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 of 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 that 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. As their perspective is broad, they have the benefits of “Big Picture” thinking, forethought, and adaptability. 

Meanwhile, down on the ground…

The thing with prairie dogs is that they don’t see anything but what's right in front of them. They're so focused that they never look up, to the side—or even down. In fact it won't notice you until you make a noise or startle it. (I know this from my cycling days in Colorado!)

Prairie dogs live life one step at a time. They aren't planning ahead since what the future holds isn’t immediately pressing. They might get distracted by something shiny or exciting rustling in the grass (a snake), but when it goes away, poof!—they forget about it and go back to minding their own business as if nothing ever happened.

Prairie dogs are leaders who only focus on the immediate, responding to fires and reacting to the world around them (sound too familiar?). They are far too involved in the day-to-day and might even be seen as micro managers (there, I said it, but only if the shoe fits). Having a micro-manager as a boss is soul-sucking, and you don't want to be that "guy."

(And BEING a micro-manager is just as soul-sucking, by the way.)

So - why is eagle thinking preferable to prairie dog thinking? Should you rush to change your whole “reliable” work ethic and start taking more risks?

YES - and also no. Your strengths are essential when there is detailed work to be done or standards to be met. But in between crises, leaders have to lead. If your vision is limited, so is your team’s.

It all comes down to this - birds of prey simply have more freedom. They don’t have to worry about holes in the ground, what is just around them or what might be coming down the road. They can take flight and soar above it all.

Take time each day to think and plan like an eagle — you'll make better decisions when you know what's happening around you. Your prairie dog instincts will kick back in when it’s time to get things done - and done well. I recommend creating a morning planning ritual to start each work day, and a weekly post-mortem on Fridays to tie up lose ends and prepare you for a new week. 

Here are four questions to help broaden your vision:

1. What is another perspective can you consider before making this decision? Enjoy debating with yourself. (I do it all the time.)
2. What are the clear warning signs of trouble ahead and how often should you check in with your team to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening?
3. Who on your team has a wildly different way of thinking than your own? How can you come to understand their point of view?
4. How much time every week do you take to plan - and only plan? (Note: multi-tasking and jotting down quick To Do lists on post-it notes that you stick on your computer does NOT count.) Think beyond the next batch of deliverables.

As always, I'd love to hear your answers in the comments.

PS. Need a little extra help seeing things from the Eagle point of view? Be sure to CRACK THE POWER CODE by clicking here. (It’s free and powerful.)