Wall Street Journal Bestseller
New York Times bestselling author Dan Heath explores how to prevent problems before they happen, drawing on insights from hundreds of interviews with unconventional problem solvers and showing how leaders, teams, and organizations can shift from reaction to prevention.
So often in life, we get stuck in a cycle of response. We put out fires. We deal with emergencies. We stay downstream, handling one problem after another, but we never make our way upstream to fix the systems that caused the problems. Cops chase robbers, doctors treat patients with chronic illnesses, and call-center reps address customer complaints. But many crimes, chronic illnesses, and customer complaints are preventable. So why do our efforts skew so heavily toward reaction rather than prevention?
Upstream probes the psychological forces that push us downstream-including "problem blindness," which can leave us oblivious to serious problems in our midst. And Heath introduces us to the thinkers who have overcome these obstacles and scored massive victories by switching to an upstream mindset. One online travel website prevented twenty million customer service calls every year by making some simple tweaks to its booking system. A major urban school district cut its dropout rate in half after it figured out that it could predict which students would drop out-as early as the ninth grade. A European nation almost eliminated teenage alcohol and drug abuse by deliberately changing the nation's culture. And one EMS system accelerated the emergency-response time of its ambulances by using data to predict where 911 calls would emerge-and forward-deploying its ambulances to stand by in those areas.
Upstream delivers practical solutions for problem prevention, systems change, and better decision-making rather than reacting to them. How many problems in our lives and in society are we tolerating simply because we've forgotten that we can fix them? Dan Heath is the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor/author of six books, including Made to Stick, Switch, and The Power of Moments. His books have sold over four million copies worldwide and been translated into thirty-five languages. Dan also hosts the award-winning podcast What It's Like to Be…, which explores what it's like to walk in the shoes of people from different professions (a mystery novelist, a cattle rancher, a forensic accountant, and more). A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard Business School, he lives in Durham, North Carolina. "Author Dan Heath's narration of this absorbing audiobook sounds as smooth and self-assured as his writing. He's mastered the art of creating spellbinding narratives and questions, followed by fascinating research summaries and well-organized insights. With the sound of his youthful engagement in full song from start to finish, Heath explains how individuals and institutions can become less reactive to problems and more focused on anticipating their causes and preventing them. Heath's examples are wide ranging-from social problems like school dropout rates to management, health, and interpersonal dilemmas. . . . the audio as a whole has a curious power that will inspire listeners to become more proactive about life's large and small problems."
