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Hedgehogs
and Foxes
The
parable is true in your organisation too...
"The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog
knows one big thing..." so goes the Isaiah Berlin parable,
and so too does the idea when applied to successful organisations.
Good to Great author Jim Collins has used the
idea at the heart of the parable to illustrate one of the reasons
some companies achieve greatness. "Foxes pursue many ends
at the same time...hedgehogs on the other hand organise the
world into a single idea, a basic principle or concept that
unifies and guides everything..."
Now don't confuse simple with stupid - nothing
could be further from the truth. Some people throughout history,
who have simplified a complex world to benefit everyone include:
Darwin and natural selection, Einstein and relativity, and
Freud and the unconscious and more recently Yumas and empowering
the poor. History is littered with some pretty high profile
hedgehogs.
What is true for those great hedgehogs is also
true of organisations. Great organisations also take a simple
crystal clear idea and align everything they do and think around
it. Of course what is simple in ideal is never simple in practice.
A great deal of discipline is required to stay the course,
to keep iterating policies and practices around the idea until
they work as well as the hedgehog's spines.
So while hedgehogs might be dowdy little creatures
when compared to the sleek, speedy, spirited fox, channelling
a bit of hedgehog is possibly the better way to long-term success.
Read
an excerpt from the original parable by
Isiah Berlin.
You can get the entire original text here.
Other
quotes about Hedgehogs and Foxes.
Jim Collins online
lab explores what makes a Hedgehog versus a Fox.
Hedgehogs aren't just for your organisation -
Author, Jim
Collins talks about finding your personal Hedgehog.
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