I like to think of myself as more of a “big picture” person than a “detail” person, but sometimes I worry this is just a copout for being crappy at handling details.
I’m curious to know what others think about this issue. I found, when working at a large lawfirm, that I enjoyed talking about and thinking about the strategy of a case, negotiating with the other side, interviewing witnesses, etc. I also found that much of the work I was asked to do consisted of what I would consider routine detail work: go through this document and make sure there are no mispellings, draft a memo analyzing 70 cases talking about the same issue, etc. I found this work deadly dull, and also found that others in my firm were far better at than I was.
When I took the Myers-Briggs test and found I was an ENTP, I found the description extremely accurate. I don’t want to get into yet another discussion on the Myers-Briggs test, but I found it did give me a new perspective on the issue, in that it caused me to focus more on my strengths than my weaknesses.
Anyway, I guess my question is, do other people find that there are people who are bad at handling details but good at looking at the “big picture.” What does it mean to you to say that someone is good at looking at the “big picture”?
I work in a job where there have to be “big picture” people and details people. By sheer instinct, I suppose personality, I can only do details. If I try to do the big picture, I screw it up every time, missing something others see. I always end up concentrating on details in one specific area, as if I had microscope glasses on.
There are two consequences:
I’m really good at details.
I need, and humbly confess to them that I need, big picture people around me, to remind me to look at other areas on which I am not now concentrating.
They are generally generous, and grateful when I take over the details.
Sounds like your job entails a whole lot of details, which anyone would find unpleasant, and therefore no one wants to volunteer to do them for you, even though you find them unpleasanter than most do. I suggest you crawl, tooth, and snarf your way up the ladder, until you can hire an assistant to do the details for you, and make it someone like me.
The right office will recognize that you are invaluable.
I can do both but I’m only mediocre at the details unless I can get into obsessive-compulsive mode for awhile. I’m a database solutions developer (FileMaker) and my strength is that people can describe to me in broad general terms what they need to do and I can visualize table structures and scripting mechanisms in “broad brush-strokes” and bang something out very quickly, then refine and exception-handle it later. The “big picture” thing also came in handy back when I was in school writing theory papers, where I could describe a complex process taking place over time and involving political and social relationships and hold all that as a noun and visualize how it would be affected by changes in various other parameters, and could write about it that way. Being able to kick anything into the next larger context can be a wonderful thing.
Having said all that, yeah, sometimes “I’m more of a big picture person” means “I don’t like to do the work”. Note who says it and give them time and see how many big pictures they’ve painted.
I don’t think its a cop-out, necessarily. Some folks just think differently. I can sympathize with you. I can visualize grand projects (in many different disiplines) but have a hard time getting them down on paper or making other people see the dream. Its actually quite frustrating for me and has actually caused me to re-examine my life and question whether or not I have wasted the vast majority of it.
It is only a cop-out if you represent yourself otherwise.
I knew someone who worked in an accounting. This person constantly made big mistakes and tried to hide behind the ‘big picture’ personality. If you are big picture person reconciling accounting journals should not be your career of choice. Similarly I know of a detail oriented person who trys (and tries, and tries) to understand systems architecture and process flows. Look, it doesn’t matter if the backup tapes are round or square, what matters is that they are stored right next to the server!
The thing is, the right person in the right job is a truly wonderous thing. We have an insanely detail oriented tech writer and a project manager who can’t spell COBOL but man, I mean it is almost magic when they do their thing.
I love “big-picture” people, because they tell me what they want and I focus on the details of how to get it done. If a client says “I want this.” I usually am not the person that would go, “Why do you want that? It doesn’t fit into the overall scheme of things.” I just go on my merry way of figuring out how to do it.
I’ve tried, and tried, and tried, to do, for example, workflow assessments and design, but I don’t seem to be able to ask the right questions of think critically enough. And yes, I can get the job done, but it’s neither enjoyable nor as good as a big-picture person could do. I do say “I’m a detail-oriented person.” and I’ve wondered myself if it’s a copout. But you know, I wouldn’t say I play the violin–yeah, I can hold it and make some noise. But I’m really more of a flute person–at this I shine. Why should I try to be a violin player when I’m really a flute player?
My company had me doing these things and I finally recruited my boss (a big picture person) to help me with this part of things. Things have been much more enjoyable since.
So, no, it’s not a copout. If you’re good at the big picture, you provide a great balance to those who aren’t. Viva la team! (oh, such a dork am I)
I think that you can also break it into people who are strategic and tactical in their thinking. The guy that I have worked with over the last 11 years is a very strategic thinker. If you need to get a group of 300 guys with all different levels of training up to a common standard in 2 years, he is your man. He will tell which class to offer and in what sequence they are to be offered. He will then design a system to get all the correct guys enrolled into the correct class. I am not nearly so good at this as he is.
If on the other hand at the last minute resources get cut and instead of getting one each of an item for each training center we need to share one between 4 training center, I am better than he is at figuring out how to move the item and change the schedule to make it happen. This is what I call tactical thinking.
If our boss what’s to know where we will be in 4 years and how to get there, I let him answer. If our boss wants to know how we are going to handle a problem over the next 4 weeks, he lets me answer.