Monday, April 7, 2014

The BIG Picture

"I am afraid you are not seeing the big picture here. Your suggestion is all right from your standpoint but does not fit into the big picture."

There was a time in childhood when you graduated from seeing pictures and moved on to reading. THAT change, I thought, was permanent but was soon disabused of the notion once I joined office. Apparently, reading is an exercise that is enforced by the teaching profession and, the moment you got free of their hegemony, you reverted back to pictures. What else can explain the fact that you cannot explain that your profits have doubled, in words, but, the moment you put up a bar chart with one bar twice the size of the other, the bulbs in the heads of your top brass light up with realization as they exclaim, "Ah! The profits have doubled" with all the enthusiasm of a Buddha who has realized the path to Nirvana?

Be that as it may, I do not think that this was precisely what my boss meant when he said the first sentence to me - simply because what I HAD suggested was not a means to color the bar chart nor would it have lent itself to pictorial depiction. Of course, it is the bane of the boss that not everything can be readily put in as pictures in a slide presentation, though Power-point is probably working to solve that issue.

If my boss did not mean that the suggestion was worthless merely because it could not be put in a picture - BIG or otherwise - what exactly did he mean? Maybe what he meant was that in a Creation probably full of millions of universes; in a Universe full of millions of galaxies; in a galaxy full of millions of stars; in a planet full of millions of beings, a suggestion that would add a few lakhs to the bottom-line of a company was not really fitting? Unlikely, because this is the man who, just yesterday, harangued me for half an hour because my computations had a error of .01 in a figure, that we would have rounded off to the nearest rupee anyway, AND it would round off to the same amount with or without the error. That does not argue for a person seeing the insignificance of human endeavor in the big picture.

Maybe, he was taking the point of view that the ultimate purpose of being born human was to purify one's soul and all these attempts at corporate achievement were mere vanity? That one, too, did not seem to fit, considering that his secretary was still in tears after the shellacking she got over the fact that she had failed to print his designation in bold in a letter. 

Waiting for him to explain the big picture was a waste of time. I have invariably found that the boss who throws the big picture at you to trash your suggestion seldom bothers to elucidate exactly what it was and why your suggestion does not fit. The ones, who give reasons for why your suggestion does not fit, seldom invoke any picture - big or otherwise. Seemed to me that the usage of 'Big Picture' normally meant, "I am BIG (bigger than you at least). Better get THAT picture clear in your mind and behave accordingly". I worked with this as a first step approximation to the meaning of that phrase and it never let me down.

I came back home and my nephew had his complaints.

"Just because I have exams does not mean that I should not see TV at all."

"You need to see the big picture here"

"Uncle! I would love to. The problem is that my dad will just not turn in this piddly little 22" TV for something 40+ or 50+"

Now THAT was the sort of big picture that made sense to me!

28 comments:

  1. Ha Ha. Cool one. I know what this is all about - well brought out throug the boss example.

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    1. Btw, Asha - Moonstone suggested the topic in "Out of the box". Took it on :)

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  2. hahhhahha this was the best form of 'BIGGER PICTURE'

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  3. hehehehe.. ohh but does this post on the bigger picture fit into the "larger scheme of things"??? :P :P

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    1. If the BIG picture does not fit into the 'larger scheme of things' nothing will :)

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  4. Great post! While reading through the leadership article somehow I knew you would end on a humorous note... Awesome stuff!

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    1. Thanks Danny! Leadership article? :) I was only poking fun at the jargon :)

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  5. I would whole-heartedly agree with your inference of what your boss meant by 'Big Picture'. Sadly, in a world where size matters, I don't fit the bill at all - not physically nor professionally. So I was made to understand that the 'larger pattern' is in Divinity's hands while on earth all good things come in small packets. :D
    Funny one! Like the TV reference in the end.

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    1. Ah! So now you know why i am expanding sideways, since I can no longer grow up :) Size matters :P

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  6. I don't know what was more hilarious, the post itself or Seeta's comment regarding the 'larger scheme of things'. That being said, I can say only one thing "Size does matter" :)

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    1. Ah! So, I labor over a long post and Seeta steals the thunder with two lines? :) Story of my life :)

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  7. Hehe..the reference to TV at the end is great...:-D

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  8. Bosses are put upon this earth to try our souls and by so doing make us stronger....Either that or they are idiots.

    Somewhere between "You don't see the big picture" and 'You are not detail oriented enough" lies a good boss, but then the gap between those two is a very fine line...

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    1. A line that only the boss fathoms :)

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    2. :) Yes indeedy!

      Most of the time it's just a line spouted to deny you your bonus and keep you in your place.... down there where the crumbs are (and the work is)

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    3. Well - where the real work is, there are only crumbs :) One of the inevitable realities of Human Society :)

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  9. Ha ha ! So you finally demystified the big picture :) You try hard and fly up and finally start seeing the earth and getting the big picture, when you are brought down to earth with a resounding thump - 'Dont pass motherhood statements at 50000 feet.' I think hovering at 5000 ft. should do it. eh ?

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    1. I find my bed a cozy enough place to see the big picture from :)

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  10. I am myopic and failing to see the big picture comes naturally to me. Sometimes though, it's best not to see the big picture, as in the case of horses who are said to be better off with blinkers! It may be a happy coincidence that I placed an order for a bigger LED TV today!

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    1. So, at least at home, everyone will be seeing the BIG picture :)

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  11. Loved reading this. And you are spot on. They never explain why their's is the big picture or what's supposed to be in it. :)

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    1. All you need to know is that they are privy to information that you are not, Achyut :) If you knew any more, you may get the 'mistaken' impression that you know as much, if not more, than them :)

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  12. Yes, the big picture makes sense, Sureshji :) Li'l kids also know!

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    1. The only sensible big picture is the one that makes sense to li'l kids :)

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  13. HAHAHAHAHHAHA.
    This was amazing. The ending just got me laughing. Brilliant humour Mr. Suresh! :)

    x
    Sonshu
    www.thesonshu.com

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