You Really CAN Pivot Your Core Focus™

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different response. For the record, Albert Einstein did NOT say this, no matter how many times insane people swear he did.

So, if your company keeps losing money with the same business plan, what do you do? Established businesses with an identified Core Focus™ may have choice words for what I’m about to say: Yes, you really CAN pivot your Core Focus when you need to… regardless of how long you’ve had it.

Don’t Ignore the Elephant

I had a client who hadn’t had a good run. During our 90 Minute Meeting, the leadership team confessed that the company had lost $30,000 during the previous business year. They all knew something had to change. As their Implementer, I did my job: I let them have it during their Focus Day™.

And maybe in that delirium, they could take a step back and examine their model for weaknesses. They looked for the real reasons why things kept sliding backwards. They kept open minds while asking how come things hadn’t been working for them?

Then they had a major revelation: their Core Focus wasn’t sustainable. Simple as that. What do you do if the same thing you’ve always done doesn’t work? Hint: you don’t keep doing the same thing and hope for a miracle. You change it. And change they did!

Risking Change

My client decided to do a big pivot. Like a H-U-G-E pivot. They also took a big risk by entering uncharted waters. Any change can be scary, but big change is big scary.

Yet when they looked at the data and at their model, they knew they had to do this. So, they got to work on a total pivot. I spent a lot of extra time with them. As an entrepreneur myself for 30 years, I knew just how hard and scary this change would feel.

I give them all the credit in the world because they did the work. They really followed The EOS Process®. They got in there, found the root causes of problems, and solved their issues.

Pivots that Pay Off

And guess what? Their hard work paid in spades. They’ve since turned their $30,000 loss into a $1 million profit! Of course, this worked because it felt right to them. Then they put in the hard work necessary to right the ship.

And I’m certainly not saying every company in a slump should torch their entire business plan and start over. But by keeping their minds open, this leadership team saw where their current efforts had hindered their growth. They figured out what was in the best interest of the company instead of clinging to what they had always done.

I cringe every time I hear a leader say they do something because “we’ve always done it this way.” My dear sir or madam, I must tell you, this is the very definition of insanity, regardless of who said it first.