Clients want it from the professionals they hire. Bosses want it from their subordinates. CEOs absolutely must have it. But what really is "big picture thinking"?

I know a management consultant who spent several years helping a company reengineer the production process in one of its factories. Shortly after finishing the work, the client decided to close the factory completely. It turns out that this client's industry had suffered for years from dramatic overcapacity, and it was only a matter of time before it had to shutter some of its own production facilities. My friend did his job diligently, but never looked at the broader context his client was operating within. As it happened, it was yet another consultant who analyzed which plants should be closed!

Does this story, perhaps in a different version, sound familiar? Listen to what clients say about the most trusted and valued professionals they work with. These comments are taken from interviews I have conducted with a variety of corporate and individual clients:

• "He gives me a global view."
• "She provides additional perspective and helps me to conceptualize the real problem."
• "He brings big picture thinking to the discussion."
• "They help me consistently focus on the important, strategic issues . . . the level of the conversation is elevated."
• "He handles the details, the tactics, but is also able to see the overall strategy."

What they're talking about is one of the most important qualities of client advisors: the ability to synthesize, to see the big picture. 

"Synthesis" comes from a Greek word meaning to put together into a whole. The essence of synthesis is being able to identify overarching patterns and themes, to see, in essence, the big picture. Good synthesis identifies patterns, simplifies and frames the most critical issues, and develops new conclusions from old data. Sometimes it entails building up an idea, concept, or framework out of the details, often in an illogical, nonstandard, or roundabout way. The ability to synthesize-which is really at the root of strategic thinking-is one of the reasons an advisor is more valuable than an expert.

Analysis is concerned with breaking things down into elements and examining each piece according to a set of prescribed, logical steps. All too often, analysis slavishly employs the same old frameworks; when this happens, it becomes a commodity, which clients buy by the pound. How many financial advisors, for example, can create pie chart showing how your assets should be allocated? Every one I've ever met, certainly. How many can, through careful questioning, get you to think hard about the balance between your savings and lifestyle, and perhaps get you to consider changes in the way you live? Not many.

So how do you improve your big picture thinking, your powers of synthesis? You need to bring three ingredients together:

• Foundations
• Tools and techniques
• Habits of mind

Laying the Foundations for Synthesis

The first stone in the foundation of a good synthesis has to be a sense of purpose. Just as Machiavelli had in mind an overarching goal in writing The Prince-a stable, unified Italy-so should modern professionals as they set out to formulate conclusions and recommendations to their clients. What are your client's overarching goals? What does he or she really want to accomplish? Why have you been asked to help?

The second stone is an understanding of the whole picture. Have you been hired to implement cultural change in a company that is losing money hand-over-fist? I recently met someone who was doing exactly this, and he was not even aware of the company's financial condition. Naturally, his program met some stiff resistance. You need to understand the entire ecosystem, as it were, around the problem you've been asked to address.

Finally, your foundation has to include a clear sense of the critical issues. The inability to identify critical issues is a principal reason for failure and dismissal in management jobs. If cost-cutting is the most pressing short-term issue and an executive focuses on marketing, her tenure will be short-lived. The pages of the Wall Street Journal and Fortune are routinely filled with tales of otherwise highly talented CEOs who put their energies into misplaced and ill-timed priorities, and consequently are ousted by impatient and unhappy boards.

How do you sort out these critical issues? First, by constantly screening them against the ultimate purpose at hand. You have to ask, "Which issues will really affect the outcome I seek? Which ones will influence my client's overarching purpose?" Second, you need to distinguish between symptoms and causes. A CEO might bring in a psychologist to counsel senior executives who are in conflict, for example, but the root cause might be a compensation system that is driving them apart rather than personality differences.

Before you can engage in synthesis, you need to be clear about these three things: Your client's purpose; the whole picture; and the critical issues. Without an understanding of these, you'll risk doing great analysis that leads nowhere. 

Tools and Techniques for Synthesis

Once the foundations are in place, there are four specific techniques that you can use to undertake synthesis and develop the big picture for your clients.

1. Develop Simplifying Frames

Framing is the essence of synthesis. It organizes and explains complex phenomena by reducing them to a few, simple dimensions. A good frame (or framework) highlights the most relevant aspects of the issue or problem, shows how they interrelate, and then connects back to your overarching purpose or goal. Frames can be quite simple-indeed, some of the most ingenious ones are very elementary in their construction. Many famous business theories have been expressed as simple frameworks. Michael Porter's "industry forces" model, for example, identified five key factors which determine the degree of competition in an industry. Bruce Henderson's "Growth/Share" matrix (popularized by Boston Consulting Group in the 1970's) used two simple axes to highlight the correct strategy for different businesses (e.g., "dogs" should be divested; "cash cows" milked for cash; etc.). Stephen Covey's "important/urgent" matrix was the basis for his highly popular time management system.

            Often, you can construct simple but effective frameworks for clients by giving them a few key variables to think about. "How do your customers trade-off speed of delivery, cost, and quality?" "What balance of organic growth versus acquisitions are you looking for?" "Is your compensation driven by internal equity or market forces?" And so on.

