This week, I gave a training session for the staff at work, who are mostly Khmer. As English is spoken by some but not all, every second or third sentence was translated into Khmer by a bilingual colleague. The topic was leadership. To start on this unwieldy topic, I borrowed the parable of the fox and the hedgehog, as thought it would be a fun and manageable way to begin, in a foreign language and different culture. As a brief reminder, the story goes that the fox knows many little things, all useless and trivial, whereas the hedgehog knows only one big thing, but this single idea helps him to organize everything in his life. This story was co-opted by Jim Collins into the Hedgehog Concept, as an example of how great leaders think, focus, and work. As I prepared for my talk, I was uncertain if either of these animals even existed in Cambodia. But I thought the ideas would translate, so I used the images above to help the staff visualize. I began my talk and all went well for a while, people nodding and watching intently, good signs from a speaker's point of view. But after I’d gone on for a bit, people reached a saturation point on traits of great leaders and wanted to circle back to the animal photos. The session then devolved into an intense conversation in Khmer about these animals and other similar ones living in Cambodia. As it happens, no hedgehogs exist in the Kingdom. But they have a porcupine at a nearby zoo that a few people had seen before, and they thought it was quite similar to the hedgehog photo. One person felt sure it was the same. (I noted that the hedgehog is nicer). About foxes, there was uncertainty as to their existence here-a few thought maybe in the past, but not any more-No one knew why. However, everyone agreed that wolves were pretty much the same thing and wolves definitely live here, so that satisfied the group. (Except me, as I have now added to my list of concerns running into a wolf). Amidst all this discussion, I do think a few ideas about effective leaders got through, as I saw people taking notes, though admittedly they may have been writing out grocery lists or drawing caricatures of the over-exuberant red-haired lady pointing repeatedly at the porcupine on her laptop. Overall, the experience for me was educational as well, since I've done a lot of training in companies in other countries but never at an NGO, never in a developing country, and never in SE Asia. But that day I used the same high bar of success I always have: At least no one fell asleep.
