The Four Pivots

Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves

By: Shawn A. Ginwright PhD

Narrated by: Shawn A. Ginwright PhD

“Reading this courageous book feels like the beginning of a social and personal awakening...I can’t stop thinking about it.”—Brené Brown, PhD, author of Atlas of the Heart

For readers of Emergent Strategy and Dare to Lead, an activist's roadmap to long-term social justice impact through four simple shifts.

We need a fundamental shift in our values--a pivot in how we think, act, work, and connect. Despite what we’ve been told, the most critical mainspring of social change isn’t coalition building or problem analysis. It’s healing: deep, whole, and systemic, inside and out.

Here, Shawn Ginwright, PhD, breaks down the common myths of social movements--a set of deeply ingrained beliefs that actually hold us back from healing and achieving sustainable systemic change. He shows us why these frames don’t work, proposing instead four revolutionary pivots for better activism and collective leadership:

Awareness: from lens to mirror
Connection: from transactional to transformative relationships
Vision: from problem-fixing to possibility-creating
Presence: from hustle to flow

Supplemented with reflections, prompts, cutting-edge research, and the author’s own insights and lived experience as an African American social scientist, professor, and movement builder, The Four Pivots helps us uncover our obstruction points. It shows us how to discover new lenses and boldly assert our need for connection, transformation, trust, wholeness, and healing. It gives us permission to create a better future--to acknowledge that a broken system has been predefining our dreams and limiting what we allow ourselves to imagine, but that it doesn’t have to be that way at all. Are you ready to pivot?

What the World Needs NOW

Well-performed, and a MUST read for anyone who wants to be a part of the solution our World most desperately needs and deserves.

I’m hoping more people get to a place in their journey to seek knowledge and perspective such as Dr. Ginwright and so many others are bringing forward l, and like me, are moved to continue to learn and make an impact when and where you can - every little bit helps.

Highly recommend!!!

Life changing and healing

This book has transformed the way I see things and it has brought healing to my life. I love that he teaches by his example of lived experiences.

Ginwright gets it.

Thoughtful, insightful, reflective. Everyone in the world should read. Or at least everyone in the US.

Loved! Perfect for the newly minted PhD student interested in social justice

This was an excellent recommendation from my professor for political determinants of health class at Meharry Medical College

Excellent, Enlightening perspective!

Love this book!, Shawn’s perspective, voice & approach…. Totally applicable to advocacy, work, & Life!…. Thank you for showing up as yourself, & sharing knowledge on how we can All do this a little better!
Highly recommended! 🤗