This week at Wundamail HQ, we’ve been talking about “big picture” thinking. How do modern leaders draw up an ambitious vision for their teams, without losing sight of the details? We’ve rounded up this week’s best articles on the subject, in order to grant you a balanced perspective on what it means to “think big” in business.
Click To Read: Why Successful Businesses Prioritise Vision Over Numbers In Forbes
This article propounds the idea that successful leaders have the ability to look beyond the quantitative data, and think about the wider implications of workplace culture and social responsibility. For progress to occur, reports indicate that there must first and foremost be an ambitious vision for future growth, and feedback mechanisms that put this plan into in place across all levels of an organisation. According to Forbes, mastery comes with “sticking to the vision” and continuously taking actions that align with it rather than the numbers. Only them, will you be able to make that vision a reality.
Click to Read: How Leaders Can Focus On The Big Picture in Harvard Business Review
This landmark report gives practical advice for those seeking “the bigger picture” within their organisation. It points out that while we may understand the downsides of micromanaging, we still haven’t sufficiently embraced the upsides of not micromanaging.
HBR suggests that leaders have more time to spend on what we call macromanagement. Although there are different definitions of this term floating around, in this context it means managing the big issues rather than the small ones. Time and effort spent on macromanagement enables leaders to be as clear, decisive, and disciplined at the macro level. HBR suggests asking yourself these key strategic questions:
- Why does the organization exist?
- What does it offers its customers? How does this offer deliver value?
- What does this produce for the business, and for shareholders?
- How should people within the organization will behave toward customers, other stakeholders, and each other?
Click To Read: Why Two Thirds Of Organisations Lack Vision For Digital Change In London Loves Business
According to a study by London Business News, over 63% of organisations lack a clear and actionable vision to drive digital change. This research provides an interesting angle on modern attitudes towards the changing digital landscape.
The survey shed light on a key issue that prevents digital transformation: the fact organisations don’t understand that change starts by understanding human behaviour, not just technology alone. The report draws attention to a fundamental lack of coherent, internal communication within businesses, whereby 60% of respondents advised that processes were rarely documented or discussed. This, in turn, prevents scalable change and its resulting growth.
Click To Read: The Importance of Big Picture Thinking In Smartbrief
This article offers a real breath of fresh air. It explores the way that we all begin our careers working through the ranks, and executing tasks. As a result, early success comes from correctly completing work while focusing on quality, time and budget. Eventually, however, if we only focus on the day-to-day details of the job, as we have been trained to do, it is difficult to consider the wider impact and overall strategy of our business or organisation.
There’s no need to completely abandon the skills that were the foundation of your career – the small things will still prove useful to help you manage a cohesive, productive team. Just don’t forget to check in with your original vision, and allow yourself to imagine the larger possibilities. As your responsibilities grow and evolve, it will pay dividends to let others take care of the finer details, while you steer team thinking toward the big-picture goals of your organisation.
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