I Don't Want the Details

A few months ago I was dragged into a call with my engineering counterpart and their boss (who happens to be our SVP of engineering). Something had gone wrong that shouldn't have. Nothing catastrophic, but important enough that I was now on a call with an SVP.

I started to explain how it happened when they cut me off with "Michael, I don't want the details".

I know that if we get into the details, the reasons will be perfectly reasonable. You'll explain what happened, I'll understand why everyone made the decisions they made, and I'll empathise with you.

So I don't want the details. I want to know what we're changing.

At first I thought "I don't want the details" sounded dismissive. How can they make informed decisions without understanding the details?