Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen Audiobook (Free)

New York Instances bestselling author Dan Heath explores preventing complications before they happen, sketching on insights from a huge selection of interviews with unconventional problem solvers.

So often in lifestyle, we get stuck in a routine of response. We released fires. We deal with emergencies. We stay downstream, managing one issue after another, but we by no means make our method upstream to repair the systems that triggered the problems. Cops chase robbers, doctors treat patients with chronic illnesses, and call- about Upstream: The Goal to Solve Problems Before They Happen middle reps address customer problems. But many crimes, chronic illnesses, and customer problems are preventable. So why do our attempts skew so intensely toward reaction rather than prevention?

Upstream probes the psychological causes that drive us downstream—including “issue blindness,” that may leave us oblivious to serious problems in our midst. And Heath presents us towards the thinkers who’ve overcome these road blocks and scored substantial victories by switching for an upstream mentality. One online travel website prevented twenty million customer service calls every year by making some basic tweaks to its booking system. A significant urban school area lower its dropout rate in half after it figured out that it might predict which learners would drop out—as soon as the ninth grade. A European country almost removed teenage alcoholic beverages and substance abuse by deliberately changing the nation’s tradition. And one EMS system accelerated the emergency-response period of its ambulances by using data to forecast where 911 phone calls would emerge—and forward-deploying its ambulances to stand by in those areas.

Upstream delivers practical solutions for preventing complications instead of reacting to them. Just how many problems inside our lives and in society are we tolerating simply because we’ve forgotten that we can repair them?