Tunnel Vision: How Can You See the Big Picture?
David Shindler
Writer. Mainly. Coach. Often. Volunteer. Sometimes. Learning to Leap. Always.
Not being able to see the wood for the trees is a cliche that is standing the test of time. When you're so overwhelmed that you can't see what's in front of your nose, a common experience in our distracted world. Similarly, the metaphor about being 'sucked into the weeds', the detail consuming our attention at the expense of a wider perspective. How can you zoom out to see the forest and where it sits in the landscape? What are the benefits for you and others?
This post is prompted by a recent coaching conversation with an aspiring leader who wanted to develop the capability and capacity for seeing that bigger picture. His motivation was to make sense of his role in the complex world of international development and humanitarian aid.
The personal benefits of being able to see the big picture include:
- Personal and professional satisfaction of contributing to something bigger and impactful
- Buy-in and ownership
- A greater sense of control in a VUCA environment
- Better decisions
By linking to other programmes and seeing how they fit together, overlap or conflict, our leader would be in a better position to improve operational readiness for humanitarian emergencies (e.g. speed, timeliness, cost-effectiveness, mitigate risks) and ultimately save lives.
Collaboration and communication
In our aspiring leader's environment, information is dispersed across time and place with people often working in silos. Like a giant jigsaw, different people have different parts of the picture and don't always know who else has what and where. From where he sits (centrally), it's difficult to pull the parts together and create a coherent and clear jigsaw.
The keys are collaboration and communication. By thinking and developing the big picture together driven by a common goal, being in sync, helping each other understand their respective parts and how they inter-relate, being proactive and consistently reaching out. These give you a better chance of preventing things from falling through the cracks and avoid missing something fundamental that could break the integrity of the big picture. Leaders constantly remind people of the 'why' of a programme or project or operation and how everyone's contribution matters.
Building and sharing the big picture
When I did a Masters degree in Management some years ago, I was introduced to the concept of a 'rich' picture. Borrowed from the tech world and part of the toolkit of systems thinking, it was a visual way of iterating the wider system using meaningful symbols and labels and creating links and connections between disparate elements - all in one rich picture. Multiple contributors can then see the system from where they sit which may be different from others. The result is a dynamic monologue, dialogue, and multilogue about a live system(s).
Another approach I've used is storytelling. Imagine having an event with the supply-chain in the room. Representatives from different parts talk about their contribution, its impact and identify the dependencies with other people. For example, an administrative assistant may organise international travel for his manager so he gets to the right place at the right time to raise essential funds for a Programme to reduce child poverty. The manager talks about how she ensures the funds reach her colleague in Operations. People in Procurement and Finance talk about their part in the chain. You end up with someone in the Field talking about the use of the funds on the ground to help a specific child. The power of storytelling is how it prompts emotional resonance. Personalising the system brings it alive and joins up the dots for others in the system to hear, visualise and feel. That, in turn, helps cement a common sense of purpose and pride. You can take this approach for a past successful project, a current one or scenario-planning for the future.
Another way of building the big picture is improving situational awareness using approaches such as PESTLE (political, economic, social, technical, legal, environmental and educational). Information gathering in these areas prompts questions about their inter-relationship and dependencies. For example, exploring the social implications of a political issue, etc.
Leadership capabilities
In summary, being able to see the big picture involves a range of skills and mindsets that cut across both managing (implementing) and leading (driving). This is not an exhaustive list and I'm sure you can add more:
- Self-management - consistently carving out space in your diary to give focused and quality attention to the big picture; resilience and mental toughness in the face of setbacks and challenges; naming the known knowns and known unknowns
- Relationship-building - developing and maintaining positive relationships with relevant people across the system; being proactive, curious, open (willing to share), trusted and trustworthy; influencing and negotiating skills
- Systems thinking - data/information collating and analysis, mapping, scanning, and scenario-planning skills; tapping into creativity (yours and other people's)
When you are trying to see the big picture, how much is visible depends on where you sit and what you do. Start from where you are, involve others and build from there.
(Photos from pixabay.com and unsplash.com)
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David provides career and workplace coaching to help your clarity, confidence, and decision-making. He is the author of Learning to Leap: a guide to being more employable, and co-author with Mark Babbitt of 21st Century Internships (250,000+ downloads worldwide). His commitment and energy are in promoting lifelong personal and professional development and in tackling youth unemployment. www.learningtoleap.co.uk @LearningtoLeap
Visit the Learning to Leap blog to read more of his work and check out his other published articles on LinkedIn:
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