Be the Hedgehog
Are you the hedgehog or the fox?
The concept is drawn from a Greek poem in which a cunning fox tries and continually fails to eat a seemingly simple hedgehog. The fox keeps plotting the perfect attack. He keeps coming up with new ideas to eat the hedgehog.
The simplistic and somewhat dowdy hedgehog goes about its business unaware. When the fox ambushes, the hedgehog rolls himself into a spiny, impenetrable ball.
Undeterred, the fox keeps re-strategizing, but the pattern repeats itself over and over.
The poem concludes
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
Do one thing, and do it well! In his 2001 book, Good to Great, Jim Collins called this the hedgehog concept. He points out that the fox is just doing different things over and over and trying to implement new strategies, ending up with the same results. However, the hedgehog is doing one thing, over and over, and doing it well.
What’s your one thing?
What are you deeply passionate about? What can you realistically be (and, equally important, not be) the best at?
What’s your plan for doing it even better?
What resources and energy will you devote to pursuing that one thing and doing it well, rather than searching around for new strategies and solutions?
If you are unsure of your next steps in life or are looking for ways to maximize your effectiveness, then identify your own personal “hedgehog.”
In our personal lives, we often try to do too many things, not focusing on just one. And I can plead guilty to this!
I think the trick is focusing on just one thing at a time and then allowing ourselves to focus on the next thing.
So…what do you think? Shall we be the hedgehogs?
3 Comments
Loved this! Thanks!
You are always a delight, Pat! Thank you for the lift you give me.
As always, Pat, you make us think! Thanks. I rather like the hedgehog and his ‘one big idea’ as the over riding principle. Still…..you know, devil’s advocate and all….the fox only really has to come up with one plan to deal with just one response. If he simply concentrated on that one thing (his own ‘one big idea’), he might very well crack this particular code, though it would take focused time. If it took too much time, he’d better have a supplemental food source! Once cracked, though, the hedgehog would be at a severe disadvantage, and wouldn’t even know why. In the meantime the hedgehog is going to be just fine. His one big idea is a mighty good one! Maybe that’s where the saying ‘Do what works!’ came from.