How many times have you heard someone say, 'But give me the big picture!'? I hear it (and see it online often). What assumptions do you tend to make about that person’s type pattern? My guess is that you will be thinking of someone with N in their type code. I know I used to do that until I started inquiring into what they meant. Then I discovered that it was not an indicator of any one of the perceiving preferences.

A turning point for me was at the Association for Psychological Type International conference in Boston many years ago, when I heard Scott Blanchard, currently President of the Ken Blanchard Companies, give a keynote address. Scott had taken the MBTI® Qualifying program that I was facilitating and he said he had reported ENFP preferences, but really found ESFP a better fit and definitely the Improviser Temperament (aka Essential Motivators in our model). His keynote was about understanding the Improviser (aka _S_P or Keirsey’s term, Artisan) pattern. We learned a lot of things about the gifts as well as challenges of having the Motivator Presenter (ESFP) pattern. To address why the MBTI® results weren’t accurate for him, he gave us an example of an item on the MBTI® instrument (Form G at the time) that asks you to choose between Foundation and Spire, he would choose Spire because he wanted to see the big picture. He also said Foundation would be boring. Now this item contributed to the N preference not the S preference. (It turns out that this item had just been taken out of the Indicator in a revision since it didn’t pass validity criteria.) 

So what is the difference between extraverted Sensing (Se) and extraverted iNtuiting (Ne) in particular? Both processes are tuned into the external world and the here and now. And why would these information gathering processes focus on the big picture?

Extraverted Sensing, especially when in a leading or supportive role (aka dominant or auxiliary) in the whole type pattern…

When we are using Se, we are tuning in to all that is present at the moment. Many details register at once about what is going on. So if you have a preference for Se, you are likely to want to get the whole picture all at once to find the most expeditious course of action to achieve some goal or intention. In that moment, there is a very fast registration of the rich complexity of what is going on and then a focus on the most compelling of the details. Later, they may not remember the details because what is ‘out there’ is always changing.

Extraverted iNtuiting, especially when in a leading or supportive role (aka dominant or auxiliary) in the whole type pattern…

When we are using Ne, we are tuning in to all the emerging possibilities evoked by the present moment. If you have a preference for Ne, you are likely to want to get the big picture of all the possibilities so you can not miss anything that could lead to sparking a novel idea or the best solution for a problem at hand. There is an openness to continuing to explore the big picture to see where it will take you. With this there can also be a rich complexity of interrelated possibilities and ideas to pursue. And when in this state they may not remember the details that sparked the insights.

But what about the other perceiving processes, introverted Sensing and introverted iNtuiting? What would the big picture look like to people with those preferences with their focus on the information that comes internally?

Introverted Sensing, especially when in a leading or supportive role (aka dominant or auxiliary) in the whole type pattern…

I have heard people with Si preferences say they want the big picture. So, what would that look like? When we are using Si, we are tuning in all that comes forward related to a particular  problem or situation. So getting the big picture means capturing all the details to make sure things go right and don’t go wrong. It can also be a very creative process that produces clarity about situations and what has contributed to the situation and what might be needed to bring it to fruition and to provide some stability. This too can tap into a rich complexity of data to sort through and too much bombardment from constant physical stimulation or a barrage of ideas can be overwhelming.

Introverted iNtuiting, especially when in a leading or supportive role (aka dominant or auxiliary) in the whole type pattern…

I have also heard people with Ni preferences say they want the big picture. They may be asking you for your longer term vision of what needs to be covered. Then, they often need to withdraw mentally from the current situation to allow a big picture to come to mind. Their big picture comes from another source that often can be interfered with by continual conversation or stimulation. Or they may ask questions to try to grasp an universal image or a long range vision of what will be. For them the big picture is often presented as a powerful image or a sense of what will go wrong and what will work. Too much stimulation with continual discussion of ideas or presenting of data can get in the way of them grasping a bigger picture, which can bring fresh solutions and new life to projects.

So, no matter what our preferences, we all tend to want a big picture of some kind and the lessons learned over the years have shown me to be careful about my assumptions and to be curious and ask more questions.

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