Big Picture Thinking: an Ability or Attitude

Is it an ability or attitude?

-Do organisations fail due to lack of Big Picture Thinking?

You meet any Senior Executive anywhere across the globe; you listen to a very common advice. A senior person in an organisation should have ability to see a Big Picture to drive an organisation into future. A must ability, no doubt on its requirement but it makes you think - is it an attribute one is borne with or it can be developed?

Let me try giving you my thought on it.

Somewhere, I read that one should be having as much information as possible. Reason, different information pieces when joint, gives birth to a new piece. The new piece provides unique & altogether different information. This 'new' information may be unique because of its content, substance or its positioning. Therefore, point is, if one has access to different information, perhaps one can easily see a big picture. For example, since ages, a very peculiar thing kept happening, but no one knew it. It was just couple of years back that we came to know about it. Cattle when graze in a field align in a north-south axis, therefore orienting themselves to the magnetic north of the earth. It became possible when in 2008; some zoologists looked at the Google's Earth images. A new information which may be exploited by some radical thinkers to grow grass or crops, helping cows/cattle graze easily and quickly without damaging much of the field & crop itself.

'Big Picture' as a word, came into existence accidentally, when Nadar a French person took first photograph of earth, riding a hot balloon in the second half of 19th century. This unplanned event led to a unique application of various subjects together - geology, archaeology, meteorology, and importantly espionage.  This 'big picture' became 'bird's eye' for Napolean-III who used it on his enemy well. This development led to a deadly combination of aerial photography and military strategy which is being used till date from high sky to conquer one’s enemy.

Keeping above facts in view, if I define ‘Big Picture Thinking’ then, it is nothing but initial efforts forced by circumstances to collect some information by a person who exploited by converting it into a habit of collecting information not as & when required but continuously. Therefore, it is a process of bringing an attitudinal change in the person, leading to a permanent change in a habit, which may be termed as ABILITY.

I can without hesitation say that Big Picture is an Attitude or at best a habit but not Ability.

‘So near but still so far’ – a Business Challenge:

My reason of using this phrase here is that when I hear that organisations spend hundreds of thousands of dollors on their employees for building this ability in them.  But, for sure with no success or may be with limited success. When I dissected & collected information, I found that challenge was not atall a challenge but mere a human tendency to cling to comfort zone, they are used to.

Let me explain it. Generally, an employee gets into a profession by specializing in a major subject (knowledge). Gets into a job, clinging to that knowledge; practice it for some years; gets success initially hard way but later easy way; making the employee entering into a comfort zone, unknowingly.

If employees are responsible for such development, so are the organisations. Organisations are instrumental in making employees enter into comfort zone easily; realizing later that they did a mistake. They try to revert it by giving so-called training, but alas! It was too late, already. It was too late because, organisations made a small ‘effort’ getting converted into a habit and later unsuccessfully try changing it by simple training & counselling. But, ‘habits’ die hard.

The challenge becomes serious, when you see it at the level of CEOs & Senior Executives. It is generally seen that even senior executives could not detach themselves from their initially 'acquired knowledge of a subject' but remain ‘subject blind’ till the end of their careers. I have seen senior executives not becoming ‘Business Managers’ but simply remain ‘Subject Managers’ till the entire curve of their careers; putting organisations into serious doldrums, because of their habit of clinging to small patch of Business Subject.

The only reason of this failure due to Executives is their not getting into the habit of collecting information. CEOs and Senior Executive need to develop habit of collecting information. This information could be in the form of ‘subject’ of Sales, Marketing, Economics, Finance, Operation, HR or Strategy, equally.

So, Big Picture is a normal habit- just think and you get it. Still people do not change. Simply, a human tendency. Aptly, we can say, 'so near, still so far.