When teams get stuck, they do the most human thing possible: They try harder. More meetings. More whiteboards. More of the same people staring at the same problem in the same room. After 30 years leading creativity and innovation at Disney—and now running workshops with organizations around the world—I can tell you that trying harder is almost never the answer. Looking elsewhere almost always is.
I call it the “Where Else?” tool. It’s one of the simplest creative thinking techniques I know, and it consistently produces some of the most surprising results. When your team hits a wall, stop asking, “How do we solve this?” and start asking, “Where else has someone already solved this?” That’s it. One question. But the answers it unlocks are extraordinary.
I’ve written previously about how we applied this at Disney. In this series, I’ll break down each step even further, starting with the one most teams rush past.
Applying ‘Where Else?’ With Your Team
Here’s a brief overview of how to run a “Where Else?” session in your next meeting:
1. Define your challenge in one clear sentence. Not a paragraph—one sentence. Vague challenges produce vague inspiration.
2. Ask three questions. Where else has someone already solved this challenge? Where else in nature does the interaction we’re trying to create already occur? Where else do we see the enthusiasm, behavior or outcome we want from our customers?
3. Actually go look. Assign people to industries completely unrelated to yours, whether that’s healthcare, aviation, hospitality, agriculture or sports. The further from your world, the better.
4. Bring it back to the room. Ask: “How might we apply the underlying principle of this to our challenge?” Not the execution. The principle. That distinction is everything.
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