The importance of understanding the entire operation
Harvard Business Review studied 30,000 FIRMS in 50 YEARS and discovered that public companies are delisting at a 6x higher rate than 40 years ago! The study pushed for “ questions or simple rules aimed at fostering autonomy and cooperation and leveraging employees initiative” - Lot’s of words, but basically its saying for leaders and managers to create a culture where employees are pushed to collaborate together. This is applicable to public, private, personal, 5-team members, and all sorts of different types of business. Communicating with other departments is the FIRST step to understanding the big picture of what you do. You very well may feel like a cog in the machine, grinding away, inputting data, making calls, reviewing KPI’s, powerbis, coding, and you may not truly understand WHY you do these tasks. That mundane feeling is increased when the task is repetitive day in and day out. The truth is, the inability to understand the whole picture and breaking free from a culture of one-person-army IS hurting your chances of promotions. You may finish tasks on time and with accuracy, but to get promoted you need to communicate with other people and other departments to fill in operational deficiencies. You have to understand the big picture of the impact your job does, and bring forth areas of improvement directly related to your tasks.
The Tunnel Vision Trap
The biggest challenge many employees face is tunnel vision. Picture your work as this (tunnel). When you have tunnel vision you are laser focused on your task. You block out the excess. As you can see, you are blinded to what is to the right and left. in business, think of the right and left peripheral as departments. On the left, you may have the finance department, on the right maybe HR. Right in front of you is your daily task. Depending on your position, your field of vision will differ. Senior managers see things a bit wider, or should be at least. Entry level, narrower. Directors, a lot wider. now, think back to your current task or a task from a previous job you used to do where you FELT and KNEW there were changes needed to the operation that would greatly improve your workflow. Something where you stopped and thought to yourself, why am i doing it in this manner, is there not a simpler way of doing this. Many of us have been in those situations. When we are aware of such discrepancies and continue to work inefficiently, we trap ourselves even further into our tunnel vision. There’s always the opportunity to raise your hand and communicate. NOW, pause, IF you have brought up issues and provided resolutions to them but they are not taken seriously or attempted to be fixed by your leadership, then you may be in a situation where this exercise becomes even more difficult. I would suggest, if you are in this position, to send an email, and communicate with the departments that can assist you so you can resolve it on your own, or with the approval of your management. Let’s move on to examples so we can break this down further.
Shifting from Task-Oriented to Vision-Oriented
Let’s say that you work as a cashier at a goods store. A customer walks in and they start asking about a discount on balloons that they saw in an ad. YOU as a cashier, were told that discounts DO NOT apply to balloons. However, the ad does not specify that it doesn’t apply to ballons. A tunnel vision employee will continously tell customers that the ballons do NOT apply to the discount. What would an employee who understands the big picture do? This employee know’s the error is stemming from an AD. Step 1: raise your hand obviously tell your direct supervisor or manager. step 2: create a visual notice, print a paper or write it down that the discount doesnt cover ballons. place it where customers can see it. step 3: fix the root problem. Do you control the ads? no. do you HAVE do this step? i mean not really unless you are the manager. SHOULD you? yes. Why? Initiative. Use a directory, or check your email distributions, phone lines, any extension to reach the marketing department and LET THEM KNOW. Hey, there’s an error, customers are coming in upset and taking it out on me due to an error i do NOT control. If you can, send an email, CC your boss. This SHOWS you understand the bigger picture and gives your direct leadership a chance to see how well you understand and can resolve scenarios. NOW, someof you are saying, my boss steals my credit when i do this, my boss always makes it seem that its him/her that comes up with the idea. Write it on your resume. Put the impact it had. Apply to similar jobs, use that scenario as an example of how you resolved an issue. Boom. Not sure how? Check my website, i offer resume and interview consultations, we’ll go over it step by step.
