This question is top-of-mind for all of us, including me. So, when one of my favorite authors, Dan Heath, published a new book with a compelling subtitle called "The quest to solve problems before they happen", I began reading it with the hope that Dan had some key insights.
He does indeed! He titled his book "Upstream Thinking" because his insight is that we need to stop treating symptoms and start treating causes. In order to save people from drowning in the turbulent river down the stream, we need to prevent people from getting into the turbulence up the stream in the first place!
But isn't this obvious? It isn't.
According to Dan Heath, there are three key obstacles that come in the way of Upstream Thinking:
We are blind to the problem.
We don't take ownership of the problem.
We get into a tunneled mindset.
In order to overcome these obstacles, his research shows that Upstreamists ask 7 key questions:
How will you unite the right people?
How will you change the system?
Where can you find a point of leverage?
How will you get an early warning of the problem?
How will you know you are succeeding?
How will you avoid doing harm?
Who will pay for what does not happen?
To stop the next pandemic, cyber-attack, humanitarian crisis, or the next climate catastrophe, we all need to change our mindset and behaviors to become Upstreamists.
Lets join hands in applying Upstream Thinking to make our world a better place.