2. Use Analogies and Metaphors

Analogies are a powerful way to create new ideas and to transfer concepts from one domain to another. Charles Merrill, the founder of the modern financial behemoth Merrill Lynch, tapped into the power of analogy when he brought stocks and bonds to the masses. Early in his career as a banker, he helped finance several of the burgeoning retail store chains such as J. G. McCrory, which were focused on the mass market. Merrill quickly adopted this new concept of mass merchandising and used it to reconceptualize and restructure the stockbroking business-which had previously served only the very wealthy-in order to make investments accessible to the average man and woman. Merrill was so enamoured of this analogy that even his corporate offices in New York were decorated with large murals depicting chain stores such as Safeway. For over 70 years, Merrill's original mission statement, "To Take Wall Street to Main Street," has given the company its direction. 

            In working with clients, can you find analogies that relate to what they are trying to accomplish strategically? For example, when I talk to clients about teaching relationship-building skills versus selling skills, I tell them that it's the difference between a course on dating versus marriage. A successful date, like a successful sale, is a definable transaction. Furthermore, dating tactics can be reduced to a few simple principles. A good marriage, in contrast, results from the confluence of many factors. It's a very simple analogy, but it gets the point across.

3. Develop Multiple Perspectives

 In 1917, the Indian spiritual leader Gandhi went to the province of Champaran to help resolve a particularly bitter and long-standing dispute between the impoverished indigo farmers and the local planters. Gandhi was dedicated to "truth in the collection and interpretation of data," and rather than automatically taking the side of the downtrodden farmers, he systematically interviewed not only the villagers but the planters and local British officials as well, to understand all of their perspectives. This enabled him to isolate different aspects of the problem-the desperate financial condition of the farmers was to a great extent the responsibility of the planters, but many other problems, such as illiteracy and poor sanitation, were the responsibility of the villagers and had to be solved by them. The dispute was satisfactorily resolved.

"We think too small," said the Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung. "Like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view." Part of the essence of synthesis is looking at the world with the broadest possible view. If you adhere slavishly to a single perspective, it will inevitably limit and even distort your thinking.

4. Look for Patterns and Commonalities

 Big picture thinking is sometimes referred to as pattern thinking. If you can "identify the constellations of significance in the otherwise chaotic flow of information,"  you are well on your way to synthesis. One of the best ways to develop your pattern thinking skills is to organize and codify. The high-yield (or "junk") bond market, considered one of the greatest innovations in twentieth-century finance, was developed by Drexel banker Michael Milken, who could see patterns in the performance of obscure bonds. Observing that the default rates of high-yield bonds were lower than expected given their high interest rates, Milken concluded that they were an above average investment on a risk-return basis. He then convinced hundreds of large investors around the world of his findings, and with ready buyers for these securities, the 1980s takeover boom was born. Although there are today widely varying opinions about Milken's professional conduct and personal scruples, the enormous impact that his innovations have had on corporate finance cannot be denied.

            Constantly look for patterns-in the data your client shows you, in his or her behavior, and in the way your competition acts.

Habits of Mind

Suspension of Initial Judgment 

 Analytical thinking is based on making careful judgments at each stage of the thought process and then validating every step or conclusion. Synthesis requires a suspension of judgment in order to allow "unrealistic"  or "mistaken" alternatives or ideas to be allowed into the discussion. Remember that many great discoveries were either accidental or the result of mistakes. Marconi pursued his (ultimately) successful experiments in the belief that radio waves followed the curvature of the earth (they don't). Penicillin and x-rays were also "mistakes," which developed into life-saving medical breakthroughs.

Humor

 Humor shares several characteristics with creative, synthetic thinking. Clever jokes and stories often present unexpected solutions and juxtapose ideas or concepts that normally would not go together. The best jokes-like good thinking-often end with an unexpected punchline. For example:

During the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia, a rainbow appears over Prague, ending in the middle of St. Wenceslaus Square. A Czech soldier and a Russian soldier rush to the square to find the treasure, which sits squarely under the end of the rainbow. Arriving at the same time, they vie for the gold.
            "O.K.," says the Czech, "let's share it like brothers."
            "No way," responds the Russian, shaking his head. "Let's share it fifty-fifty."

Time for Reflection

 "I lived in solitude in the country," said Albert Einstein, talking about the sources of his great ideas, "and noticed how the monotony of quiet life stimulates the creative mind." Some researchers in the field of creativity, in fact, believe that insight occurs during the reflection and relaxation that follows a period of intense activity and work.

Observation and concentration

Learning to concentrate is a key to synthesis. In attempting to explain Newton's intellectual breakthroughs, the economist John Maynard Keynes wrote: "I believe that the clue to his mind is to be found in his unusual powers of continuous concentrated introspection . . . .His peculiar gift was the power of holding in his mind a purely mental problem until he had seen straight through it." The same was said about the famous banker John Pierpont Morgan: One contemporary observer commented,  "Morgan has one chief mental asset-a tremendous five minutes' concentration of mental thought." How do you develop this kind of concentration? A lot of it has to do with clearing your mind of other distractions-recall the image of Isaac Newton sitting for hours in his bathtub until the water was cold, pondering how the light was diffracted through his soap bubbles.

Dirty Hands

A nineteenth-century French diplomat, showing disdain for Anglo-Saxon pragmatism, is said to have remarked, "It will work in practice, yes. But will it work in theory?" Intense concentration of thought and the development of theoretical frameworks are key ingredients in effective big picture thinking, but it is also true that doing is just as important. This is a dilemma for professionals who work in large companies: as you become more senior in an organization, you are exposed to more and more projects and client situations at a very top level; yet at the same time you may actually do less and less hands-on work with specific client issues and problems. Ideas and innovations often flow from the actual doing, however.

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