A Seeing the Big Picture statement works when the reader can see the link between your immediate work and something wider: the customer, another part of the organisation, an external development or a longer-term objective.
You still need a clear result, but the heart of this behaviour is the judgement that came from understanding context. With a 250-word maximum, that connection has to be made quickly.
For the broader behaviour explanation, use the Seeing the Big Picture Civil Service guide.
Choosing an example that gives you something to score
Look for a situation where wider information genuinely changed what you did. A routine task can work if you noticed a consequence that others had missed. A huge programme can fail if you simply followed the plan.
Good raw material includes changes in customer behaviour, new policy or regulation, a dependency on another team, emerging technology, funding pressure or a conflict between a local target and the broader service outcome.
Choose an example where you can explain the connection in plain English. If it takes 100 words of organisational history before the reader understands why it mattered, it is probably not the best choice for a 250-word answer.
Use B-STAR underneath the writing
For this statement, use B-STAR: Belief, Situation, Task, Action, Result as the framework underneath the writing. It is a check that the evidence is there, not a reason to make the answer sound like five labelled boxes.
Belief
Open with a brief belief that genuinely reflects how you approach the behaviour. For example:
I believe good decisions are easier when I understand how the immediate task connects to the wider service and the people who depend on it.
Situation
Give only the context needed to understand why the wider issue mattered, then move on to your decisions.
Task
State the decision or recommendation you personally owned.
Action
Use the Action section to show what information you brought together, what wider consequence you recognised and exactly how that changed your recommendation, priority or plan.
Result
A useful Result shows both delivery and alignment: the work moved forward, but it also avoided a wider problem or supported a broader objective.
Full Seeing the Big Picture 250 word statement example
I believe good decisions are easier when I understand how the immediate task connects to the wider service and the people who depend on it.
I was supporting an annual renewal campaign for a public-facing service. To reduce postage costs, the initial proposal was to move all reminder letters to email. Customer contact data showed that this would affect a relatively small part of the overall user base, so the change looked straightforward.
I was asked to review the implementation approach before it was agreed.
I compared channel usage with complaints and assisted-support records rather than looking only at total volumes. That showed that customers who still relied on letters were much more likely to need additional help using the service. I spoke to customer insight and digital colleagues and confirmed that removing paper completely could increase missed renewals and avoidable contact.
I proposed a segmented approach. Customers already using the online account would move to digital reminders, while paper would remain for groups where the evidence showed it was still important. I explained how this supported the cost objective without undermining the wider accessibility commitment, and I built the revised volumes into the campaign plan.
The approach was approved and delivered within the available budget. The renewal cycle completed without the increase in missed cases that service managers had been concerned about, and the same channel approach was used for the next campaign.
Example word count: 234. The example stays below the 250-word maximum; there is no value in padding it just to reach the limit.
B-STAR breakdown
| B-STAR part | What the example shows |
|---|---|
| Belief | Starts with the idea that local decisions need wider context. |
| Situation | A cost-saving proposal could have unintended consequences for users who rely on paper contact. |
| Task | Review the approach before implementation. |
| Action | Uses customer, complaint and support information; consults relevant colleagues; connects the evidence to accessibility; proposes a segmented solution. |
| Result | The campaign meets the budget objective without creating the anticipated service problem, and the approach is reused. |
Why this statement works
The candidate does not claim to have rewritten organisational strategy. They notice that a seemingly simple cost decision affects a particular group of users differently.
The evidence is also proportionate. They use information they could realistically access in the role: channel usage, complaints and assisted-support records. There is no invented “42% improvement” bolted onto the end.
The strongest sentence is the one connecting the revised proposal to both objectives. That is the moment the assessor can see the behaviour rather than just good analysis.
The result closes the loop. The service saves money, but not by ignoring the wider accessibility consequence.
Need more than one worked statement?
The grade-specific statement packs cover all nine Civil Service behaviours with full worked examples at your level. They make it easier to judge how much wider context, personal ownership and impact your own evidence needs.
What changes by grade?
AA/AO
Connect your own responsibilities to team priorities, consider different user needs and use information from inside and outside the organisation.
EO
Understand how your team supports wider objectives, keep up with issues affecting the work and avoid becoming fixated on the immediate task.
HEO/SEO
Understand strategic drivers, align activity to wider priorities, stay alert to emerging issues and explain how team activity creates value for different stakeholders.
G6/7
Use economic, social, political, environmental and technological context, take a government-wide view and influence strategy with a broad understanding of stakeholder needs.
Make the connection explicit
Do not assume the assessor will automatically understand why an external issue matters. If a policy change, customer trend or another team’s dependency changed your approach, say so plainly.
A short line such as “That meant the original plan would solve our local problem but create a larger one for the service” can do more work than several sentences of background.
Keep the wider context relevant
This behaviour can tempt candidates to add every strategic factor they know. Resist that. Pick the two or three things that genuinely shaped the decision.
Relevance makes the answer feel senior. Volume of context does not.
Show that you still delivered
Seeing the Big Picture is not an excuse to stay at the level of analysis. Your statement should end with something that happened because you understood the wider position and acted on it.
Make the wider consequence visible
One useful editing check is to underline the sentence where the local task connects to the wider outcome. If you cannot find one, the assessor may struggle too.
The connection does not need to be dramatic. “Removing paper completely would save money locally but make renewal harder for the customers most likely to need support” is clear, specific and directly relevant.
When external information belongs in the answer
External information is useful when it informs the choice. A new regulation, market change, customer trend or government priority can strengthen the example, but only if you show what you did differently because of it.
Do not add a paragraph of environmental scanning just because senior guidance mentions external factors. Use the parts that actually shaped the decision and leave the rest out.
Common problems in 250-word statements
Big project, small evidence. Describing a national programme does not automatically demonstrate the behaviour. The assessor still needs to see the wider connection you personally recognised and acted on.
Strategic name-dropping. Listing departmental priorities without showing how they affected your decision adds noise rather than evidence.
Hindsight dressed as judgement. If the wider issue only appears in the result, it can sound as though you noticed it after the event. Make the connection visible in your actions.
Ignoring the people affected. Seeing the Big Picture includes understanding different stakeholder and user needs, not only organisational strategy.
Being so broad that nothing gets delivered. Senior answers still need a decision and an outcome. Context should sharpen the work, not replace it.
A final check before you submit
Read the statement once as a normal story. Can a reader see the wider context, your own judgement and the result without having to decode the structure?
Use figures only when you genuinely know them. A clear operational outcome is enough if no useful metric exists.
Build the rest of your behaviour statements
The grade-specific statement packs cover all nine Civil Service behaviours with full worked examples at your level. They make it easier to judge how much wider context, personal ownership and impact your own evidence needs.
Preparing for interview instead? Go to Seeing the Big Picture Civil Service interview questions and answers.
