Seeing the Big Picture: Civil Service behaviour examples and how to write yours
Updated · 4 min read
Seeing the Big Picture is about understanding how your work fits into the wider aims of your team, your department and government, and acting on that understanding. It's not about knowing lots of policy. It's about showing that you looked beyond your own task, spotted what mattered more widely, and let it shape what you did.
Seeing the Big Picture is one of the nine behaviours in the Civil Service Success Profiles. If a job advert lists it, you'll usually write a behaviour statement for it at application, often up to 250 words, and may be asked about it again at interview. Our guide to behaviour statements covers how they're scored; this page goes deep on Seeing the Big Picture alone.
What assessors look for
- You understood the wider purpose of your work, not just the task in front of you.
- You kept up to date with changes (in policy, the organisation or the people you serve) and adjusted your work to match.
- You thought about how your work affected other teams, the public or long-term goals.
- You can explain why you made the choices you did, linked to a bigger aim.
How it changes with grade
Every behaviour is described at several levels, roughly: AA and AO, then EO, then HEO and SEO, then Grade 7 and Grade 6, then the Senior Civil Service. At AO and EO it's mostly about understanding how your own work contributes and staying aware of changes that affect it. At HEO and SEO, expect to show you've linked your team's work to departmental priorities and anticipated how changes will land. At Grade 7 and above, it's about shaping strategy and helping others see the wider picture. Always read the indicators for the level on your advert, on the Civil Service Careers website, and use them as a checklist.
How the question is usually worded
- Please provide a behaviour statement for Seeing the Big Picture.
- Tell us about a time you considered the wider context when making a decision.
- Describe how you have kept up to date with changes affecting your work, and what you did as a result.
An example statement
I work in a council benefits team. When national changes to housing support were announced, our team was asked to keep processing claims as normal until new guidance arrived. I read the published changes and realised around 200 of our open claims would be affected, and that customers would be worse off if we processed them under the old rules and then reassessed them weeks later. I raised this with my manager the same day, with a short list of the affected claims and the likely impact on customers and on our workload. We agreed I would flag the affected claims so they could be paused, and I wrote a one-page summary of the changes for the team, so colleagues could spot new cases themselves. I also contacted the neighbouring council's team to see how they were handling it, and shared their approach with my manager. When the guidance arrived three weeks later, the paused claims were processed once, correctly, instead of twice. My manager estimated this saved around 60 hours of rework, and we had no complaints from affected customers. I now check upcoming policy changes every month so our team isn't caught out.
- Looks beyond the immediate task to the effect on customers and workload
- Keeps up to date and acts on what they learn
- Thinks about other teams and organisations
- Ends with a measurable result and a lasting habit
Use an example from your own work, volunteering or study. Assessors read a lot of statements and can spot borrowed ones. The structure above is what to copy, not the story.
Common mistakes
- Describing government policy at length instead of what you did with your understanding of it.
- Choosing an example where you just followed instructions, with no wider thinking.
- Forgetting to say why the wider context mattered, so the link to the behaviour is never made.
Once your Seeing the Big Picture statement is strong, save it. The same behaviour comes up again and again across departments, so next time you'll adapt it for the grade and role instead of starting from a blank page. See the STAR method for the structure behind every good statement.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need to know a lot about government policy?
- No. At most grades, it's enough to show you understood how your work fitted wider aims and changed what you did because of it.
- Can I use an example from outside the Civil Service?
- Yes. Any job, volunteering or study works, as long as you looked beyond your own task to the bigger aim.