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Big Picture Thinking

Getting the big picture.

You’ve probably heard the phrases Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish or Cannot see the forest for the trees. And you probably know someone who appears to live by either one of these two phrases, as if they were slogans.

Both are representative of the same problem. Some people are unable to make decisions based on the bigger picture. Furthermore, these people often lack strategic thinking skills.

Why do some people have such a hard time looking beyond the immediate? Sometimes the nature of our duty and training block our view of the big picture.

For example, you may know that person in accounting that is getting paid $20/hour, who proudly reports spending 4 hours sorting out a $5 discrepancy in your monthly credit card reports.

There is simply no greater reward to that person, than to reach the kind of closure that is required of that type of job.

In some cases the problem is facilitated by the design of the organization itself.

Think of the shipping manager, who just saved the company $10 per mailing by switching to smaller, lighter boxes. In this case, the change leads to an increase in returns caused by items damaged in transit.

The new boxes do not protect the product as well as the larger thicker boxes once did. But the shipping manager may not be able to realize this until much later, if returns are sent to a different location.

There are two things that you can do to help your staff keep an eye on the bigger picture.

First, improve communication across departments. It is difficult to see the bigger picture when your universe day in and day out is only as big as your own department. You have to help expand people’s universe by allowing them to glimpse what is going on across departments.

Second, you must address the individuals themselves, and set higher expectations. But before you do so, note that people often miss the bigger picture because they do not know what it looks like.

Managers on the other hand get frustrated because they assume everyone else should be able to see the bigger picture, it is obvious to them. To employees, managers appear to be concealing the bigger picture, and feel lost

Do not assume people know what the bigger picture is. When you notice someone is not paying attention to the bigger picture as you see it, use that moment as an opportunity and turn the situation into a coachable moment.