The world is becoming increasingly interconnected. As the flow of global knowledge and services accelerates, today's leaders must help their organizations stay competitive through sustainable transformation.
Big picture thinking is vital to creating and navigating change. Leaders must learn to look beyond the surface of issues to make informed, impactful decisions that foster long-term organizational success.
This blog post explains the necessity of big picture thinking as an organizational leader and how earning a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Leadership will help you elevate these skills.
What Is Big Picture Thinking?
Big picture thinking is considering a situation, concept or idea as a whole. It identifies all the connected elements and how they interact with and affect each other.
Imagine you are contemplating a higher-paying job in another state. Instead of focusing solely on the financial benefit, you consider how the job would affect all areas of your life, such as your relationships, stress level, and commute. This is an example of big picture thinking.
When you think big picture before dialing down to more specific strategies and tactics you can make well-informed decisions that align with your goals.
Why Should Organizational Leaders Embrace Big Picture Thinking?
Organizational leaders with big picture thinking skills have the power to drive transformational change because they can understand and solve challenges more effectively.
Big picture thinking helps leaders:
- Understand complex problems. When you view a problem holistically, you look beyond the individual contributing factors to determine the relationships between them. Understanding how the factors interact allows you to develop solutions that directly address the origin of the problem.
- Create relevant solutions. Knowing the root cause of problems enables you to address the core issues rather than the symptoms. You can create relevant solutions that fuel sustainable change.
- Anticipate potential outcomes. Leaders who look at the big picture mitigate risk by anticipating how solutions may affect different variables. When you understand the potential outcomes of your decisions, you can weigh the consequences and refine your approach.
Leaders who embrace big picture thinking can dissect complex organizational problems and develop strategies that deliver long-lasting change.
Starbucks Infuses Big Picture Thinking into Inclusive Spaces Initiative
Starbucks leaders employed big picture thinking to transform accessibility in their stores and the retail industry at large. They teamed up with McKinsey to create a framework for designing accessible stores, aiming to exceed the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and make all people feel welcome.
Starbucks recognized the interconnectedness of the customer and employee experiences, analyzing the store journey for both groups. It also collected input from people with disabilities to identify barriers to accessibility.
Ultimately, the coffee chain created an inclusive spaces framework for reimagining its store layouts to address accessibility more effectively. The framework is also broad enough for the entire retail industry to use, promoting universal accessibility.
In 2024, Starbucks opened its first retail space with the new framework and plans to use it in all newly built and renovated locations.
Embracing big picture thinking helped Starbucks effectively meet the needs of its customers and employees while inspiring meaningful change across retail.
What Skills Do Organizational Leaders Need to Look at the Big Picture?
Big picture thinking takes a blend of leadership skills. Leaders need empathy to understand diverse perspectives and critical thinking to make objective decisions. Communication and adaptability help leaders navigate change, while creativity inspires innovation. Together, these big picture thinking skills foster problem-solving and enduring transformation.
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand and consider a person’s feelings, thoughts and experiences. Leaders who practice empathy proactively listen to other perspectives, finding the root causes of issues to see the big picture.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is a big picture skill because it helps leaders make objective decisions, leading to more accurate and reliable outcomes. Critical thinkers excel at problem-solving. They question, analyze and evaluate information thoroughly, allowing them to look at and act on the big picture.
Communication
Leaders must be effective communicators to exercise big picture thinking. This means accurately and clearly communicating information and ideas—verbally, non-verbally and in writing. Big picture thinkers foster open communication where different perspectives are encouraged. They also communicate openly about decision-making to build buy-in.
Adaptability
Big picture thinking involves adaptation. Leaders who are resilient in the face of change can shift their approach when encountering new information or circumstances. Effective leadership is acting decisively yet showing humility and flexibility amid uncertainty and change.
Creativity
Creativity is a big picture thinking skill that allows leaders to create and recognize fresh ideas. Creative leaders are curious and passionate about continuous learning. They welcome risk-taking and potential failure encourage innovation, fostering environments where people feel empowered to think big.
How Does an EdD Prepare Leaders with Big Picture Thinking Skills?
Today’s leaders have a significant opportunity to elevate their leadership skills. According to DDI’s latest Global Leadership Forecast, only 40% of leaders think their organization has high-quality leadership. Earning an EdD is a formal pathway for current and aspiring leaders to grow more effective leadership.
The EdD is a doctoral degree focused on applied leadership. EdD programs enable candidates to address real-world challenges by developing advanced leadership skills, including big picture thinking, creating original research and collaborating in an interdisciplinary community.
Advanced Leadership Skills
EdD programs help leaders develop big picture thinking by growing their leadership skills. They emphasize the practical application of leadership theory and research, equipping candidates with advanced leadership knowledge and expertise in areas such as:
- Global and Cultural Perspectives: Exploring the inextricable connection between local, regional, national and international issues and events to evolve leadership practices.
- Organizational Innovation and Change: Studying systems theory and effective, ethical, creative and transformative ways of implementing organizational and community change.
- Research-Informed Decision-Making: Applying research-based best practices and methodologies to support impactful, data-driven decisions.
As graduates, EdD candidates have robust skills for providing effective leadership through big picture thinking.
Original Research
Some EdD programs integrate a research component so that candidates can practice big picture thinking in the context of real-world organizational issues.
Candidates identify a research question, conduct and analyze research, and then write a scholarly article describing their findings, implications, and recommendations for future research.
The research component requires critical thinking and effective communication, growing candidates' ability to see the big picture.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration
EdD programs attract professionals with varied career backgrounds, including education, business and nonprofits. Accomplished faculty bring excellent leadership experience.
The opportunity to collaborate with diverse peers and faculty helps candidates see issues from many angles, fueling big picture thinking. EdD programs engage candidates in open dialogue to spark healthy debate, inspire creativity and flex their communication skills.
EdD candidates learn to develop a more holistic understanding of complex issues by engaging in an interdisciplinary community.
Building Leadership Skills for Big Picture Thinking with an EdD from Spalding University
Earning an EdD builds essential skills for big picture thinking, preparing current and aspiring leaders to provide effective leadership in a global economy.
Spalding University offers an online EdD in Leadership that will amplify your influence to create sustainable change. The program is collaborative, interdisciplinary and globally conscious, equipping you with a fresh perspective on how to be a transformative leader across all industries and roles.
Intensive courses are delivered one at a time, allowing you to earn your terminal degree in just two years while continuing to work full-time. The capstone project is academically rigorous and directly beneficial to your professional goals, allowing you to produce a potentially publishable piece of research and implement it in your workplace.
As a Spalding EdD in Leadership graduate, you will be prepared to lead more strategically and ethically with big picture thinking. You will stand out as an exemplary practitioner of ethical organizational leadership, an extraordinary team builder, a systems thinker and a driver of change and innovation.
Expand your influence in any industry. Getting your EdD in leadership from Spalding can help you inspire change in your workplace and community. Connect with an enrollment advisor to get started.
