Entrepreneurs love to think big and focus on reinvention. But what if progress could be found in a small, meaningful change or two—a “micro-pivot,” if you will. There’s a time and place for those buzzy, sweeping overhauls. But sustainable growth requires leadership to slow down, listen and look intently to see where practical, day-to-day friction points exist, and make tweaks that will compound into big results. Only you know what your business needs. But, for inspiration, here are a handful of ideas to kickstart your micro-pivot brainstorming.
The Prospective Hindsight Pivot
It’s inevitable—failure happens in business. A lot. And for many reasons. In early planning stages, it’s common for people to be reluctant to share critiques, but opening up the floor for workers to voice their concerns is key to success. Research shows that analyzing a project as if it has already finished leads to a 30% increase in the ability to correctly predict risks and setbacks. Not only can this exercise be invaluable to project managers, but it also makes team members feel heard and appreciated.
How to implement it: Based on this research, psychologist Gary Klein created a method called the “premortem,” which is done at the beginning or midway through a project. In this exercise, the group pretends that the project is over and has failed. For five to 10 minutes, everyone independently writes down every single reason they can possibly think of that caused failure. The leader then records and consolidates these answers, using this list to find ways to strengthen project planning.
The Deep-Focus Disruption Pivot
Paul Graham’s famous essay “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule” proposes that there are two kinds of workers and schedules in most companies: managers and makers. Makers are those whose work centers around generative activities (programming, strategy, design), while managers focus on overseeing people. These roles each utilize different cognitive states: Makers need long stretches of uninterrupted time, while managers work in one-hour windows.
How to implement it: A reasonable way to include this micro-pivot is to implement a two-hour company-wide block where all internal messages, meetings and emails are paused, allowing for deep creative work without distractions.
The Redundant Questions Pivot
Save managers and leadership from answering the same questions over and over by moving relevant private messages and emails into public channels (highly valuable for new hires, too). A McKinsey & Company study on workforce productivity found that the average worker spends nearly 20% of their workweek tracking down internal information and seeking answers from peers. Adding project- or systems-related messages to public channels builds a searchable, asynchronous database.
How to implement it: Using a team communication program like Slack, have employees self-determine when a private message should be posted in a public channel related to the project they’re inquiring about. Organization is crucial here to avoid even more questions, so make sure labels and categories are clean and easy to find.
The Meeting Fatigue Pivot
Too many back-to-back meetings can mentally (and physically) exhaust anyone, plummeting productivity and leading to unhappiness at work. Research shows that back-to-back meetings can cause an increase in beta waves—those associated with stress, anxiety and eventual burnout. Just 10 minutes between meetings to go for a walk, meditate or get a drink of water is enough to serve as a reset.
How to implement it: Take stock of your current meetings. If active problem-solving is not happening, consider canceling the meeting and instead opting for a structured, informative memo. Another, more extreme approach is to cancel all recurring meetings for two weeks. Pay attention to the canceled meetings that cause a genuine bottleneck or communication breakdown. You’re likely to find that half of the originally scheduled meetings weren’t necessary. For those that must stay on the calendar, try shortening a 60-minute block to a highly focused 15 minutes.
The Always On Pivot
We’ve all been there: Refreshing the inbox before bed or when we reach for our phones in the morning. But blurring the lines between work and home life can actually harm workers. Surprisingly, it isn’t even about the actual work being done off-hours. The mere expectation of constant availability is what strains employees (and their significant others) most. A study conducted by researchers at Virginia Tech shows that a culture of being “always on” creates chronic states of stress and anxiety.
How to implement it: For those who have to work late or catch up on weekends, consider implementing a tool like Boomerang for Gmail or Outlook’s built-in schedule-to-send tool to delay email delivery to working hours. These technological boundaries will protect your team’s off-hours without getting in the way of those who need or prefer to work at unusual hours.
The Distracting Ping Pivot
“Hey, do you have a sec?” Obscure pings like this pull the recipient out of their workflow, forcing them to wait for more information or follow up with questions to figure out what’s going on. It takes an average of 23 minutes to fully regain focus after an interruption, according to research from Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine.
How to implement it: Set the company-wide standard to provide an upfront brief when sending private messages. For example: “Hey, can I get your eyes on the Q3 budget when you have a minute?” This lets the recipient assess and categorize the request without totally pulling them away from their current task.
Featured image by MT.PHOTOSTOCK/Shutterstock
