Seek the Big Picture

Here is a true story about the importance of seeking the big picture.

In a chemical plant, the night operations manager discovered that the end product had changed from a vanilla color to pitch black. This was terrible. They could never sell this stuff. He ran around checking all the gauges to discover the problem. They were all OK. He scooped up some of the black product and analyzed it in the lab. There were no significant results.

In desperation he called the plant manager at home. The plant manager jumped out of bed, into his car and raced to the plant. He said to himself, I had better try to get the big picture here. So instead of racing in to talk with the night manager, he decided to take a drive around the plant on the outside first. Then he spotted it. A locomotive was parked on a siding right next to the plant building. It was belching black smoke into the air intake opening of the plant. That air went directly into the chemical process.

He then told the night manager that the problem was the locomotive outside their building, not in the chemical process. They called the railroad company and got the locomotive moved immediately. The next day they set procedures in place so this could never happen again.

Think of this story as a metaphor. Where in your life do you need to seek the big picture, to drive around the building or problem before diving into the details and maybe getting stuck there? Where do you need strategic thinking? In these cases, seek the big picture first. I assist clients to notice when it is time for strategic thinking and then facilitate their seeking the big picture.

Copyright © 2010, by William R. Murray, President of Eagle Alliance Executive Coaching, LLC. Reprint rights granted to all venues so long as this article and by-line are printed intact with all links made live.