Being able to see the big picture

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So, I've been working as a mechanic for the past 6 months now. At first, in the whole "new and still learning" phase of my employment there, it was understood that there will probably be mistakes. We all knew that it would take time for me to be faster at what I do and to be able to diagnose cars easier. While those things have gotten easier, and I have gotten a little quicker I still have some serious issues that I can't seem to tackle. The "black and white" mindset of things have to be done this way and only this way. Most of the time I'm overly logical in my approach to diagnosis. I run through all the possible logical explanations and then when they all check out fine, I'm completely stunted. The lack of creativity in my work is alarming. I get so hyper focused on the details that I completely miss the most obvious things. It's like I have tunnel vision or something. I'm sure you've heard the saying "A true aspie will find the needle before they see the haystack" and I feel like that is SO evident in my work. In some ways it's a great thing, but working on cars requires you to look at the "haystack" to figure out why the needle is there in the first place. The whole car works as a unit and to be good at figuring out what's wrong with it, requires you to be creative in your approach.

I CANNOT SEEM TO SEE THE BIG PICTURE. The worst part is, I don't realize I'm not seeing the big picture until I think I'm out of options and cant figure it out. I've tried everything I can think of to be more creative and I always feel so stunted. Then it brings up feelings of inadequacy and anxiety. I guess this is more of a rant, but does anyone have any tips on learning how to be more creative with a super black and white, detail oriented mindset?

I actually have the opposite problem to you. I'm a big picture person who struggles to narrow down their thoughts / ideas and focus on minute details. I can be detail oriented if I absolutely must but can only be so for short bursts of time. Eventually, I get distracted by other thoughts / ideas and irritated with the specificity of little details and mentally check out of it. I have to consciously force myself to refocus when that happens and that can be a struggle in its own right.

I've never had a job before so can't offer any advice on how to approach a change of thinking in that context but I have completed an undergraduate degree at university where I feel that detail orientation is more of an asset than it is a hindrance. I sometimes got chastised for not going into enough detail on my essays and longer written assignments whereas I got praised for my conciseness and ability to get straight to the point on shorter assignments and oral presentations.

I never managed to completely change my thinking from big picture to detail oriented but what helped me to focus and become more detail oriented in an academic context was something that I call mental visualization. I'm a big reader and my brain often picks out quotes from books and texts that I read which stick in my memory. Whenever that happened to me whilst reading something academic, I would take the quotes that stuck with me and run with them, making them either the focal point of my assignment or at least a large component of it which forces me stick to the mold that I've created for myself lest I start the assignment all over again, which I usually didn't have the time, energy or inclination to do. I would then use the reference library to seek out sources that supported my contention for the assignment based on those particular quotes. It also helped me to visualize my assignment as being a little diagram in my head - made up of all these different things but still fitting together to make a logical and concise picture. I still struggled a fair bit but I think that I managed to get better as time went on.

I would suggest that the first step towards tacking your orientation towards detail would be to try to become conscious of it as you work. Regularly remind yourself that you have a natural tendency towards being overly fastidious, especially while your working. Eventually, you may be able to use your newfound awareness as a starting point for switching up your methods at work. Maybe if you're comfortable, you could try changing the order in which you perform diagnostic tests and approaching a particular problem. Maybe the disruption in your routine could force you to become more creative as time goes on. I hope that this helped you a little.

Your black and white inevitably lessens through experience.

In mechanics, all sorts of unexpected things come up. You are forced to go to Plan B or beyond very frequently.

This fact forces you to abandon black and white thinking; otherwise, nothing gets fixed,

Hey yogiB1,

Maybe you should try to approach the problem with the least likely problem and than work towards your gut feeling. Honestly being unemployed I can't help much but when I get stumped on a computer problem, normally walking away from the problem and coming back helps but I suppose you can't do that in a work environment. If you have complete power over your time, maybe you can work on another car while thinking about whats wrong with the first one. Maybe if your a visual thinker like me, you can picture the parts working one by one in series and can imagine new problems you didn't foresee this way. I do that a lot in electronics, kinda like a schematic in my head and when I think about how each part plays a role, I begin to see a bigger picture. However electronics and mechanical problems are not too similar so that might not help.

Honestly I can't really relate to work problems, I actually did my jobs decently well but can't keep employment because I am totally socially inapt. I get blind sided a lot and lack the wisdom to see what is obviously unfolding right before my eyes socially. So I normally end up with my co-workers wanting to kill me and drink my blood within my first 30 days on the job. You either love me or you hate me it seems and there is no middle ground. I am ok with this actually, I just wish people would communicate that they don't want anything to do with me and than be civil in a professional environment but that never happened. Instead I find co-workers that dislike you will smile and be polite while slowly twisting a knife in your back.

So we both have work problems but on very different levels. Good luck though,

I know nothing about cars but my job also requires me to diverge from the path occasionally and be more "creative". I agree with what Kraftiekortie said, experience will teach you. However, I dont think your black and white is lessening but expanding. I say this because what appears as creativity to you now is really just more bits of black and white straight forward logic that you are adding to your list of solutions. They can't teach you everything in school. They give you the foundation and real world experience will add the rest of the details.
A car has a finite number of parts and a finite number of problems with specific and finite solutions. Creativity can only be based on this finite set.
I must constantly review to keep the less used bits from being lost from my mental list of possibilities. If you are more diligent than me you might keep a journal on days when you learn a new solution that wasn't obvious to you before. The more parts to the puzzle you keep mentally handy, the more your brain can spread further to find an unfamiliar solution.