by Dr. Farid A. Muna
January 2010

It all comes down to the ability to go up and down the ladder of abstraction, and being able to see the big picture and the operational implications, which are signs of outstanding leaders and strategists.

Loizos Heracleous

Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static snapshots.

Peter Senge

One of the key competencies required for strategic thinking, I believe, is systems thinking and the helicopter view. Systems thinking views a problem or an opportunity as a part of an overall situation or system. Therefore, the best way to understand a problem is to appreciate its place in relation to the whole, viewing things with a historical perspective that takes into account events in the past, present, and potential future (see Peter Senge’s quotation which appears above).

In this short article, I shall use the helicopter metaphor to simplify and capture the essence of the sometimes overwhelming concepts of systems thinking which, by the way, are concepts that date back to Descartes and Newton. The concept of the helicopter view started with Royal Dutch Shell Company last century, when the company found it to be the common competency among its most successful executives. It is now used as an essential leadership competency in performance management contexts, and is referred to by various other names such as “peripheral vision” or “breadth of vision” or “power of anticipation” or “clarity of purpose”. The helicopter view refers to the ability to rise above the specifics of a particular situation and to see it in its overall context and environment. It is the ability not only to see the forest for the trees, but it also the ability to see the big picture without losing sight of the details and their implications; that, I believe, is a sign of outstanding leaders and strategists.

In our strategic thinking (and creative problem solving) seminars we at Meirc encourage participants to use the helicopter view. The simplicity and effectiveness of the concept appeals to many people, and it is also memorable. Developing the helicopter view requires constant practice – it a disciplined way of looking at strategy and crises. There are three steps that one must practice until it become second nature.

First, distance yourself mentally from the current situation; it is similar to “zooming out” when looking through a camera or when looking at a large wall map or a painting – one has to step back to see the whole thing. You should not be surprised if you see more than one problem or crisis: some problems will be urgent and short-term; others may be critical and long-term.

Second, describe the present situation as though you are looking at it five or ten years from now (more on this step below). Then ask “what will you do, if such and such happens?” Various scenarios for the future are then articulated, and strategies drawn around these scenarios.

Third, use the helicopter repeatedly throughout the strategy formulation process to ensure that you are still on the right course, making sure that you “zoom in” and “zoom out” from time to time in order to stay on the right path without loosing sight of the details.

Seeing the big picture, though, is not enough if the historic and futuristic perspectives are missing. After explaining how to use the helicopter view to executives attending our strategic thinking seminar, we encourage them to start applying it in their strategy formulation by first looking at the world, their industry, their companies, their competition, and their potential customers in five, ten, and fifteen years from now. To illustrate this point, let me quote at length from my previous book, Seven Metaphors on Management, in which “The Helicopter” is the title of one of the chapters (Muna 2003):

“In our strategic thinking seminars, we start by asking managers to write their current age, as well as their age ten years from now (it always seems easier to get them thinking of the future when it is personalized). Then we ask them to describe their business as of the second date, “What will your industry look like in ten years? What about your competitors? What about changes in governmental legislation, politics, demography, technology?’ and so on. The next step is to ask them, ‘What will you do, if such changes happen?’ Alternative scenarios for the future are then articulated, and strategies drawn around them.
These scenarios are designed to encourage managers to continuously question their assumptions and reorganize their mental maps of the real world. More importantly, it encourages managers to continue to learn as they make decisions about the future.” “… once the present and the future are put in perspective, we can focus on the future direction, using the helicopter repeatedly to ensure that we are staying on the right path. Having isolated the most important/urgent priority problems, the helicopter descends for a closer look at the details.”

The helicopter view is a powerful tool that could and should be used at any stage during strategy formulation. Going up and down in the “mental” helicopter ensures that strategists stay on the right course and prevents them from focusing too closely on the trees, or the details. Using the helicopter view will allow us to see the various parts of the proverbial elephant. Using this tool we can also look at the world and various global markets when formulating global strategies. Personally, whenever I fly from one continent to another, I sometimes experience a personal insight or get new business ideas as I look down at the world from 36,000 feet.

The concept of the helicopter view was shown to be critical to the understanding of the insight process and the “Aha!” experience. An article by Lehrer (2008), titled “The Eureka Hunt”, attempts to answer the question “Why do good ideas come to us when they do?” Lehrer reviewed recent research findings by some cognitive neuroscientists and psychologists who are still looking at what happens in the brain when people go through the mysterious insight process. More specifically, these scientists are interested in finding out the roles of the right and left hemispheres (and other parts of the cortex) when solving puzzles and problems. According to the neuroscientists, Kounios et al. (2008), whose research Lehrer discussed, there are two strategies for solving problems: one is methodical, conscious, and analytical—using the left hemisphere of the brain, and the other is by sudden insight—a specialized role for the right hemisphere. The more creative right hemisphere subconsciously looks for holistic connections and helps people see the big picture (the forest) while the left hemisphere specializes in analysis and the details (the trees). It seems also that analytic and insight processing can occur in parallel; the brain needs to see both the forest and the trees at the same time, somewhat akin to the helicopter view.

Additionally, the article highlighted research conducted by the psychologist Schooler. Lehrer wrote: “Jonathan Schooler has recently demonstrated that making people focus on the details of a visual scene, as opposed to the big picture, can significantly disrupt the insight process. ‘It doesn’t take much to shift the brain into left-hemisphere mode,’ he said. ‘That’s when you stop paying attention to those more holistic associations coming in from the right hemisphere.’”

In a classic book titled The Mind of the Strategist, Ohmae (1982) came to similar conclusions when he contrasted some of the characteristics of strategic vision with traditional strategic planning. Effective strategy requires:

• A broader view, instead of tunnel vision
• Strategic and creative thinking, instead of inflexible thinking
• Keeping details in perspective, instead of the time-consuming obsession with details, or the often referred to “paralysis by analysis”.

Once again, we see that the helicopter view is in line with past and current thinking on strategy. The main advantages of the helicopter view are that it is easy to grasp, use, and remember, and that it invokes the visual senses, which in turn facilitates creative and strategic thinking.

References

Kounios, J., Fleck, J., Green, D., Payne, L., Stevenson, J., Bowden, E., and Jung-Beeman, M. (2008), “The Origins of Insight in Resting-State Brain Activity”, Neuropsychologia, Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 281-91.

Lehrer, J. (2008), “The Eureka Hunt”, The New Yorker, July 28, 2008, pp. 40-5.

Muna, F. (2003), Seven Metaphors on Management: Tools for Managers in the Arab World, Gower Publishing.

Ohmae, K. (1982), The Mind of the Strategist: The Art of Japanese Business, McGraw-Hill.