Example 2. let’s go a bit higher on the food chain here. Let’s say that you are interviewing for a position. It can be an entry level or supervisor position. YOU are the direct hire. Meaning, that the person you hire will report to you or someone under you. The list of resumes and people sent over to you are just way off the goal post. They are not experienced, they lack the skills, education, and understanding. What do you do? A tunnel vision manager will continue to receive these types of recommendations. They’ll just brush it off and continue to waste precious time that they can spend on other tasks. A manager who see’s the big picture knows there’s a disconnect in the training HR - recruitment has. Why? Because the pre-screening is not being done correctly. There’s a discrepancy that they are not catching. Remember, HR oftentimes does not know exaclty what it is you do in your day to day operation. And nowadays, there’s hundres and thousands of jobs all with the exact same name that have nothing to do with one another. So. A good manager would set up a meeting internally with their recruiter representative and guide them to what exactly theyre looking for. They would TRAIN and educate them so that the referrals they are given match the job qualifications. By doing this, you not only save YOUR time, but also THEIR time because they can properly vet employees instead of doing phone calls with people who were not qualified to begin with.
To break free from tunnel vision and start seeing the big picture, you need to shift your focus from being task-oriented to vision-oriented. This means understanding how your work fits into the broader goals of the organization and how you can contribute to the overall success of the business.
Understand the Company’s Mission and Vision:
Start by familiarizing yourself with your company’s mission and vision statements. These aren’t just words on a wall—they are the guiding principles that drive the business. How does your role contribute to these larger goals? For instance, if your company’s mission is to provide exceptional customer service, every interaction you have with a customer is a direct reflection of that mission. When you start seeing your role in this context, the importance of your work takes on a new dimension.
Connect Your Tasks to Business Outcomes:
Take a step back and think about how your daily tasks impact the business. For example, if you’re in charge of inventory management, it’s not just about counting stock. It’s about ensuring that the right products are available at the right time, which directly affects sales, customer satisfaction, and the company’s bottom line. By understanding the ripple effect of your actions, you can start making decisions that not only fulfill your immediate responsibilities but also support the company’s larger objectives.
Communicate Across Departments:
One of the best ways to understand the big picture is to communicate with colleagues in other departments. Attend cross-departmental meetings, ask questions, and learn about the challenges and goals of other teams. This will give you a broader perspective on how your work affects different areas of the business. For instance, understanding how the sales team relies on timely product releases can help you prioritize your tasks in the product development cycle. This not only enhances collaboration but also positions you as someone who understands and contributes to the company’s overall success.
Seek Out Mentorship:
Finally, always think about the long-term impact of your decisions. This doesn’t mean you should ignore short-term goals, but rather that you should balance them with a vision for the future. If you’re managing a team, think about how your leadership style today will influence the development of your team members and the culture of the department in the years to come. If you’re working on a project, consider how the outcomes will affect the company’s goals six months or a year from now. By adopting a long-term perspective, you’ll start to see how your work fits into the big picture and how you can contribute to the company’s sustained success.
From Task-Doer to Strategic Thinker
Understanding the big picture transforms you from a task-doer to a strategic thinker. When you grasp how your daily responsibilities contribute to the organization’s broader goals, you become more than just an employee—you become an integral part of the company’s success. You begin to break down divisional barriers that exist by actively cooperating with different team members. This shift in mindset not only makes you more valuable to your employer but also accelerates your career growth. You’re no longer just completing tasks; you’re driving the business forward. And this is exactly what a manager looks for in an employee. I’ve managed a lot of people, and the star employees who I have pushed for promotions are always the individuals who understand the overall operation. They do not get stump on an impasse, they actively find solutions without directly coming to me. Someone that can resolve problems at their level, and even a level above them, is a star employee.
By adopting a big-picture mindset, you’ll find yourself better equipped to navigate challenges, make informed decisions, and seize opportunities for advancement. You’ll stand out as someone who not only gets the job done but who also understands why the job matters. And that, more than anything, is what sets top performers apart from the rest. It’s the difference between being a cog in the machine and being the person who knows how the machine works—and how to make it work better.
So, start today. Begin looking beyond your immediate tasks and ask yourself, “How does this contribute to the bigger picture?” With every step, you’re not just advancing in your role; you’re positioning yourself for greater responsibilities, leadership opportunities, and, ultimately, career success.
