On a recent Saturday morning, many of you were probably doing what I was doing . . . the inevitable, never ending task of laundry. Load one of 12 was washed and ready to be transferred to the dryer. As the dryer started, I heard an unusual noise. My first diagnosis was a coin from my husband's pocket slipped out and found its way into the lint collector and was now inside the internal workings of the dryer. Now what? Call the repair person, or option two, fix it myself!

I pulled the dryer away from the wall to see if lurking behind the dryer was another clue to this obnoxious noise. Nothing. Nothing but two years of lint, the world's largest collection of plastic hangers and the "missing sock" to all of our single socks.

Before resorting to unscrewing the back of the dryer to investigate the internal workings of the dryer, I opened the door and took one final look inside the dryer. In the upper right hand side of the round drum, a small screw, (that had been in my husband's pocket) was lodged in the back of the dryer. I simply reached inside the dryer and removed the screw with very little effort. Yes, an easy solution to what could have been a very expensive, laborious task of tearing apart the dryer and run the risk of not being able to reconstruct it to its original form.

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the Tipping Point says this about tightly focused, targeted interventions that might dismiss Band Aid solutions: "The Band-Aid solution is actually the best kind of solution because it involves solving a problem with the minimum amount of effort and time and cost. We have, of course, an instinctive disdain for this kind of solution because there is something in all of us that feels that true answers have to be comprehensive. There are times when we need a convenient shortcut, a way to make a lot out of a little, and that is what Tipping Points, in the end are all about."

I'm not claiming that I had a tipping point moment with my dryer on that Saturday, but I can't stop thinking about my good fortune. I had a simple solution staring me right in the eye, but I had to look for it, and recognize when it was there. I was able to remove the tiny screw without dismantling the dryer or calling a repair person.

I would challenge you to think about the simple solutions that may be right in front of you. Are you over-analyzing, over planning or micro-managing your projects and strategic plans, or do you have the solution right in front of you?

Julie Stillman is a Training Consultant at Tero International, Inc. She helps clients build their skills and knowledge in communication, personal effectiveness and leadership through facilitation of Tero workshops and Executive Coaching.