Small Picture v.s Big Picture— The Value in Both

  Have you ever gotten a glimpse of where you want your career to go, but as you try to chase that dream, you realize you don’t even know where to begin? The thought of the work it would take to get there is in itself overwhelming? Before you know it, that beautiful goal you set for yourself turns into nothing more than a dream… Or are you someone who works towards “mini” goals? Day by day, week by week, you manage those doable “baby-step” tasks well, but eventually step back and realize you have trouble conceptualising what you’d want your future to look like? 

  Everyone’s path to growth and success is so unique, but there are key tools I have noticed that can aid one in reaching their goals, whether they are to be reached in a week, a month, or in several years. Anyone who knows me will say I am someone with a constant hunger to grow, uncomfortable with the thought of becoming stagnant. After experimenting with many different methods to ensure I keep moving forward towards my pursuits, these are two things I have realized: It always starts with observing mental habits, and the willingness to push past the comfort zone must be present. As a professional dancer who fought their way into a highly competitive field, a coach, a former recruiter, and current blogger, I have found that the balance of big picture thinking paired with a focused “small picture” approach has been essential in making seemingly overly ambitious goals a reality. Both employers and employees alike can benefit from exploring the balance between thinking in a broader scope, and zooming in to consider what the smaller pieces of the puzzle may look like.

 

What is big picture thinking?

  Big picture thinking requires one to look at what needs to be accomplished from a broader scope. As if you are looking at a large picture from a bird’s eye view, and thinking of the entirety of a concept rather than focusing on details. People who lean more towards this style of thinking have an easier time creating long term plans, and tend to have a clearer vision for their future both in and outside of their career. 

 

What is small picture thinking?

  Small picture thinkers are known for how detail oriented they are. Their strengths include; being able to think of processes in a step-by-step way, excelling at daily routine tasks that big picture thinkers would find too monotonous or exhausting, and overall staying more present as they take more of a day-to-day approach to get the necessary work done. 

 

Employers

Importance of delegating the right tasks to the right people:

  One would think that meetings requiring brain-storming for future projects or big-scale plans should mostly be comprised of big picture thinkers. However, to create the most thorough plan, a team would ideally be made up of both detail-oriented thinkers, as well as big picture thinkers. 

Think of it this way, you’ve been given a 1,000 piece puzzle to complete and you have the help of 3 friends to put it together. You and one of your other friends grab the box right away to look at what the final image should be, while the other two go straight to sorting the pieces by color. This initial action already hints at not only how each individual thinks, but what each person’s strengths are. With the help of both those who enjoy the focused work of placing each piece into the correct place, as well as the one who keeps referring to the full picture to help guide the “piece pickers”, the puzzle will be done with more enjoyment from each party, and completed more efficiently. Employees with these opposing thinking styles can come together and fill in the gaps for their counterpart, creating a well thought out plan that takes the main idea created AND breaks it down into manageable steps for the team that are then more easily delegated. While the big picture thinkers can help inspire an employer with new ambitious ideas for the company’s future, the counterpart can more easily create daily/weekly objectives that could aid in determining the timeline for the final goal. 

 

Those striving for more:

How to start balancing two styles of thinking:

Picture the puzzle scenario I gave above. Are you someone who reaches for the box with the picture of the puzzle, or for the pieces? Neither is superior, but it is important to notice your tendencies so you can start balancing out the way you work towards your career goals. Especially if you are feel like your progress is plateauing. 

 

If you are someone who would reach for the pieces first, you can get to sorting the colors initially, sure, but once you start attempting to put it all together, you will have a much harder time completing the puzzle without knowing what the end result should be. It may feel like working backwards, but what if you step out of the present, and imagine where you see yourself in two years? How about five years? Experiment with temporarily disregarding the fact that you may not be able to confidently visualize the details of the long pathway there. As if you are a kid again, with no doubts, stresses, or complexes— just pure imagination and dreams. 

