HBR On Leadership Bring More Discipline to Your Decision-Making
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Dec 3, 2025 
Corey Phelps, the Dean of Penn State’s Smeal College of Business and coauthor of Cracked It!, dives into the complexities of problem-solving. He discusses the cognitive biases that lead leaders to hastily jump to solutions and introduces the 4S method for disciplined decision-making: State, Structure, Solve, and Sell. Phelps warns against the pitfalls of analogical reasoning and emphasizes collaboration to broaden perspectives. Finally, he highlights the importance of advocating solutions to gain stakeholder support.
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Default To Fast Thinking Causes Bad Fixes
- Our brains default to fast, intuitive thinking that drives premature solutions.
- Slowing into deliberative, structured thinking reveals real problems and avoids biased fixes.
Expertise Narrows Your Field Of View
- Experts filter problems through their familiar toolkits, which narrows attention.
- Collaboration matters because no single expert holds all the tools needed for complex problems.
Apple Stores Failed At JCPenney
- Ron Johnson brought Apple store tactics to JCPenney and rolled them out fast across 1,100 stores.
- His untested ideas failed because JCPenney customers loved discounts and differed from Apple shoppers.
