Zooming In and Zooming Out

Enjoy these wonderful quotes from astronauts describing how space travel altered their perspective of Earth:

"You change because you see your life differently than when you live on the surface everyday...We are so involved in our own little lives and our own little concerns and problems. I don' t think the average person realizes the global environment that we really live in. I certainly am more aware of how fragile our Earth is, and, frankly, I think that I care more about our Earth because of the experiences I've had traveling in space"-Eileen Collins, the first female space shuttle commander.

"It's hard to appreciate the Earth when you're down right upon it because it's so huge. It gives you in an instant, just at a position 240,000 miles away from it, (an idea of) how insignificant we are, how fragile we are, and how fortunate we are to have a body that will allow us to enjoy the sky and the trees and the water...It's something that many people take for granted when they're born and they grow up within their environment. But they don't realize what they have. And I didn't till I left it."-Jim Lovell, Apollo 8 and 13.

"If people can see Earth from up here, see it without those borders, see it without any differences in race or religion, they would have a completely different perspective. Because when you see it from that angle, you cannot think of your home or your country. All you can see is one Earth..."-Anousheh Ansari, Iranian-American space tourist who flew last year to the international space station.

I picked these quotes (from a total of nine) as lead-ins for another professional Golden Rule-maintaining the correct perspective. In my opinion, it is one of the keys to time management, problem solving, continuous improvement, managing people, managing variation, etc.

At times, you need to immerse yourself in the minutiae of an issue to gain a clear understanding of what needs to be fixed or improved. At other times, you should back up to see the scenario from afar paying more attention to its exterior. I call the former zooming in and the latter zooming out.

Some examples:

Problem solving and continuous improvement are key facets of any organization. To fix or improve something quickly, zoom in to understand how it works and to set the right sense of urgency. Other opportunities for improvement require a more patient approach and being able to see the big picture. You may eventually dive into the details but zooming out is a prudent first step.

Time Management: We all have lengthy to do lists or, in some cases, seemingly too much work to create a list at all. Time management (especially at work) is, in part, about how people perceive you. Can you get things done? To do so means you are working on the right action items and driving them (at the correct speed) to completion. There may be fifty things to do but you can't concurrently work on every one. Make sure you prioritize (zoom out) them using a method acceptable to your customers. Don't solely focus on what you want to do or what you enjoy working on. (zoom in).

Managing people: The ability to zoom in and out separates effective managers from poor managers. We've all heard (and even experienced) the term micro-managing which is a fancy term for leaders that can't zoom out. He/She wants to stay in the details. They can't retreat and see their people, their problems, or the organization from a distance. For example, as a manager, you may have an employee that struggles getting things done. They work hard and seem to care but the results are missing (relative to other employees). It is so easy to focus on what he/she is doing wrong or what isn't being done at all. I'm not saying this shouldn't be done but to only do this would be the zoom in approach and will probably not help the employee. The effective manager knows when to zoom out and see the employee from afar. What are they doing right? Are they in a position that maximizes their strengths? Gaining both perspectives (in and out) will yield the best approach for developing the employee.

I don't know if zooming in and out can be learned. It might just be innate. I do know that it is needed and is very critical in all areas of life-business, politics, parenting, etc.