Stop Spinning. Start Standing: How to Build Stability So Every Pivot Pays Off
I used to think agility looked heroic. Cape flapping, we’d swoop in with the pivot of the week—new software, new offer, new org chart. The team would hang on as we lurched left, then right, then left again. From afar it looked like leadership. Up close? It looked like a merry-go-round powered by espresso and guesswork.
If that’s felt like your year so far—reacting to headlines, chasing trends, and confusing motion with progress—this one’s for you.
In a recent episode of Marc Haine Live, my guest Stephen Shapiro laid out a clean, practical antidote to spin-cycle leadership. His thesis is simple: stability before agility. “Companies started pivoting around in circles… We need to really understand stability first, then agility.” That line hit me like a well-aimed wrench. So let’s turn it into a plan you can use Monday morning.
Why you feel busy but not better
Pandemic aftershocks. Supply chains. Interest rates. AI FOMO. It’s been like playing Whac-A-Mole with your P&L. So you “get agile.” You launch three initiatives, park two, reorg once, and tell your team to “move fast.” Yet the needle barely wiggles.
Here’s what’s actually going on:
- No shared north star. Everyone is “busy,” but no one can answer the two most basic questions: What makes us different? and, How does my work support that difference?
- Burnout masquerading as hustle. Stephen flagged a blunt truth: “Burnout typically happens when people lack clarity.” If your people are exhausted, it’s not because they’re weak; it’s because the ground is moving.
- Innovation in the wrong places. We add bells and whistles where customers don’t care, and we ignore the few things they would miss if we disappeared tomorrow.
Let’s fix that.
Step 1: Name your planted foot
We say “pivot” like it’s a spin move. In basketball, a pivot is only legal because one foot stays planted. That foot is your differentiating capability—not a product, not a tech stack, not a slogan. A capability is something you can repeatedly do better than others in ways customers actually value.
Stephen’s mantra: “Innovate where you differentiate.”
Not sure what your planted foot is? Don’t lock the execs in a boardroom to wordsmith it. Go outside. Ask customers to tell you a story—not a rating. When the CEO of Radio Flyer asked people what they thought of the brand, they didn’t gush about a wagon’s axle ratio. They smiled and told childhood stories. Insight: they’re not in the wagon business; they’re in the “smiles and memories” business. That’s a capability competitors can’t knock off with a cheaper bolt.
Do this this week (20 minutes):
Ask five customers, “When you think about us, what moment stands out? What did you feel?” Write down nouns and verbs you hear on repeat. That’s the scent trail to your planted foot.
Step 2: Map your work with the Innovation Targeting Matrix
Every activity in your company falls into one of three buckets. Not departments—activities.
- Support – Internal must-haves (payroll, basic IT). Customers don’t see them.
- Core – Table stakes. If you get it wrong, you lose business. If you do it well, nobody throws a parade.
- Differentiating – Your special sauce. The reason customers pick you.
Most small businesses overspend on Support, tinker endlessly with Core, and starve Differentiating. It’s like polishing the cutlery while the signature dish burns.
Stephen told a story from his Accenture days: they trained tens of thousands of people on commodity skills (volume!), but the value came from custom, high-leverage training for the few who drove differentiation. When they rebalanced spend toward differentiating capability, outcomes jumped. “Don’t confuse volume with value.”
Do this today (30 minutes with your team):
List your top 15 recurring activities. Label each S, C, or D. If more than 30% of your budget or calendar sits in Support, you’ve found your drag. If your best people spend less than half their time on Differentiating, that’s your first pivot.
Check out my conversation with Stephen right here
Step 3: Pressure-test your “different”
Stephen’s Five D’s give you a checklist so your “planted foot” isn’t wishful thinking:
- Distinctive – Different from your direct competitors (being a plumber who isn’t an electrician doesn’t count).
- Desirable – Customers crave it; it solves a real pain they’ll pay to remove.
- Durable – Hard to copy (brand, skill, process, community). Tech alone rarely qualifies.
- Dynamic – Flexible enough to spawn new offers as needs change.
- Disseminated – Everyone inside and outside can explain it simply and tie daily work to it.
Quick test: Ask three frontline people, “What’s our differentiator? How did you support it this week?” If the answers wobble, clarity—not effort—is your bottleneck.
Step 4: Make smarter pivots (and fewer of them)
A pivot is only “smart” if it extends your differentiator. Otherwise, it’s a distraction wearing expensive sneakers.
Stephen gave a personal example. For years, he sold himself broadly as an innovation speaker. Then he re-centered on a unique, durable asset: Personality Poker, an interactive experience no one else can deliver at that level. Same topic, deeper channel. That clarity told him what to sell, what to build next, and what to ignore.
Try these guardrails:
- Investment rule: If it doesn’t strengthen your differentiator or make Core more reliable (through partners or proven tools), say no.
- Marketing rule: Lead with differentiator, not table stakes. Your web hero section and your sales opener should answer: Why us instead of anyone else?
- Time rule: Aim to put your A-players 60%+ on differentiating activities by the end of the quarter. Backfill or outsource Support and parts of Core.
Step 5: Replace guesswork with conversations
It’s tempting to “strategy-offsite” this into existence and call it done. That’s how companies end up with pretty posters and confused people. Stephen was blunt: conversation beats conjecture.
- Customer coffee chats (no surveys; no leading questions). Ask for stories: “Walk me through the moment you chose us.” “When did we really help?”
