Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Deborah Prickette — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 11:40:17 GMT

The Pivot Method is analogous to agile development emphasizing continual planning, testing and launching. The Pivot Mindset requires great self-awareness and continually challenging yourself if it’s time for a change? Ask yourself how you are showing up (engaged) in your day-to-day work, are you inactive, reactive, proactive, or innovative. If either of the first two, it may be time for a change.

Here's a great article discussing how to keep your star employees from being negatively effected by folks who are actively disengaged at work.
www.inc.com/.../first-90-days-how-to-keep-your-best-employees-from-quitting.html

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Rachelle McWright — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 18:10:47 GMT

Love it! Thanks for sharing.

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

jocelyn sexton — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 18:07:45 GMT

Haha — I wondered/assumed that Jenny Blake must have a very large safety net. Between two kids and a mountain of student debt, the financial part of her plan is very daunting for me too. And Katie Smith, I will take the test too, but I'm guessing I'm a Security Seeker. :-)

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Katie Smith — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 18:07:37 GMT

Of course! It's less job-focused (I'm at Spartan Controls, a LBP to Emerson) - but about 1.5 years ago I took over as Executive Director for a non-profit called Young Women in Energy (YWE). It hasn't been a large financial burden as we're a formal organization with a bank account, etc. but has been instrumental in letting me flex skills that I might not get to do in my day-to-day role. It has also opened doors for me immensely within the company as I have such a strong network outside of work through YWE. My pivot is being able to have a side hustle that fulfills me in ways that I don't need to ask of my company - I'm more well-rounded for it.

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Rachelle McWright — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 18:06:36 GMT

I'm signing off for a meeting but will circle back on this conversation and your awesome usability ideas, Katie Smith. Thanks to all who participated (openly or not). Have a great day!

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Rachelle McWright — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 18:00:43 GMT

Katie, would you be comfortable giving us an example of one of your recent Pivots?

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Rachelle McWright — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:56:37 GMT

Awesome! Im going to take that tonight. The chapter where she talks about (financially) preparing for a pivot was daunting for me- to say the least. Have 5x your mortgage per month saved and 100X per year! Interestingly enough, we have a colleague who went to school with Jenny Blake. This morning she said that she may be coming from a different perspective in that she has a HUGE financial cushion due to her family...

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Katie Smith — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:55:10 GMT

I think there's a significant opportunity to gain new skills (esp. leadership development) through Employee Resource Groups (like Women in STEM, Green Team, Social Club, etc) - it also gives you visibility so you can have the right conversations at the right times re: your career growth or pivot within the company.

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Rachelle McWright — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:51:08 GMT

It does. For both, she talks about taking work from others (who might be overloaded or dont want to do certain tasks) to learn new skills & expand your own experiences & skillsets...which lends itself directly to a pilot. For pilot, she suggests going to your manager with a conversation about the benefits of your project or idea and asking to spend 10% of your time pursuing that endeavor within your current role.

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Katie Smith — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:50:56 GMT

I'm a "Pivot Pro" - she has Pivot Toolkit Resources available too: www.pivotmethod.com/toolkit

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Katie Smith — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:47:03 GMT

Have you heard of the Pivotability Index? It's by Jenny Blake & Dr. Tom Guarriello: www.pivotmethod.com/.../

Your outcomes will be either Security Seeker; Measured Pivoter; or Pivot Pro.

The Pivotability Index measures four categories of pivotability, each known to influence the when, how, and outcome of a pivot:
+ Emotional Mindset: Your beliefs about your success and intelligence, and how you approach challenges and tough situations
+ Work & Reputation: The mindset you adopt when you think about career and work
+ Family & Social Network: The robustness of your network and how you relate to your friends and family
+ Financial & Resource Flexibility: Your financial independence, and how it might aid or hinder future aspirations

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

jocelyn sexton — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:46:52 GMT

I'd be intersting to hear thoughts on how to Pivot within Emerson. I feel like I understand what skills and experiences I can leverage... but I have trouble seeing a "wide range of opportunities and options available" (at least right now) in our company. And how do you start to move in a new direction if no open job exists? Does the book give tips on the Scan and Pilot steps that can be applied to an internal pivot?

