Upstream by: Dan Heath

We often find ourselves reacting to problems, putting out fires, dealing with emergencies. We should shift our attention to preventing…

Aram Koukia April 2, 2022 2 min read

Upstream by: Dan Heath

We often find ourselves reacting to problems, putting out fires, dealing with emergencies. We should shift our attention to preventing them.

7 Questions to ask yourself:

1. How to get early warning of the problem?

Deploy sensors

Look for predictors

Watch for false positives

1. How to know you are succeeding?

Pre-game your measures

Use paired measures

Watch for Ghost Victories

1. How to avoid doing harm?

Look beyond the immediate

Close feedback loop

Watch for failure to test and overconfidence

1. Who will pay for what doesn’t happen?

Align incentives

Stitch together pockets of value

Watch for the wrong pocket problem

1. How to unite the right people?

Surround the problem

Use data for learning

Watch for data for inspection

1. How to change the system?

Fight for systems change

Shape the water

Watch for enabling a flawed system

1. Where to find a point of leverage?

Get closer to the problem

Watch for notion that prevention must save money

Barriers to overcome:

1. Tunneling: “I can’t deal with that right now”
2. Lack of ownership: “That’s not my problem to solve“
3. Problem Blindness: “I don’t see the problem, or, it seems inevitable”