Twitter 3.0, or is this the End?

Twitter gave a voice to those marginalized by traditional media. My family relied on Twitter to stay connected, crowdsource medicines, denounce human rights violations, and survive under a totalitarian regime in Venezuela that took over all media outlets. Twitter was also weaponized, like most social networks, and became a source of misinformation and manipulation worldwide. The time was ripe for change and a healthy pivot. But managing by fear and seeding division in the rank and files to turn a company around is hardly a good starting point.

Elon Musk has an unorthodox style. Through the years, he challenged the status quo, sharing the craziest ideas on social media to gauge reactions and, often, to have fun poking the establishment. He developed a management style at product-led companies leading the innovation path in their sector. Applying this leadership style and fear-inducing tactics during a recession to pursue a healthy pivot in a company with a scarcity of resources and an unknown profitability path is a major strategic mistake.

During a pivot or turnaround, the CEO must center on defining clear strategic goals, reallocating resources, and over-communicate to build trust and rally support, not inject fear.?

Throughout history, those inspired by a shared vision of what they perceive to be a positive change are victorious more often than those going to battle forced by fear.

Elon is an outsider, an avid user of Twitter, but an outsider to the business, so the first step for an outsider is to listen.

Listen to all, even the ones that make us feel uncomfortable or are different; we should pay special attention to those making us uncomfortable.

Elon clearly stated elements of his vision: The company must stop bleeding money and address freedom of speech and misinformation issues. I cannot argue with those priorities, but there are better ways to lead companies through change.?

I had the privilege of working with great leaders during turnarounds. I also learned from painful personal mistakes that resulted in failed pivots.

During the initial stages of Covid, my co-founder Shelly Kurtz and I faced one of those critical moments in three companies we were managing simultaneously. All revenue sources dried up, and our cash reserves were low.?

We needed to pivot.

We immediately cut our salaries to zero to preserve cash and openly talked with everyone.

First, we anchored on the concept of Ikigai. We all deserve to live our Ikigai and center our careers on finding something that checks these four Areas:?

1. It is Something we Love Doing,?
2. We are Good at It,?
3. The World Needs it, and?
4. We can Get Paid for doing it.

Then we worked with the whole team and 2 of our largest clients on four elements:

1. Things we should STOP doing
2. Things we should START doing
3. Things we should CHANGE
4. Things we should DOUBLE-DOWN on.

For some team members, our new path was not their Ikigai. We helped each one of them to find their new Ikigai. Meanwhile, as co-founders, we continued without salaries and tapping into cash reserves to ensure no one was without a job or healthcare during a pandemic. We also discussed with our partners, Jeff Raikes & Tricia Raikes , that there was a chance we would consume all the cash before succeeding, and they fully supported us. It was a scary time, for sure.

Unlike my previous failed turnarounds attempts, things worked great this time! Two companies thrived, and we placed one on the back burner.?

This is just our playbook. There are many paths to a destination. But in our experience, the crucial elements in a turnaround success are: Listening to a diverse set of voices, acting predictably, managing with compassionate strength and humility, acting with urgency, and over-communicating to build and keep trust.?

Will Elon succeed at turning Twitter around? Perhaps. And if it does not work out, Someone will build Twitter 3.0, as the innovations that change the world are often born during recession and change.