How to Pivot When Too Few People Want What You Have to Offer

This is Johanna’s November 2024 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email.

Many of my professional colleagues and dear friends are in chaos right now. They can’t seem to find jobs. No company or hiring manager seems to want what these people have to offer.

This is not just one problem. It’s many:

The advent of AI possibilities at work. While managers think they need fewer people because of AI, they will soon see they are wrong. (Right now, AI is only useful as an assistant, not to take the place of what people can do.)
More tools allow people to do work that specialists did before. For example, I no longer need a layout or index person for my books. I can do all of that myself.
Many managers want a “leaner” organization. They want fewer managers and fewer people. That ridiculous idea of “doing more with less.” (Yes, that more with less starts with management collaboration.)

Regardless of what I know or my opinion, too many of my colleagues cannot find jobs.

We need to pivot every so often. However, we appear to be in a time of disruptive change. We might need to pivot more often than we would like.

Start by appreciating what you already learned.

Appreciate Your Past Self

Even if no one wants what you have to offer now, you’ve already succeeded in some ways.

For example, even if I was still programming, no one would pay me for my assembler or Fortran skills. No one. Yet, I used those skills to learn other languages and how to solve problems in different domains.

My programming skills were somewhat transferable, but my problem solving skills improved with each role.

That’s what I mean by appreciating your past self. You have specific knowledge that might have limited value now. But your range of problem solving skills has probably increased. Use that range when it’s time to apply the pivot principles.

Rothman’s Pivot Principles

Here are the principles I use:

Use your past experience to quickly generate alternatives, but don’t stop there. See how many alternatives you can develop by considering “tangents.” For jobs, consider different horizontals (product type) or verticals (industry). For where you live, consider city/suburban/rural combinations.
Plan to explore alternatives, not to commit to one right away. You can explore jobs with open source or interviews. As for changing where you live, consider renting to see what you like about various locations.
Use your exploration time to learn as much as possible. That’s the point of the circular “TI’s,” those Transforming Ideas.

These principles “force” you to practice change—those pivots.

As you practice your pivoting, continue to question what’s next for you.

What’s Next?

I’ve never been big on detailed plans. Yes, I do realize I consult in all sorts of planning, especially for projects and portfolios, but I hate detailed plans. Those plans are the one way this effort will never work.

But when I make a little progress with exploration, I’m much more likely to succeed as I discover a path I had not yet considered.

We can not know everything in advance. Life does not work that way. The more disruptive change we have, the less we know.

Practice pivoting, and you’ll be much better off, even if you’re not in the middle of disruptive change.

Announcements…

I have opened registration for the Q1 2025 Writing Workshop 1: Free Your Inner Writer & Sell Your Nonfiction Ideas. If you write fiction, I have options for how you can use this workshop for your content marketing.

If you are part of the agile community, consider checking out The Agile Network. I have some discount codes for you to consider:

20 % off all memberships. Please use ROTHMAN12P202. (That code expires on Dec 31, 2024.)
There’s a Micro conference on Nov 20-21 that is free to attend. Please go here and see if there are sessions you want to attend: The Agile Network.

Please use this link, The Agile Network, if you choose to register for anything or to join. (Yes, they’re tracking me, not you!)

Appreciate Your Past Self

Rothman’s Pivot Principles

What’s Next?

Announcements…

Read More of Create an Adaptable Life

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