To Pivot or Press On, part two: What's Your Great Purpose?

A bit of a recap from "To Pivot or Press On, part one: Where's Your Fixed Point?": the Lean Startup Method offers a straightforward framework for marketplace- and social-entrepreneurs to hit upon a distinct market-services fit that will create new, high-impact value. Sufficiently valuable that scads of people will pay for these goods (by purchasing and/or donating) and thus sustain, scale, and spread these innovations widely. The method: Build, Measure, Learn, PIVOT or Press On ... and repeat the process. The critical decision-point here is whether to pivot or press on. That's the tough call that ultimately only the leader can make. And it's a call with enormous repercussions for the leader, the company, the customers, and even the community.

Michel Gelobter, building on Eric Ries, identifies 11 kinds of pivot. Two are my favorites are: moving out from a product-delivering-an-outcome to a platform-that-builds-a-capacity, and, moving in the opposite direction, from a broad platform to tight product(s). Or deciding, at some risk of of mission drift, to pursue both approaches within different market segments.

Ted Ladd makes the important point that the decision to pivot or press on needs to be guided by strong, stable strategy. I want to step up a level and ask the question, "On what basis do we pivot the strategy itself and how much do we press on with the vision and mission that define us?"

My good friends, Dr. John Stahl-Wert and Dr. Ken Jennings, have written, taught, and coached on serving leadership for over 20 years. Their book - a Lencioni-style corporate fable - is "The Serving Leader: Five Powerful Actions to Transform Your Team, Business, and Community". The first and most important Serving Leader action is "Run to Great Purpose." Purpose, passion, vision - what gets your heart racing and your wheels turning - provide answers to the questions "Why are we doing this? What positive difference will it make in the world? Say we achieve our mission; So What??!!??"

John and Ken put it this way: the Serving Leader must (1) "raise high the vision" so that everyone knows the organization's reason for being; (2) "create and sustain urgency for the vision," which keeps the organization from sliding into complacency; and (3) "connect vision to work" to ensure that people know down deep in their gut how our collective effort - leaders and followers - is vital to the overall Great Purpose of the organization.

I submit that purpose, not strategy, is where we plant our pivot foot; it's here that we make our stand. We all require compelling reasons to press forward as leaders, a sense of meaning so great, and a commitment to values so strong, that we would rather shut down our enterprises than compromise what we hold to be non-negotiable.

The consequences are huge, and the weight on the leader can be crushing at times. The choice whether, when, and how pivot makes all the difference between winning and losing in the marketplace and in the world. There are no easy answers; it's not a simple matter of processing the results of myriad lean experiments, as important as it is to always be learning. It's a decision that needs not only our heads, but also our hearts and hands.

History shows that Lincoln pivoted during his campaign and, critically for our nation, during his presidency. Yet one can scarcely call this giant among presidents either a flip-flopper or a demagogue. Lincoln had before him a Great Purpose: the preservation of a Union in which all are free and equal in fact, as they are in God's eyes.

Steph Curry of the NBA-champion Golden State Warriors shows how it's done as he plants his pivot foot just outside the arc and feints as if to drive. Depending on how the defender reacts, Steph can either pull back and drain the three, or blow past the bamboozled opponent and lay it in for an easy two. Or dish it off for the big jam. Steph has a Great Purpose: win NBA championships by being at the absolute top of his unique game.

What is your Great Purpose? Where is your Fixed Point? Serving leaders ask and answer these questions daily both for themselves and the followers they serve.

Thoughts, comments welcome.