We deal with emergencies. Book Summary: Upstream – The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath ... that didn’t happen. Here’s the truth. To prevent problems, it requires all upstream leaders to unite the right people (caregivers, insurers, patients). Can you guess what happened next? Read reviews from world’s largest community for readers. If you’re a police officer, it’s much easier to say, “I arrested this guy” than to say, “I spent my whole day talking to this wayward kid.”. The purpose of the book is to make that unconventional, but successful, problem-solving, conventional among the masses. The cobra effect occurs when an attempted solution to a problem makes the problem worse. The difference between upstream and downstream actions - Downstream efforts = efforts dedicated to reacting to problems once they’ve occurred. Heath created the book from interviews and stories about unconventional problem-solvers. My guest today explores why that is and what we can do to start solving the problems of business, life, and society before they become problems. Upstream was written by Dan Heath who is a New York Times best selling author. Read Upstream, the quest to solve problems before they happen by Dan Heath. I believe you’ll also enjoy other fantastic works by Chip and Dan: Made to Stick (to make your messages memorable), Decisive (to make better decisions), Switch (to make change easier) and the Power of Moments (to make your experiences memorable). 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! But crime and chronic disease and customer complaints are preventable! To treat to a customer call requires the effort of just one call-center representative. He discusses barriers to Upstream thinking and offers questions Upstream leaders need to … “Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen,” by Dan Heath, was just published March 3, 2020, and—here at home, hunkered and bunkered—I naively thought, “For once, I’ll read a book without a pen. If you can’t systematically solve problems, it dooms you to stay in an endless cycle of reaction. New York Times bestselling author Dan Heath examines how to prevent problems before they happen, drawing on insights from hundreds of interviews with unconventional problem solvers. So often in life, we get stuck in a cycle of response. Imagine this. Suddenly you hear a shout across the waters – a child is drowning. One online travel website prevented 20 million customer service calls every year by making some simple tweaks to its booking system. Smart devices that warn about leaks in oil pipelines. Sometimes self-interest is to blame. Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen. 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