows you to respond to ever-changing circumstances. I got this piece of wisdom from my training partner, who is always preaching the value of the pivot. She consistently and feverishly beats her drum about identifying problems, getting in front of them, and pivoting in ways that let you control your circumstances and mold them into something more beneficial.

While I’ve made a lot of strides in coming around to her way of thinking, I can’t deny that I still enjoy having a well-organized schedule. A couple of weeks ago, I managed to craft the “perfect day” for myself: I would work on my own in the morning, pull in one team for a mid-morning work session, get together with another team in the afternoon, and then cap off my day with a desired volunteer opportunity in the evening. Both meetings were milestone sessions on two big projects I’d been mentoring.

Which is to say, I had a really good setup for the joke I was about to tell God. At 7:00 that morning, I had all my prep work laid out, and I was feeling ready for the day — until I got a text that my afternoon plans had been canceled.

I took a deep breath and chose to be okay with the alteration. I could always lean into another project in the afternoon and lean on my morning and evening plans to get me through the day. Not an hour later, I was notified that my morning meeting was also a no-go.

Suddenly, my day had two giant holes in it. I was still trying to decide what to do when I heard from the volunteer organizer that my plans for that evening were also null and void. At which point I stepped outside my home to look up for the asteroid that was surely coming my way, because even with a fairly rigorous yoga schedule, I’m simply not built for this much flexibility.

There was, much to my chagrin, no asteroid. So, I went back inside to try to reconstruct something from my day, and not too much later, I got a text from a friend who was having a big personal issue and could use some help. Historically, I can never help people at the last minute because my schedule is so tightly booked. At most, you can get a five-minute phone call out of me, and that may or may not require a gun to my head.

But because of my various calamities, I could be there for him. I got to be a good friend that day, and the experience was as meaningful and useful as anything else I might have done instead. Everything else in my day? Punted to the next week or two.

My takeaway? You never know when you need the pivot. Because I chose not to lose it over canceled plans and took a couple of deep breaths to acknowledge that we could still get what I needed done — just later than I hoped — I was able to be there for a friend in need.

A pivot is not about avoiding all problems. It is about taking advantage of something you didn’t want or expect and making the best possible outcome.

Doug Phares is the former CEO of the Sandusky News Group. He currently serves as managing director of Silverwind Enterprises, which owns and provides management services to small businesses. He can be reached at doug@silverwind.biz.