Big picture orientation
(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)
As we discuss the importance of developing project management skills to get things done in addition to functional expertise as we move up the career ladder, 80 % of the tasks are non-repetitive or project nature, and we may need to deal with many stakeholders who may not be directly reporting to us.
We discussed the relevance of defining outcomes in the beginning, to get things done and reduce the complexity into simplicity and holistic planning.
The next principle we can learn from project management is “Big picture orientation” in any task.
What is meant by big-picture orientation?
Big-picture orientation is the ability to look at any task more broadly. When we look at things from a long-term perspective, looking at the purpose more profoundly, we tend to look at any ideas or crisis during execution with reference to the project's goal and complete the project successfully.
Most project managers or even experienced project team members are equipped with big-picture orientation; this ability helps them navigate any crisis with higher motivation and always look to meeting the project deliverables. That way, only the project manager stands out from the functional manager.
How can functional managers develop the big-picture orientations?
When a functional manager or team is getting into any functional activities, always look at how it affects the end customer or business at large rather than only from functional perspective.
For example,
as a planning functional head, you aim to reduce the inventory level of materials; that is typically your functional deliverables. Your decisions and focus most of the time are on reducing inventory. However, your actions to minimize inventory may affect the delivery or delay or affect the customer. In such circumstances, when you look at the customer’s demand during peak and lean periods, supplier capability, internal dynamics of reacting to sudden changes in demand, organization culture of responding to customers, and communication process, you tend to OPTIMIZE the inventory considering the service level rather than just mere reduction of stock. The approach towards optimizing rather than just reduction comes from a big-picture orientation.
In most organizations, functional silos or conflicts between functions arise because people with good intentions try to optimize at the functional level rather than looking at it from a business perspective.
Developing business perspective or big-picture orientation can be developed with awareness and practice. We discussed this in detail sometime back, and the link is below.
https://www.linkedin.com/
Have a great week ahead.
We discussed the relevance of defining outcomes in the beginning, to get things done and reduce the complexity into simplicity and holistic planning.
The next principle we can learn from project management is “Big picture orientation” in any task.
What is meant by big-picture orientation?
Big-picture orientation is the ability to look at any task more broadly. When we look at things from a long-term perspective, looking at the purpose more profoundly, we tend to look at any ideas or crisis during execution with reference to the project's goal and complete the project successfully.
Most project managers or even experienced project team members are equipped with big-picture orientation; this ability helps them navigate any crisis with higher motivation and always look to meeting the project deliverables. That way, only the project manager stands out from the functional manager.
How can functional managers develop the big-picture orientations?
When a functional manager or team is getting into any functional activities, always look at how it affects the end customer or business at large rather than only from functional perspective.
For example,
as a planning functional head, you aim to reduce the inventory level of materials; that is typically your functional deliverables. Your decisions and focus most of the time are on reducing inventory. However, your actions to minimize inventory may affect the delivery or delay or affect the customer. In such circumstances, when you look at the customer’s demand during peak and lean periods, supplier capability, internal dynamics of reacting to sudden changes in demand, organization culture of responding to customers, and communication process, you tend to OPTIMIZE the inventory considering the service level rather than just mere reduction of stock. The approach towards optimizing rather than just reduction comes from a big-picture orientation.
In most organizations, functional silos or conflicts between functions arise because people with good intentions try to optimize at the functional level rather than looking at it from a business perspective.
Developing business perspective or big-picture orientation can be developed with awareness and practice. We discussed this in detail sometime back, and the link is below.
https://www.linkedin.com/
Have a great week ahead.
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