The Four Pivots

Learning Journey

Firefighter

Work Approaches

Available and present

  1. Visible presence
  2. Able to drop into the current moment or “now” and respond accordingly
  3. Trusts intuition

Strong relationships

  1. People are always first
  2. Leverages relationships to accomplish work
  3. Open and receptive to others

Can accurately diagnose what’s needed now

  1. Responsive to frontlines
  2. Receptive to others’ opinions
  3. Can focus on individual crises
  4. Seeks the most immediate resolution
Work Pitfalls

Can be more reactionary than strategic:

  1. Focused on addressing “symptoms” vs. the root problem
  2. Deprioritizes focus on goals or the “big picture”
  3. Reactive to problems in the weeds
  4. Can react too quickly
  5. Stuck in the present and less focused on future goals/impact

Regularly cycles through periods of burnout:

  1. “Slides into burnout easily, has difficulty recovering from depleted energy reserves”
  2. “Self-sacrificing”

Overly sympathizes with the hardships of others:

  1. Has challenges saying “no”
  2. Overly responds to emotional reactions
  3. Centers response based on personal experiences and emotions

Overly vigilant:

  1. Focuses on those immediately in front of them
  2. Constantly looks for the next crisis or issue vs designing frameworks/processes for stability
Work Values

Responsiveness:

Immediate needs or crises become the main focus, especially when considering direct service providers or community members

Presence:

Easily builds trust by prioritizing action and emotional availability

Non-hierarchical justice:

An advocate for those most impacted, regardless of background or role

Embodied:

By those they lead, recognized for bringing energy, having a correctly placed sense of urgency, and increasing emotional safety

Builder

Work Approaches

Provides clarity

  1. Strives for consistency
  2. Can easily see gaps in organizational processes

Strong interpersonal organization

  1. Invests in team culture development processes
  2. Focused on emotional repair and interpersonal healing

Prioritizes Infrastructure

  1. Focused on organizational infrastructure
  2. Sustainable organizational growth and development
Work Pitfalls

Process Paralysis:

  1. Overly focused on gathering information and input vs. moving forward
  2. Indecisive when inundated with data/information
  3. Unable to move past “analysis paralysis” and misses out on time-bound opportunities

Overly accommodating:

  1. Stuck in observation or listening spaces and absorbing all aspects of an issue into their solution
  2. Avoid conflicts to preserve harmony, even when disruption is needed.
  3. Overly focused on building consensus vs. making timely and decisive decisions
  4. Under addresses cultural dysfunction and tries to “keep the peace”

Perfectionism:

  1. Stuck in ongoing improvement loops
  2. Spends too much time on planning and input gathering
  3. Overly focused on “perfect” processes and systems
Work Values

Process-Oriented:

Understands how to build strong cultural practices, inclusive team dynamics, and decision-making processes that are equitable and value-aligned

Relationally Healthy:

Knows how to create spaces centered around safety, repair, feedback/input, and growth

Stable:

Understands how to foster consistency, accountability, and operations that center on people and interpersonal health

Integrity:

Centers consistent alignment between organizational values, structure, culture, and leadership

Architect

Work Approaches

Big picture thinking

  1. Quickly understands and can map organizational vision
  2. Can link on-the-ground work with long-term organizational impact and sustainability
  3. Thinks system-wide
  4. Sets the course of an organization’s long-term path

Institution builder

  1. Understands the importance of and can successfully achieve cultural impact within and outside an organization
  2. Can wield the power of narrative impact on behalf of an institution’s mission
  3. Can develop a network of institutional collaboration that aligns multiple missions toward one high-impact goal
  4. Acts quickly when presented with opportunities that are mission-aligned

Values clarity

  1. Can accurately assess which values are in alignment with the organization and address any misalignment
  2. Understands which individuals are a “right” fit for the organization over time
Work Pitfalls

Relationally detached or only focused on the theoretical

  1. Can become detached from the small groups/communities and their unique contributions
  2. Disconnected from direct service or the frontlines
  3. Low understanding of the reality of their “vision”
  4. Under values the importance of addressing interpersonal dynamics and leading the culture of an organization
  5. Avoids the emotional and cultural labor of organizational transformation

Values rigidity:

  1. Can become ideologically rigid
  2. Value rigidity and overly monitoring for who shares their narrow value system

Mission blindness:

  1. Overly focused on the vision vs. the day-to-day needs and actions on the ground
  2. May lose steam over time
  3. Not strong with following through on the details
  4. Prefers the joy of designing the work vs. doing the work
  5. Less concerned with the rigor and stress of doing the work
  6. Can be perceived as messianic- “my way or the highway”
Work Values

Visionary:

Easily designs strategy, culture, and systems that can meet the moment of social justice work

Mission-focused:

Understands how to orient organizational work to focus on long-term transformation and social impact

Meta-aware:

Can live and lead within the big picture of power dynamics, political systems, and changing cultural tides

Culture shaper:

Can organize large groups of people around opportune moments that can impact behaviors, beliefs, associations, and communication to propel social change forward