It’s the beginning of a new school year. You had plans. Great plans. Perhaps you were going to start a new collaboration with a teacher, introduce a program you spent the summer developing, reorganize part of your library, or finally make progress on a goal you have been thinking about since the end of last year.

And then something happened.

Life—and school—doesn’t always go according to plan. An administrator has a different priority. A teacher you hoped to work with is suddenly unavailable. A budget gets cut. Or something happens in your personal life that changes how much time and energy you have to give. What do you do when the plan you carefully created is no longer possible?

You P.I.V.O.T.

Pivoting doesn’t mean abandoning your goals. As leaders, we need to recognize when circumstances have changed and find another way forward. Here are five steps to help you do that.

P – Periscope – Several years ago, I wrote about the idea of using periscope to look beyond what is immediately in front of you. A submarine’s periscope allows those below the surface to see what is happening above and around them. We need to do the same. When something disrupts your plans, your first reaction may be to focus on the problem. Instead, raise your periscope.

What else is happening? What has changed? What are you not seeing because you are focused on what went wrong? Talk to colleagues. Connect with your PLN. Look outside your library or even outside education. A different perspective may show you possibilities you couldn’t see before.

I – Initiate – Now that you have changed your perspective, start generating ideas. Don’t worry yet about whether they will work. Make a list. Could you modify your original plan? Could you work with someone different? Can you make the project smaller? What are other ways to achieve the same goal?

As librarians, we are good at finding information. Use that skill on your own problem. Ask questions. Do some research. Reach out to someone who has faced a similar situation. At this stage, you aren’t looking for the answer. You are looking for possibilities.

V – Vision – You know how often I write about having a Vision for your library. There’s a reason for that. Your Vision tells you where you are going. When circumstances change, your Vision is what keeps you from getting lost.

Look at the ideas you generated. Which ones are aligned with your Vision? Which support your Mission? Which reflect what you believe is important for your students, teachers, and school community?

Your original plan was only one route. Your Vision is the destination. When you remember that, changing the route doesn’t feel quite so much like failure. It’s leadership.

O – Options – Once you reconnect with your Vision, look again at your list of possibilities. Now see which ones become Options. Which are realistic given your current circumstances? What resources do you have? Who could help? What can you change? What can’t you change?

We sometimes get so attached to the way we planned to do something that we overlook another option that could work just as well—or perhaps even better. Leaders don’t need to have only one answer. They need to be able to recognize which option works best for where they are now.

T – Take One Action – This may be the most important step. When plans fall apart, particularly when several things seem to be going wrong at once, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Suddenly you have to create a new plan to create along with everything else you already have to do. Don’t try to fix everything today.

Send one email. Make one phone call. Ask one person for help. Rewrite one part of the lesson. Schedule one meeting. Do one thing that moves you toward the option you chose.

Then take the next step when you are ready.

We tell our students that mistakes and setbacks are part of learning. We need to remember the same is true for us. A plan that doesn’t work isn’t a failure. Things can change. Sometimes we learned something we didn’t know when we made the plan. And sometimes we simply need a different route.

The school year may have only begun, but that doesn’t mean everything will begin exactly as you planned. Raise your Periscope. Initiate new ideas. Reconnect with your Vision. Consider your Options. Then Take one action. You don’t need to have everything figured out. You just need to P.I.V.O.T.—and keep leading.