Zooming out means stepping back from immersion in data and analysis of ideas of particulars to big picture thinking (whether strategies, holistic explanations or cultural-historical tales); letting go of details and seeking the simplifying core.
Tips for good practice
- Seek lightness: Facilitate emergence from immersion in data and rigorous analysis by playing with simplifying forms, like metaphors and sketching (Calvino 1985).
- Facilitate movement away from details by shifting people’s attention – take them off the computer and out of the office to a river or a place with a view.
- Facilitate high-level comparisons with other concepts/models; what class of models is your idea an example of or different from? Are there any analogues from other areas that could apply here?
- Introduce zooming out moments in meetings where you pause, step back, summarize and ask for the big picture
- Feed forward by asking about potential consequences of the idea: what is the largest context in which this will have an effect? What does a future perfect situation look like if this idea succeeds?
- Cultivate “T-shaped” competence profiles where people attain broad understanding of many specialized fields. Hire specialists with attitudes of openness and curiosity towards others’ disciplines and specialties.
- Train newcomers to work with big picture issues (e.g. regional work in exploration, strategy issues elsewhere) simultaneously or before they work on specific prospects.
Readings for inspiration
Calvino, I. (1985) Six lessons for the next millennium, Ch. 1: Lightness.
Carlsen, A., Mortensen, T. and Gjersvik, R. (2010) “Against all odds? On the generative dialectics of imagination in exploration”. Paper prepared for Administrative Science Quarterly.
Palmer, R. E. (1969) Hermeneutics. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.