Common Problem Solving Mistakes That Hinder Solutions

What is this page about?

A catalog of common problem-solving mistakes, opening with Target's 5.4 billion dollar Canadian expansion failing because leadership treated symptoms (supply chain) while the root causes were location, assortment, and price. It covers jumping to solutions, treating symptoms rather than root causes, confirmation bias in analysis, accepting the first explanation, analysis paralysis, optimizing the wrong metrics, binary thinking, not involving the right perspectives, and anchoring on sunk costs, with the meta-mistake being the absence of a structured process.

What has been corrected on this page?

Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.

1. 11 July 2026 · corrected by Emir Baycan

   Vuori and Huy's Nokia study was published in Administrative Science Quarterly (2016), not the Academy of Management Journal.

   Before

   studied by researchers Timo Vuori and Quy Huy at INSEAD (Academy of Management Journal, 2016)

   After

   studied by researchers Timo Vuori and Quy Huy at INSEAD (Administrative Science Quarterly, 2016)

   Why: Vuori and Huy's Nokia study was published in Administrative Science Quarterly (2016), not the Academy of Management Journal. Verified the live article body already cites the correct journal. The faq field does not mention Vuori, Huy, or the Nokia case study at all, so no secondary fix was needed there.

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1 contributor has checked "Common Problem Solving Mistakes That Hinder Solutions" on When Notes Fly. Each name below links to that person's public CitePep profile, where every contribution they have made is listed with the exact change they proposed.