The Hedgehog Theory: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For The Hedgehog Theory, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
About 2 minutes
Try it here: find where your three circles overlap
Write what you could be best at, what drives your income or energy, and what you care about most. Where they overlap is your working guess.
Write one answer for each circle, then note where they overlap.
Practices that may help
- The Hedgehog Concept
Jim Collins’s Hedgehog Concept, drawn from his Good to Great research, proposes that enduring excellence comes from focusing on the intersection of three circles: what you can be world-class at, what drives your economic engine, and what you are deeply passionate about. It is a strategic framework derived from systematic study of high-performing companies; its application to individual purpose is widely used but the evidence base is organizational, not individual. - Treat the Hedgehog as a hypothesis that iterates
Write your best current intersection as a testable hypothesis and update it when new information arrives.
The Hedgehog Concept - Find your hedgehog concept — the one thing you can be best at
Identify the intersection of what you can be best at, what drives your economic engine, and what you are deeply passionate about.
Level 5 Leadership: Humility and Will in Great Leaders - Map your three circles honestly
Separately answer each circle — passion, best-at, economic engine — before looking for the intersection.
The Hedgehog Concept - Ruthlessly prune commitments outside the intersection
Once the intersection is visible, say no to opportunities — even good ones — that fall outside it.
The Hedgehog Concept - Commit to the long game the Hedgehog requires
Expect the intersection to take years to inhabit fully — and protect it against urgency and short-term pressure.
The Hedgehog Concept - Test passion with the energy-after test
Passion is revealed by what energizes you after doing it — not by what you aspire to love.
The Hedgehog Concept - Diagnose before elaborating
Check the common, simple explanation first before searching for rare or complex ones.
Occam’s Razor: Prefer the Simpler Explanation - Match your heuristic to the structure of the environment
A good rule works because it matches the statistical regularities of the environment — wrong environment, wrong rule.
Simple Heuristics: Gerd Gigerenzer’s Case for Fast and Frugal Thinking - Systematic alternatives: generate three more explanations before deciding
Force yourself to generate at least three alternative explanations or interpretations before committing to the first plausible one.
Lateral Thinking, Made Practical
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I keep waiting for one clean lightning-bolt answer about my purpose before I’ll commit to anything, and it never comes
- I’m chasing too many things at once and my effort’s scattered everywhere
- I’m pulled in a dozen directions and none of them is clearly the thing
- I finally know what I should be focused on, but good opportunities keep landing in my lap and I say yes to all of them
- I know the thing I’ve committed to will take years of patient momentum to really pay off, but the constant short-term pressure keeps tempting me to chase quick wins instead
Related concerns
- Hedgehog Concept
Jim Collins’s Hedgehog Concept, drawn from his Good to Great research, proposes that enduring excellence comes from focusing on the intersection of three circles: what you can be world-class at, what drives your economic engine, and what you are deeply passionate about. It is a strategic framework derived from systematic study of high-performing companies; its application to individual purpose is widely used but the evidence base is organizational, not individual.
- Hedgehog Concept Jim Collins
Jim Collins’s Hedgehog Concept, drawn from his Good to Great research, proposes that enduring excellence comes from focusing on the intersection of three circles: what you can be world-class at, what drives your economic engine, and what you are deeply passionate about. It is a strategic framework derived from systematic study of high-performing companies; its application to individual purpose is widely used but the evidence base is organizational, not individual.
- Hedgehog Principle
Jim Collins’s Hedgehog Concept, drawn from his Good to Great research, proposes that enduring excellence comes from focusing on the intersection of three circles: what you can be world-class at, what drives your economic engine, and what you are deeply passionate about. It is a strategic framework derived from systematic study of high-performing companies; its application to individual purpose is widely used but the evidence base is organizational, not individual.
- Hedgehog Theory
Jim Collins’s Hedgehog Concept, drawn from his Good to Great research, proposes that enduring excellence comes from focusing on the intersection of three circles: what you can be world-class at, what drives your economic engine, and what you are deeply passionate about. It is a strategic framework derived from systematic study of high-performing companies; its application to individual purpose is widely used but the evidence base is organizational, not individual.
- How To Find Your Hedgehog
Jim Collins’s Hedgehog Concept, drawn from his Good to Great research, proposes that enduring excellence comes from focusing on the intersection of three circles: what you can be world-class at, what drives your economic engine, and what you are deeply passionate about. It is a strategic framework derived from systematic study of high-performing companies; its application to individual purpose is widely used but the evidence base is organizational, not individual.
- Jim Collins Hedgehog Concept
Jim Collins’s Hedgehog Concept, drawn from his Good to Great research, proposes that enduring excellence comes from focusing on the intersection of three circles: what you can be world-class at, what drives your economic engine, and what you are deeply passionate about. It is a strategic framework derived from systematic study of high-performing companies; its application to individual purpose is widely used but the evidence base is organizational, not individual.
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