Look outside and within to solve any tough problem quickly

When you hit a wall with a challenge—be it a leaky sink or a stalled career strategy—a powerful remedy is to look for people who’ve already solved it. You start by scouting your own “bright spots,” those rare moments when you nailed a similar problem. Maybe last month you charmed a tough client by asking a simple question. Next, benchmark outside your team: reach out to colleagues or local pros who’ve succeeded in the same domain. Note their steps—often they’ll save you half the trial-and-error. Finally, do a mental “ladder up” by drawing analogies from adjoining industries: How do restaurateurs manage flow at peak hour? How do electricians troubleshoot wiring under time pressure? By cobbling insights from these three sources, you’ll generate a menu of options so varied it sparks your next breakthrough. This combination of internal successes, external best practices, and distant analogies fills gaps that single-source brainstorming never will.

Start by jotting down your last quick win on a sticky note. Next, identify one local expert or friend and ask two questions about how they solved it. Then, for a wild card, name two unrelated fields where a similar principle might apply and write down one borrowed idea from each. Finally, pick one of the three new approaches and sketch a mini-trial plan—run that test today.