Seeing the Big Picture

Understanding how your work fits into the wider organisational and public context, and keeping that context in mind when you act.

What this behaviour means

Assessors want evidence that you look beyond your immediate task to the wider goal it serves — organisational priorities, other teams' needs, or the public interest — and that this understanding actually shaped a decision you made.

What assessors are looking for

• Evidence you understood a wider context — organisational strategy, cross-government priorities, public impact — beyond your immediate task
• That the wider context genuinely changed what you did, not just that you were aware of it
• Balancing your own team's priorities against a bigger goal when they came into tension
• A result connected back to that bigger picture, not just your immediate task

Common mistakes

• Describing awareness of the big picture with no evidence it affected an actual decision
• Staying entirely within your own team's perspective with no connection made to a wider goal
• Confusing this with Making Effective Decisions by focusing on the decision process rather than the wider context that shaped it

How to structure your STAR example

Situation

Set out the immediate task and the wider context it sat within — a department priority, a public commitment, another team's dependency on your work.

Task

State what you needed to deliver, and why the wider context mattered to how you approached it.

Action

Show specifically how the bigger picture changed what you did — a different priority order, a decision made with another team's needs in mind.

Result

Give the outcome, ideally tying it back explicitly to the wider goal it served.