Look at the Big Picture

A manager frequently needs to guide & advise his team on ways to accomplish a task or achieve a result. This is more vital if the team members are new to the task at hand or the complexity is more than previously encountered.

If the success of the task is more critical, then regular monitoring of progress vis a vis mile stones is also important. Otherwise, it may be too late to change the outcome or a lot of rework and time may be required to rectify the lapses.

By manager, I am not referring to any designation. It means any one in a role, position or function responsible for getting a task accomplished through a team. Some members of the team may be under his direct control and some may be associated for supporting his task sitting in some other block of the organization or sometimes even in other organizations.

Is being in a managerial position enough for a person to discharge that responsibility? Many times yes and sometimes not.

What does it require for a manager to be really able to do what is expected from him? How can he surely accomplish the tasks entrusted to him? How can he appropriately guide the people depending upon him?

In my opinion, the first thing a manager should clearly understand is the result expected from him. A manager is responsible for results and not for processes or activities. A path is right or wrong depending upon the destination. It is the result that determines the applicable strategy and requisite resources.

It also helps to know why that result is required, how does it fit in to the overall organizational goals and how the non achievement of that particular result adversely affects other units in the organization. In other words, what is the effect of achieving or not achieving the result or completing the task.

Next comes the ability to understand all the factors affecting or affected by the achievement of the result. These can be the inputs or resources needed. These can be the enablers and obstructions. These can be the processes involved. These can be the stake holders and contributors. This can be the interrelationship and interdependence of various factors. These can be the various steps involved in a process, the inputs & outputs of each step, intermediate results and effect of various variables on these results.

The above 3 paragraphs answer the quintessential questions of Why, What and How?

I consider the answers to the above 3 questions as the ‘big picture’.

 It is a manager’s ability to see this big picture that greatly influences his effectiveness. Coincidentally, this ability to see picture is not so common among managers. Let us see at some reasons behind this shortcoming.

In most of the organizations, seniority and / or excellence in current role becomes the basis for elevation to the higher role with enhanced responsibilities and authority. We must appreciate that each role, function or position requires a different set of competence.

Let us divide a typical organization in to 4 layers viz., Execution, Supervision, Management and Leadership. All the layers require 4 types of competence in differing composition viz., Technical (including cross functional), Analytical, Organizing and Human (including Communication).

At execution level, technical competence is most critical for a person to succeed. More often than not, he is given clearly defined task by his superiors and he is just expected to do the activity utilizing his technical competence. His knowledge about the processes and procedures and ability to apply them defines their proficiency. Ability to understand instructions and give feedback is enough on communication front. On human front, obedience, discipline and willingness to work in teams are the only expectations.

A supervisor is expected to have similar technical competence but be better in organizing and communicating. He also needs to understand how to utilize his human resources more effectively and efficiently.

However, a manager has to better at analytical, organizing and human competences. In fact, it is the analytical ability which the most critical. This is necessary to understand the Why, What and How of any situation. This capability helps him to understand the influencing factors, stake holders, processes involved and how to break them in to sub-processes and activities.

This ability also helps him to understand the remaining 3 quintessential questions of when, where and who. When helps him understand the sequencing which is important for planning and scheduling. An activity can be executed at various locations. The choice of location affects the resources required and available resources can influence the choice of location.

On human front, a manager’s key role is to decide the person whom a specific task can be assigned based on his competence. Thus he should not only know the competence needed to accomplish a task, he should also be able to evaluate the competence of the people at his disposal. Sometimes complete set of competence will be available within him and sometimes it has to arranged from outside. More often than not, there will be either a continuous or an express need to enhance the competence of the team members.

In my opinion, competence management and motivating the people are the two important aspects of human competence of a manager.

For motivating others, understanding human needs, sensitivity to their concerns, genuine interest in their well being, ability to bond and effective communication are required. Clarity and timing are vital factors in effective communication. Actually, communication by itself is such vast and interesting topic that it deserves a complete session.

Organizations must install a formal process to train people from execution and supervision levels to develop their managerial capabilities. It is also important for individuals to systematically put efforts to acquire the abilities necessary to discharge higher responsibilities.

But how to improve this ability to see the big picture? I do not think there are any academic courses that can teach this. This is more of a skill and can be learned & improved only by doing it again and again.

Creative visualization is a very good tool to enhance this ability. This helps one to run through the whole process from start to finish in his mind. One can imagine and change the course, sequence, factors and stake holders as per the outcome. This can be easily done alone and at any place or time.

Writing essays exceeding 1500 words on various topics in a structured manner is a very good way of practicing creative visualization. It will also often require acquisition of additional knowledge.

This essay should then be converted in to at least 60 minutes’ lecture or presentation. Use of power point is not necessary. Any media can be used to convey the message. Care should be taken not to put the entire text on display.

Organizing small functions and events is also a good way of improving the analyzing and organizing capabilities. In fact, my observation is that people who were and / or are quite active in extracurricular activities like elocution, debates, quizzes and organizing events eventually make better managers.

Another good tool is ‘mind mapping’ wherein all the aspects related to a situation or goal are mentioned on a big sheet of paper, at least A2 size, and various interconnections are clearly marked. This map can be extended to as many layers one wants to enumerate processes, sub processes and activities. This is a formal & pictorial representation of a brainstorming exercise. This exercise needs to be done by a team so as to get as many inputs & diverse views as possible. Everyone can contribute utilizing his skills and experience.

Whatever method is used, it is vital that a manager learns to see the big picture. Then only he will be able to strategize, prioritize, plan, guide, monitor and control. Because these actions will decide his personal and his team’s performance.