- Frontline roundtables. Leaders talk last. Ask: “Where do we waste time on things customers don’t value?”
- Devil’s advocates welcome. In improv, we love “Yes, and…” In business, Stephen argues we need a little “Yeah, but…” to counter confirmation bias, the silent killer of smart bets.
“The biggest enemy of innovation is confirmation bias.” —Stephen Shapiro
If the only ideas that survive are yours, you don’t have a strategy—you have a fan club.
Step 6: Watch leading indicators, not just lagging wounds
Revenue, margin, market share—great, but they tell you what happened after the patient fell down the stairs. Add two early signals:
- Clarity Score: Once a month, ask every employee to answer (in one sentence) a) What is our differentiator? and b) What did you do last week to strengthen it? Track alignment and specificity.
- Burnout Proxy: Short pulse on workload + role clarity: “I know what to prioritize this week.” If that trend dips, your planted foot is sliding.
A one-week sprint to get out of reaction mode
Monday – Customer stories (90 minutes).
Book three short calls. Ask for one memorable moment. Capture words and feelings—don’t “correct” them.
Tuesday – Work map (60 minutes).
Label your top activities S/C/D. Circle the two biggest time sinks in Support and the two highest-potential Differentiating tasks.
Wednesday – Kill list (45 minutes).
Pick one Support task to automate or outsource within 30 days. Reclaim those hours for differentiating work.
Thursday – Differentiator draft (45 minutes).
Write one sentence: “We are the only [company type] that consistently [capability] so that [customer outcome].” Pressure-test it with the Five D’s.
Friday – Team huddle (30 minutes).
Share the sentence, the kill list, and the one differentiating project your A-players will lean into next week. Ask, “What should we stop doing that doesn’t support this?”
Rinse monthly.
Pitfalls to dodge (because we’re all human)
- Shiny-Object-itis. AI, new platforms, “we should start a community!” Maybe. First ask: Does this amplify our differentiator? If not, it’s Core at best—partner for it.
- Survey theater. Net Promoter Score without context is astrology with decimals. Ditch checkbox surveys for conversations and stories.
- Top-down declarations. A dozen executives can align perfectly… and be wrong. Put customers and frontline voices in the room.
- Breadth over depth. Being everything to everyone leaves you being memorable to no one. The riches (and resilience) are in depth.
What this looks like for a small shop
Let’s say you run a 12-person home-renovation company. You’re good at kitchens, okay at basements, and you dabble in everything. During a job, you widen a client’s doorways, add a subtle ramp, and re-fit a bathroom so Grandma can stay in her home with dignity. The client cries. You feel it in your chest.
That’s not “another job.” That’s a signal. Your planted foot may be aging-in-place transformations. It’s distinctive, desirable, and—done well—durable. Now your pivots make sense:
- Marketing: Case studies and workshops for families, seniors’ centers, and care coordinators.
- Core: Reliable scheduling, dust control, clean site standards (table stakes—but executed flawlessly).
- Support: Outsource bookkeeping; templatize bids.
- Differentiating: Build a signature 48-hour “Accessibility Assessment” that stacks trust and momentum, then an “Aging-in-Place Roadmap” upsell. Depth, not breadth.
You move from “we do renovations” to “we keep people safely at home.” Big difference. Stable foot. Smarter pivots.
The quiet superpower: trust
Customers trust brands that know who they are. Teams trust leaders who don’t change costumes every quarter. Stability isn’t stubbornness. It’s confidence. As Stephen put it, “If you become irreplaceable, you’ll be the only option.” Irreplaceable comes from being known for something—and then getting deeper at it.
Your two commitments for the next 30 days
- Carve out 10% of your week for Differentiating work—no matter what. Put it on your calendar and defend it like payroll.
- Have five story-gathering conversations—three customers, two frontline team members. No surveys. No selling. Just stories.
Everything else flows from those two moves.
If you want a sounding board to lock in your planted foot and build your first “depth plan,” I’m happy to jump on a complimentary 30-minute brainstorm with you and your team. Bring your messy whiteboard. I’ll bring the questions. Let’s turn uncertainty into advantage.
Stay safe, stay healthy—and dare to be the exception.
—Marc
Guest credits: Many of the ideas in this article are drawn from my conversation with Stephen Shapiro, Hall of Fame speaker and author of Pivotal: Creating Stability in an Uncertain World. Quotes attributed to Stephen are taken from that interview. You can learn more about his work at theinnovationspeaker.com and personalitypoker.com.
About the Author:
Marc Haine is what happens when hospitality meets humour. A customer and employee experience strategist, keynote speaker, and accidental comedian, Marc’s mission is to help businesses turn ordinary service into unforgettable theatre.
He’s the author of the best-selling book Lights! Camera! Action! (Check out the new way of looking at your business HERE) and host of Marc Haine Live and Experience Leadership: The Small Business Podcast which has over 200,000 downloads. He digs into leadership, culture, and why the coffee machine is always broken.
When he’s not on stage or behind a mic, Marc can be found coaching leaders, mentoring new speakers, or pretending that spreadsheets spark joy.
Connect with him at MarcHaine.com
Marc Haine
Marc is a service expert and a master of experiences. He's also an author, speaker, facilitator and coach. He will help your teams ignite their passions, enable your leaders to recentre their focus, and drive continuous improvement through connected and engaged employees. This will allow you to realize your competitive advantage with a connected purpose and consistency of customer experience across your brand. He will dare your people to cultivate a generous attitude and lead with love and kindness first.