This little experiment would force you to step out of your comfort zone. (Though uncomfortable, expanding your comfort zone is always a brilliant opportunity for growth!) 

Temporarily moving passed technicalities and letting the creative, uninhibited, maybe even seemingly “unrealistic” part of your mind run free for a bit is a great exercise for detail oriented thinkers. After establishing a crystal clear vision of what you want for your career in the long-term, you can use your strength and strategically plan; moving backwards from yearly objectives, to monthly, weekly, etc. Setting checkpoints for yourself to stay on track with the bigger picture in mind to motivate you through the process as you work (with laser sharp focus!) towards your vision. 

 

The other side of the coin:

Having a mind that dreams big, looks at the future with ease, is a big strength that can take you far— but that’s only if you follow through. The ideas big picture thinkers imagine can be so great, ambitious, requiring so much growth and change, that it’s overwhelming to try and approach. These dreams end up being put off, tasks relating to it get procrastinated, you let go of the concept (and possibly jump to another one), before seeing it through. Not because it’s not possible to reach, not because it’s not the right fit for you, but because you have not found a way to break the big picture up into the smaller puzzle pieces. Not only that, but you probably have not found a way to ENJOY the smaller scale work.

After establishing the aim, not matter how high, it’s important for big-picture thinkers to slow down a bit. A juxtaposition to the advice I’d give detail oriented thinkers; you need to zoom in. You need to ask yourself, “what is actually realistic to get done in one day to shift a step closer to the big goal?” and make peace with whatever that answer is. Asking yourself this question prompts you to start organizing said steps based on priority, which ultimately makes the plan feel a lot less daunting. Something as simple as creating a realistic to-do list for the day, maybe even the coming hours, can help organize your thoughts and make the process of prioritization much easier.

I mentioned making peace with the pace of the progress because so many times, the impatience of seeing the result from hard work gets in the way of us actually following through. You have your own ideal timeline in your head, but that in itself can be overly ambitious, and once we don’t see things unfolding in line with the imagined schedule, we start questioning our own abilities or even the goal itself. Have faith that consistent effort can go a long way, even if you don’t get rewarded for them when you would expect.

 

Find the Fun:

Sometimes, the final objective is enough to motivate someone through the less enjoyable (but necessary) tasks, however oftentimes the lack of enjoyment makes it harder to stay committed and do the work consistently. But what if you view the whole process like it’s your favorite game? With games, there’s a playful state of mind that activates and suddenly each challenge seems fun rather than discouraging. During a game, you are engaged, your responsibilities are clear, and you come up with a plan (that must be subject to change depending on how events unfold). You experience each moment fully present, and fully accept that even with all your efforts, you do not know if you will win, yet you keep playing. The hope that you will win is one of your motivators, but you are so present during the excitement of the game that you don’t seem to be weighed down by the work it would take to reach the end result. This approach can surely be applied to what we label as “work”. Staying present and patient with the work can also help add a sense of fulfillment to the daily tasks. It encourages you to fall in a state of curiosity and openness, which in turn teaches you how to approach each small task with a growth mindset, rather than boredom, anxiety, or dread. Once you have built the habit of breaking down your long-term goals into gratifying bite-sized pieces, your existing skill set of big-picture thinking can come into play to provide a clear motivation behind how you utilize each day to progress in the direction you are aiming for.

 

Synopsis

It is amazing how many tools we can add to our hypothetical toolbox with consistency and a growth mindset. However, as we work on bettering ourselves, it is just as important to acknowledge our strengths as it is the areas we can improve on. Both detail oriented thinkers and big picture thinkers are so essential to any workforce, and if used methodically, can make even the most complicated aspirations come to life. What’s noteworthy is, the advice aimed at creating a balanced skill set is just as relevant to personal goals as it is to professional ones. The methods I’ve mentioned for both counterparts are just a few ways to help those that may feel stuck, but it is a great place to start. 

The views expressed in this blog are strictly my own.

 

Written by:

Marusya Madubuko