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Rachelle McWright — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:42:29 GMT

On page 16, I marked this sentence which I love AND fear. jocelyn sexton nailed it, it's scary from beginning to end, "Release the illusion of security within a fixed future and allow life to suprise you instead. The only move that matters is your next one."

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

jocelyn sexton — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:39:23 GMT

Also , I'm sometimes the same way about doing research outside the book... especially when it comes to books like Hidden Figures or especially historical ficture books. I've been reading a lot of books set in Europe in WWII, and I always like to go back and see more about what really happened. Similarly, I read "The Swans of Fifth Avenue" (Truman Capote), "The Aviator's Wife" (about Charles Lindbergh), "Loving Frank" (Frank Lloyd Wright) and "The Paris Wife" (Ernest Hemingway)... and it's been intereting to read more about these people in history.

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Rachelle McWright — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:35:06 GMT

Admittedly, I'm only 2/3 into Pivot myself. I read it from the viewpoint of a discussion leader, but am eager to go back and apply some of the exercises in my own life. Here are the 4 "Steps" of a Pivot, Im curious if anyone has engaged in the exercises she recommends and would share feedback?

4 Key steps of the Pivot Method:

Plant: Understand what skills and experiences you can leverage from your past to anchor your next career move.

Scan: Explore a wide range of opportunities and options available to you, and the skills you’ll need in order to pursue them.

Pilot: Experiment in one or a few ways to test whether you’re ready to take advantage of a new opportunity or move in a new direction (whether within your current role, or outside of it).

Launch: Start moving into what’s next for you and your career.

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

jocelyn sexton — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:32:01 GMT

Thanks for the link! I will definitely watch it. I saw her speak at the Texas Conference for Women, and I really enjoyed her presentation. Have you also listened to her Pivot podcast? I listened to two episodes (of whatever you call podcasts...), but it was a bit too meditative or aspirational for me. I have not read the book yet, but it was described as more action-oriented in our live, in-person Book Club discussion yesterday in Austin, with some activities for you to do along the way.

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Rachelle McWright — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:31:15 GMT

Great thought, Katie Smith. We're piloting a series of Live events in the community (this morning I hosted one on Measurement & Analysis applications). Our community platform doesnt innately support video chat, but we're looking into ways we might imbed something like Skype or Google Hangouts to integrate Live video....So, stay tuned?

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Katie Smith — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:27:42 GMT

Any chance we could open a Lync/Skype chat about this to make it more user responsive?

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Katie Smith — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:26:38 GMT

I haven't finished either but tend to do a lot of research outside of the actual book. I watched this talk by Jenny Blake from her Talks at Google: www.youtube.com/watch

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

jocelyn sexton — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:21:48 GMT

Hi Katie! Yes, you can just reply to this thread. Did you read Hidden Figures or Pivot? If so, what were your thoughts on the book you read?

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

jocelyn sexton — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:20:27 GMT

Thanks, Deanna... I agree. I had high hopes for the book since the movie trailer looked so awesome and the book had a 4.5 star rating on Amazon. But I found it to be very dense and kind of boring. Also, I didn't feel like it was organized well. I kept getting confused between Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson (but perhaps it was because I was listening, rather than reading with my eyes?). And although the book gave a TON of facts, I would have preferred more of a "story" with conversations and insight into their feelings.

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Rachelle McWright — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:19:31 GMT

My understanding is that the book is more of a historical account, "dry" seems to be a prevalent adjective, and the book whips the info a story.

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Katie Smith — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:19:01 GMT

Hi everyone! How do we participate? Just by responding to this message? Are there facilitated questions to ponder?

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

Deanna K Johnson — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:12:33 GMT

I'm a little over halfway through the book "Hidden Figures" but have not been able to whip through it as much as anticipated. But the move was great.

RE: Virtual Book Club Starting Now!

jocelyn sexton — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:10:01 GMT

Thanks, Rachelle! Also, to those that don't know me, my role at Emerson is as the Marketing Communications Strategy Manager for PSS Lifecycle Services. So I manage marketing campaigns for Lifecycle Services for DeltaV systems (and others).

I have a long commute to and from work, so I listened to "Hidden Figures" via the Audible app I have on my phone. I have not seen the movie, though I would very much like to!