It’s high on the wish list of leaders: They want their employees to focus intensely on their specific roles, but also have a good grasp of the overall strategy. That way, they can see the big picture and appreciate how their work contributes to the broader goals, making them more likely to contribute innovative ideas.
Without that mindset, people can fall into a myopic focus on their own to-do lists. That’s how silos start to creep up -- with people thinking of colleagues in other departments as “them” rather than “us” -- and silos are what bring down even the greatest companies.
To encourage big-picture thinking, leaders have to find ways to communicate and constantly reinforce this idea of “think globally, execute locally.” Some have encouraged employees to think as if they owned the company -- not in terms of ego, of course, but just to nudge people to lift up their gaze from their own desk and see the broader perspective.
