Businesspeople often get trapped in functional thinking.
They focus solely on their own area and fail to see the larger picture of the entire company, staff, and clients. The authors of "businessThink" note that only seven percent of decisions are made after considering long-term priorities or conferring with colleagues. We must learn to explore who or what else in the company is affected by the current problem or opportunity under consideration.
For example, suppose you were examining the high turnover rate in your call centers. Your colleague feels the turnover is favorable as new people tend to be cheaper and more enthusiastic. As a businessThinker, you consider the effects of constantly hiring new people on the human resources department, training costs, customer satisfaction, company reputation in the industry, and so on. In doing this, you effectively see the ripples that can have far-reaching effects and gain an understanding of how the proposed solution will influence the bigger picture.
Source: "businessThink, Rules for Getting It Right--Now and No Matter What!" by Dave Marcum, Steve Smith and Mahan Khalsa