Under mechanical monotonic or cyclic strain, slip can localize within individual grains, creating intense slip bands that can eventually serve as precursors for cracks. Experimental, statistical, and computational analyses have frequently correlated their locations with properties of the parent grain, including grain orientation, shape, and size, as well as subgrain features, such as proximity to triple junctions, sharp corners, and neighboring twin boundaries. Yet, to date, a better understanding of the spatially and temporally resolved patterns of slip that result in the severest irreversible changes is desired. Using a combination of in-situ high-resolution digital image correlation (HR-DIC), Heaviside-DIC method (H-DIC), and crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE), we investigate the evolution of intragranular lattice rotations and slip activity during monotonic and cyclic loading in a high performance, polycrystalline face centered cubic material. The CPFE employs a 3D model microstructure, which is a highly resolved, mirror representation of the experimental sample. The combined analysis reveals that most grains, regardless of their size and lattice orientation, preferentially accommodate deformation by activating a different slip system in distinct parts of the grain rather than the same multiple slip systems uniformly throughout the grain. Consequently, they develop intragranular lattice rotation gradients that divide these regions that span the grain and correspond to changes in the slip system. In a single fully reversed tension-compression cycle, those gradients marked by changes in sign increase in the reverse strain path and intensify with further cycling. We anticipate that these results on just one cycle can provide insight into the microstructural properties prone to irreversibilities that serve as precursors to localization after many cycles.