When facing a major or complex decision, how well equipped you are to make a good decision depends heavily on where you position yourself within the decision scenario. Let me illustrate.
Consider you are about to board a flight to New York. Your primary view of the world is this…
The view of the pilots preparing for your flight is this…
The flight controllers view is this…
And the global view from above…
I think you get that my point is, that for a single event, your view of the world depends upon your context within in, and the current values you hold at highest priority. Each person relevant to this single flight event has a decision to make – based on their desired outcomes.
The passenger is primarily concerned that their flight is leaving on time, and them perhaps that you are not seated near an obnoxious passenger unconcerned about their impact on others.
The captains focus is on whether his/her aircraft is airworthy and that the computers have been configured correctly for flight.
The air traffic controllers big picture spans across all aircraft in the local control zone.
And internationally, well the big picture is now so big that all we get is noise, we lose sight of critical operational data.
When you are making a decision it is critical that you set the size and focus of your big picture appropriately. If it is too small, your personal values will override any concerns as to whether the aircraft is airworthy, the skies are well controlled and internationally how many aircraft are in the air right now. If it is too big, the noise of so many aircraft obfuscates the safety of the aircraft or the airspace around you.
It is easier for most leaders to discount pictures that are too big, but for most, they fail to recognise when their big picture is too small – when personal values are preventing them from seeing the necessary bigger picture.
Using Data in Decision Making
When we start using data to support decision making, a similar problem arises.
Source: TechCrunch
Data does not necessarily mean information, and information does not necessarily provide insight. Both depend on the appropriateness of the size of the picture and how appropriate the picture presented is to the context of the decision.
So when making strategic decisions – consider the size of your big picture, and the hidden dangers your personal values may present in keeping your big picture too small.
