big picture
when everyone sees the whole picture, everything changes.
Aligning people in your organization toward a unified intent is a challenge organizations of all sizes face every day. Our Big Picture organization simulation opens participants’ perception and demonstrates the need for strategic and operational alignment among functional areas. Big Picture addresses collaboration across teams, the roles of leadership and vision, and the importance of flexible thinking to meet changing customer expectations and markets.
Big Picture is also available as a kit that provides everything you need to deliver a powerful experience internally. Each kit includes a Facilitator’s Guide, all materials, and Train-the-Trainer sessions with our experienced facilitators to help your team grow, no matter where in the world you are!
how big picture works
In just a few hours, Big Picture challenges your group to design, paint, align and assemble a mural. The goal is to enlarge small pieces of a picture into a wall-sized mural, while balancing time and budget constraints, to meet customer requirements. Participants are divided into regional groups representing production work teams, middle and senior management teams, and customers with specific demands.
Work teams are concerned with resolving issues of aligning across boundaries to deliver a high quality product to market. Managers drive their teams to meet milestones, ship dates, and budgets.
Participants will face challenges designed to mirror those experienced in the real world; challenges with communication, time and budget constraints, and satisfying the demands of exacting customers. Our facilitators help to guide your team through insightful conversations, highlighting learning and growth opportunities and discussing practical applications of key take aways. Big Picture provides a unique and memorable experience that imparts valuable lessons for lasting impact.
who benefits
Big Picture benefits teams and leaders who have to deliver meaningful results through coordination, not just individual excellence. Production teams working end-to-end on a product delivery benefit from the simulation that mirrors the real tensions they face every day: interdependent tasks, shifting priorities, and the need to align decisions across functions. Participants experience how small breakdowns in workflow, inaccurate assumptions, or timing ripple through an entire system. They leave with a sharper understanding of how to synchronize work, surface constraints early, and prioritizing the results of the team above all.
Big Picture is especially useful for enterprise clients who need to unify strategy across multiple business units, such as organizations navigating growth, restructuring, mergers, or other change. It strongly benefits cross-functional teams that are struggling with silos and friction, and it’s perfect for teams facing complex, competing customer requirements—product, service, or platform organizations that must balance speed and quality, customization and scale, and innovation and reliability. Big Picture is also a powerful tool for any university business or management program looking to add an experiential element to their content.
trusted by the top business schools in the world
frequently asked…
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Yes! Our experienced facilitators are available to deliver your Big Picture organization simulation. Our facilitators have worked with organizations of all sizes with groups ranging executives down to new hires.
Big Picture is also available as a kit to facilitate internally.
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Yes! Big Picture is also available as a kit to enhance your next self-facilitated sessions. Used by many of the worlds leading organizations and business schools, we can provide you with everything you need to lead your own session — including all materials, a facilitator’s guide, and a train-the-trainer call with one of our facilitators.
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There’s some overlap between kits, but our general guidelines are:
Big Picture comes in four group sizes based on the number of work teams.
6 Group: 10-20 people
9 Group: 20-30 people
12 Group: 30-45 people
16 Group: 45-60 people
Large group? No problem! We can facilitate simultaneous sessions to accommodate large group sizes.
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Big Picture usually takes between 3-5 hours to complete. Our facilitators can help you with a design that will fit our agenda and deliver a great experience!
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Big Picture is great for teams of all sizes, functions, and experience level. This versatility makes it a powerful tool to use across your organization.
Big Picture benefits graduate business students, production and cross-functional product teams, enterprise leadership groups or multi-department organizations trying to unify strategy and break down silos.
If you’re still not sure if Big Picture is right for your group, click “More Information” below.
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While we can often accommodate last-minute orders with just a few days turn-around, we recommend allowing at least 2 weeks notice when ordering your Big Picture kit.
For international shipments we suggest placing your order 3-4 weeks before your session.
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Your group will be divided into multiple roles (senior managers, managers, and work teams) to simulate a real organization. The activity takes place over 4 simulated quarters and your organization will need to satisfy customers, stay on time, and within budget. Sound familiar?
Our Business Simulations are designed to mirror the challenges your team face every day to create concrete learning and drive change.