In Jim Collins’ seminal work, “Good to Great,” he describes the characteristics of companies that went from being good companies to great ones and then sustained their greatness for at least 15 years. I highly recommend this book if you haven’t read it already, perhaps especially if you think it wouldn’t apply to you.
One of the traits of these good-to-great companies is referred to as “the hedgehog concept.” The idea comes from an old parable of a fox and a hedgehog. The fox is crafty and cunning and tries to do many things well, but is repeatedly outsmarted by the hedgehog, who knows one thing and is the best at it. The hedgehog curls up in a small, prickly ball and is impenetrable to the fox’s attacks. These companies, then, are trying to find their own hedgehog concepts: 1) What will make them money? 2) What could they be the best in the world at? 3) What lights their fire and gets them really motivated?
The problem with making an adaptation from the business world to education is that sometimes it seems that, by law, we are required to be more like the fox. We are required to spin the plates of differentiation, data disaggregation, cross-curricular instruction, standardized testing, college and career readiness, workplace skills, knowledge and understanding of what it means to be a citizen, and more. Differentiation, for example, is not excluded entirely, but it is easy to lose focus on the hedgehog when you are spinning too many plates. Often we place too much emphasis on the lowest common denominator and forget that we have the ability to become great.
What would happen if we decided that we were each going to find a hedgehog concept for our classes this year? What could we change that might encourage us to 1) produce outstanding student products 2) discover what we can be the best in the world at and 3) uncover what really lights our students’ fires and gets them excited about learning something new?
This year, let’s all agree to let a hedgehog loose in our classrooms.
