Civil Service Seeing the Big Picture Behaviour Guide
Seeing the Big Picture is the behaviour that asks whether you know why your work exists. Panels want to see that you connect what you do to wider priorities, notice what is changing around your area, and act on that understanding at the scale your grade expects. This guide explains what the behaviour asks for, how the expectation shifts across every grade from AA to Director General, what strong evidence looks like, the mistakes that cost marks, and how to use STARR and how strengths relate to it.
What does Seeing the Big Picture really ask for?
It asks you to understand where your work fits and let that shape what you do. Three ideas run through every grade. You know what your work is for, you keep up with what is happening around it, and you think about the different people it affects.
At the lower grades the focus is your own team and area. Higher up, it widens to outside developments, other parts of government and, in the Senior Civil Service, national and international impact. At no grade is it simply interest in current affairs. The evidence must show you did something because you saw the wider picture.
How does the expectation change from AA to Director General?
Paraphrasing the official Cabinet Office wording, the main shifts are these.
- AA and AO. Understand how your responsibilities contribute to team priorities, consider the varied impact of your work on different people, and gather information from inside and outside your organisation.
- EO. Understand how your work and your team's supports wider objectives, keep up to date with issues affecting your area, and focus on overall goals rather than only tasks.
- HEO and SEO. Understand the strategic drivers for your area, align activities to organisational priorities, stay alert to emerging trends, and understand how your team creates value for stakeholders.
- Grade 7 and Grade 6. Keep abreast of wider economic, social, political, environmental and technological developments, make sure plans reflect wider strategy, influence senior leaders, take a government wide view, and bring together stakeholders' views.
- Deputy Director (SCS1). Anticipate the long term impact of national and international developments, create joined up strategies that put the government's vision into practice, shape how your area supports organisational priorities, and build deep insight into customers, communities and markets.
- Director and Director General (SCS2 and SCS3). Understand the dynamics around the department and government, establish where it sits across the Civil Service, shape its purpose in delivering national priorities, set long term strategies for lasting change, and engage senior leaders across government.
Your evidence should match the wording for your target grade, not the one below it.
What does strong written evidence look like?
Strong evidence is specific. It makes the wider priority clear, shows what you did because of it, and says what changed. The examples below are invented illustrations, not templates to copy. Your evidence must be your own.
Example at EO. "Our team processed applications to a community grants scheme. I read the department's updated funding priorities and saw that small rural groups, now a stated priority, waited longest because their applications arrived incomplete. I spoke to three groups about where they struggled and drafted an applicant checklist that was added to the guidance. Fewer rural applications were returned the next quarter."
Example at Grade 7. "As lead for a regional enforcement programme, I spotted that a partner department's planned change to data sharing would undermine our case selection within a year. I gathered views from analysts and the partner's policy team, set out three options against the department's published priorities, and recommended a revised approach that the director adopted."
Example at Deputy Director. "I saw that a forecast fall in the working age population would change demand for our services within five years, while two neighbouring departments planned separately. I commissioned national analysis, brought their directors together to agree shared planning assumptions, and rewrote our strategy around them. The board adopted it."
The examples move from linking a task to a priority, to anticipating change, to shaping strategy across departments.
What mistakes cost marks?
- Right behaviour at the wrong level. Evidence that suits Grade 7 can look thin against the Deputy Director wording, so check it against your target grade.
- Team actions instead of your own. "We aligned our work to the new strategy" tells the panel nothing about what you did.
- Duties instead of outcomes. "My role involves supporting the department's priorities" describes a job.
- Name dropping. Quoting a strategy without showing what you did because of it.
- Staying inside your team. The wording widens as grades rise, so show the wider picture where your grade asks for it.
How do you evidence it with STARR?
Use the Situation to set out the wider priority or trend briefly. The Task is your specific part. Spend most words on Action, where your own contribution shows. The Result should say what changed.
Reflection, the second R, is expected from SEO upwards. Below that it is optional but can strengthen an answer if genuine. At interview, a behaviour answer runs around five minutes spoken, so choose one example you can tell clearly in that time.
How do strengths relate to this behaviour?
Strengths are a separate part of Success Profiles. Some sit close to this behaviour, such as Strategic, which is connecting daily work to long term goals, and Mission, which is being motivated by purpose.
Strengths are not named in adverts and are assessed mainly at interview. Answer them quickly and naturally from real moments, not a rehearsed STARR story.
Where Koda fits
Koda helps you apply this to your own experience. It works from your real evidence and matches it to the role and grade, with nothing invented, and you stay in control of every word.
Frequently asked questions
Is Seeing the Big Picture just about knowing government policy?›
No. Knowing the policy context helps, but panels score what you did with that knowledge. At every grade you need to show an action you took, or a decision you influenced, because you understood how your work fits wider priorities.
Can I use the same example for Seeing the Big Picture and another behaviour?›
It depends on the application. In interviews a project can support more than one behaviour, but each answer should emphasise the actions relevant to the question. In written statements, make the coverage of each behaviour explicit instead of hoping the panel infers it.
What if my job feels too routine to show the big picture?›
Look for moments when you linked a routine task to a wider aim, noticed a trend in your casework, or gathered outside information to improve your work. At AO and EO that is exactly what the descriptors describe, and the evidence must be real.
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Official framework reference: Success Profiles on GOV.UK. Grade requirements and processes vary by campaign, so always follow the specific vacancy advert.