Hercule Poirot is an endearingly arrogant Belgian detective who solves murders by using insight generated from his “little grey cells.”

Miss Marple is an old lady who assists Scotland Yard solve murders because of her understanding of “human nature”. Outsight.

Sure. Both are characters fictionalized by Agatha Christie. But they are examples of insight versus outsight.  Poirot’s superpower is insight. Miss Marple is someone who regularly practices outsight.

Insight is personal reflection and internal engagement.  And this is important. Self-knowledge and Myers-Briggs and strengths assessments and all the tools to grow in deeper self-awareness.  They’re good. They can be helpful.

And they’re common.

Outsight is less intuitive and  harder work. And less common.

Outsight requires observation and the ability to ask great questions. It is living outside of your own head. It is empathy.  But it is more than empathy because in the very process of being empathetic, the person who practices outsight connects the disparate dots and finds solutions.

And those solutions are often of great value.

Most tend to problem-solve like Poirot, because insight is natural.

You could assist solving some of the thorniest problems in your workplace the same way Miss Marple solves murders. Practice outsight.

Besides, we would all live in a better place if there were more Miss Marples in this world.