There is some evidence we can and in an easy way, by exploiting the effect of 'psychological distance'.
Instead of thinking about a problem solely in terms of here and now, we should project our mind to distant places and times, try to consider the problem from another person's standpoint and so on. How would the problem appear to an inhabitant of a planet billions of light years away?
Research reported in Scientific American suggest this technique may really help us to be more inventive and creative.
And how did the prisoner divide the rope?