The Perils of Prairie Dog Thinking — Are You Stuck in the Weeds?

The author humbly advises you to read the following in your best Morgan Freeman voice.

Behold the industrious prairie dog; humble, head bowed, quiet, perfectly content to stay out of sight.

Can you relate as you obsess over the smallest details, striving for perfection? You’re dedicated, task-oriented, and low-maintenance, in a word: reliable. Let’s be real. Every organization needs leaders who perform consistently. But is your laser focus keeping you from seeing the big picture?

Let’s say you have an important meeting with your boss (or the board). You think you need an extra PowerPoint slide or two (or three or four) for your presentation to go well. So, what do you do? Just like a prairie dog excavating its underground tunnel system, you spend long, grueling, crack-of-dawn hours working on those slides until they are perfect. You even add some color coding for organization. Surely all this extra work will impress your boss.

But in reality, the boss only sees time wasted on the minutia.

You know why? Your boss, for better and for worse, thinks like an eagle.

The eagle soars high above the ground with their eyes focused on the horizon. They are constantly scanning the terrain for prey. They can sense storms rolling in and re-strategize in moments. Their perspective is broad, so they benefit from “Big Picture” thinking, forethought, and adaptability.