Why connecting the dots is one of the most valuable superpowers you can bring to business.
Some people are brilliant at looking at the detail. Others are great at getting things done. Some can take a problem and work through it methodically until they find a solution.
And then there are people who instinctively step back, look at what's happening around them and start joining the dots.
I'm one of those people.
Seeing the bigger picture and connecting the dots is one of my superpowers. It's something I've done throughout my career, often without really thinking about it. I spot patterns, see opportunities, recognise gaps and make connections between things that might not seem related at first.
It's also something I've come to appreciate much more about myself.
Because when something comes naturally to you, it's easy to assume everyone sees things the same way.
They don't.
It's about looking beyond what's in front of you
For me, seeing the bigger picture isn't just about understanding what's happening within a business. It's about understanding what's happening around it, too.
The market. Competitors. Customer behaviour. Technology. Economic conditions. Industry developments. The things happening in the world that might seem a million miles away from your day-to-day business but could have a significant impact on it.
It's about being curious, taking an interest in what's happening beyond your immediate area of expertise and thinking about what it might mean.
Take AI, for example. You could look at it purely as a technology development, or as another way to improve efficiency.
But look a little further and you start to see the connections. How it's changing discovery, how people research and buy, how businesses compete and how marketing needs to evolve.
One development, lots of implications.
That's the bit I find interesting.
The dots don't always look connected
Some of the best connections come from seemingly unrelated things.
A conversation you had last week. Something you read about a competitor. A change in customer behaviour. A new technology. An economic trend. An experience from a completely different industry.
Individually, they might not seem particularly significant. But bring them together and you might start to see a pattern, spot a commercial opportunity or recognise a problem before it becomes one.
I think experience plays a big part in this. Having worked across different industries, markets, businesses and disciplines gives you a lot of reference points. You start recognising patterns and understanding how things that look different on the surface can actually be connected.
But curiosity matters just as much. You need to be interested in what's happening around you, ask questions and be willing to look at things from a different perspective.
And importantly, you need to do something with what you discover.
Connecting the dots needs to lead somewhere
There's little value in spotting a connection if you can't work out what it means for the business and what to do about it.
I've seen this play out in some pretty interesting ways throughout my career.
At one organisation, we were struggling to understand why it was taking longer to close deals with certain types of clients. We looked at the data, but it wasn't telling us much.
So we started asking questions.
A conversation with an account manager uncovered something we hadn't considered. The finance teams within our prospective customers were hesitant to sign off on contracts. They weren't a stakeholder we'd identified or factored into the sales process.
That was the missing piece.
Rather than simply pushing sales to work harder or finding ways to generate more leads, we needed to help our existing contacts get internal buy-in.
We created a simple PDF that our primary contact could share with their finance team to help them understand the value and get the contract signed off.
One conversation. One PDF. A change to how we approached the sales process.
The sales cycle reduced and growth started to ramp up.
It wasn't complicated. We just hadn't been asking the right questions or looking at the whole picture.
And that brings me to another example from the same business.
We discovered that a major customer was considering cancelling their subscription. Given the size of the account, this represented a significant revenue risk.
The reason? Someone in Accounts Payable hated our invoices. They found them difficult to work with and they were making their job harder.
Again, not someone we'd identified as a key stakeholder. Not someone we'd necessarily thought to ask about their experience.
We took the feedback seriously, simplified our invoices across the customer base and saved the account.
We also heard from other customers whose finance teams were delighted with the change.
Two very different situations, but the same lesson: sometimes the people who have the biggest influence on your commercial success aren't the people you think they are.
Sometimes it's about connecting people
In another organisation, I was working with sales teams across different countries. They weren't particularly keen on sharing information with each other.
There was history behind it. Client poaching had happened, people had lost commission and trust wasn't particularly high.
On the surface, it looked like a relationship problem. But I could see a much bigger commercial opportunity.
These teams were working with some of the same global customers, often in different markets. They had relationships, knowledge and connections that could benefit each other enormously.
So I worked with them to change the conversation. Instead of focusing on what they might lose by sharing information, we looked at what they could gain.
We encouraged introductions within key accounts, sharing knowledge and identifying opportunities across markets.
The results were incredible. Rather than losing money or clients by collaborating, they started making significantly more.
In fact, it got to the point where I was receiving messages asking who the best person in the business was to speak to about a particular account and whether they could make an introduction.
The mindset had shifted completely.
It wasn't about forcing people to collaborate. It was about helping them see the commercial value of doing so.
It's not about having a crystal ball
Seeing the bigger picture doesn't mean you can predict the future or get every decision right.
It's about having the perspective to look beyond the immediate challenge, recognise what's happening around you and consider the possible implications.
It's asking better questions, challenging assumptions and connecting information that might otherwise sit in separate conversations, departments or markets.
It's also about knowing when to get into the detail and when to step back.
You might need to look at the data, but you also need to speak to the people behind it. You might need to understand what's happening in your market, but you also need to work out what that means for your particular business.
And sometimes the best solution is surprisingly simple once you've found the right problem.
So, what are you not seeing?
I think one of the biggest risks for any business is becoming so absorbed in what it's doing that it stops noticing what's happening around it.
Markets change. Technology evolves. Customers behave differently. Competitors move. New opportunities emerge.
But spotting those changes is only part of it. The real value comes from understanding how they connect to your business, recognising what they mean and knowing what to do next.
For me, that's what seeing the bigger picture is all about.
It's not just about having lots of ideas or knowing what's happening in the world. It's about bringing different pieces of information, experience and insight together and turning them into something useful.
Sometimes that means changing your strategy. Sometimes it's a different approach to a customer. Sometimes it's getting two people talking who wouldn't normally speak to each other.
And sometimes, it's one conversation and one PDF.
The dots are all there. The trick is knowing which ones to connect, asking the right questions and understanding what to do with what you discover.
Sometimes you just need someone who can step back, look at the bigger picture and help you see what's possible.
If your business is navigating change, looking for its next opportunity or trying to work out why things aren't quite coming together, let's have a conversation.
I might just see a connection you've missed.
Debbie Gainsford is an award-winning global marketer, business consultant and qualified coach with experience spanning B2B technology, SaaS, media and eCommerce businesses in Australia and internationally. She has worked across marketing, product, sales and leadership teams, helping businesses navigate change, identify opportunities and turn complex challenges into practical action. Debbie writes about business, marketing, leadership and the changing world of work.
