> it could be because they are foolishing running into a wall that they could easily go around if they stepped back for a second and considered what they had set out to do in the first place.

Note to self: Remember this, whenever you feel stuck and look at the problem in perspective.

My experience, tells me this is one of the biggest guidance a technical/engineering manager must be able to provide to his team. I am not sure how hard or easy or for that matter even makes sense from the manager/lead's perspective, it is to provide this, but have found that whenever my manager is asking me to speed-up i run into these problems and lose the ability to judge whether i'm running against a wall or not.