The Bigger Picture

I spend quite a fair amount of time driving these days. Traffic seems to fascinate me in more ways than one. While fascinate is not really a word you would usually hear when we speak about traffic, but it really does throw up quite a few observations and lessons.

Consider this scenario. I was stuck at a 4 way intersection a few days back. I was the 3rd car from the first row. The car in front of me was a small hatchback and the first one was actually a huge truck. Now this was the peak hour in the evening and of course people were impatient to reach home. The signal counted down excruciatingly slowly from 180 to 0 and finally turned green!

Instead of moving, the truck seemed rooted to the spot. The driver in front of me got agitated and had a honking fit, if I may call it. After 30 seconds of madness, the truck driver actually did something rare and nice. He peeped out of the truck and signaled to the driver that even though the signal had turned green, the traffic policeman was actually calling the shots. The signal was incidental and since it was a busy intersection, the policeman was helping the cars to navigate. The driver understood and peace returned. Soon after, we crossed the intersection.

While driving back, I extrapolated this to a corporate context. How often do you find yourself toiling away on an important project with no visibility of what's going to happen up ahead? The truck in this case resembles somebody who is bigger and higher up in the chain. Instead of blocking your view, the person should take it upon himself to illuminate and show you the direction. Sometimes I have seen people working and asking themselves "How does this contribute? I don't even know what my work means in the bigger context. Why are my suggestions not implemented already?!" This is a pitfall to disengagement and is a great opportunity for leaders to quickly give show the bigger picture.

The next time you are stuck in 'traffic', maybe you can do the same!