(3-min)
You may have read about an incident that occurred in the 9th century when the streets of a great city were first laid out. A huge granite boulder was lying in the way of an intended principal avenue, and bids were advertised for its removal. All proposals were exorbitantly high because there was no mechanical means for the removal of the boulder; no hard steel for drilling or cracking the stone; and no explosives except an inferior black powder for entertainment.
Finally, an 'insignificant peasant' appeared and offered to remove the boulder for a small fraction of the sum quoted by the other bidders. Since the risks were low, the city government authorized him to try his luck. The man rounded up some other peasants with spades and timbers, and they began digging a deep hole next to the rock. When the hole was deep enough, pre-set props were knocked out, and the boulder was peacefully rolled to its grave, where it rests to this day below street level.
The original bidders had viewed this problem in only two dimensions: HOW and WHERE to remove the huge granite boulder to some other place on the surface of the earth. However, with some creative thinking, the peasant got to the root of the real problem and perceived a third dimension, discovering a unique and better solution that contributed to economic improvement.
The peasant in the above story demonstrated that inexpensive solutions are very possible with a little creative thinking. You may not have a boulder-sized problem quite like the one above, but you could be caught up in a difficult situation where a helping hand with a fresh point of view is greatly appreciated. In business, most boulder-sized problems don’t start off so easy to spot. They are usually an accumulation of small overlooked issues within multiple sectors. Because of a bad domino effect, they grow to gigantic, disruptive, mountain-sized proportions.