"The Big Picture" was always a warning phrase to me, it meant someone was going to try and justify something unpleasant (generally a management type out for himself). Mind you, there is a need for the narrow use of the term as a description of an overall project or endeavor, but you can't really do "the big picture" without care of all the little details that go into making up that picture; that concept doesn't seem to have taken root too well.
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It's that too. In the nav. an Admiral will spout the 'Our people are our most valuable resource" line of bullshit until the Carrier is sponsored, and then he won't look twice a the EM's.
Like the self serving upper level managers, an officer is usually out for himself. Int eh 23 years I served, I met more than 4000 officers. I trust three, and I like one.
Without the little details, the 'big picture' is incomplete.
Alorkin