Read Of The Week (May 31st to June 6th)

In his new book ‘Upstream’, New York Times bestselling author Dan Heath asks what happens when we take our thinking upstream and try to prevent problems before they happen. Why ‘solve’ crimes when we could stop them from being committed? Why treat chronic diseases when they could be prevented from developing? Why provide shelter for the homeless rather than working to keep people housed in the first place? Why do our efforts skew so heavily towards reaction rather than prevention? We all have a tendency to work around problems. We are resourceful. We improvise. We’re so accustomed to managing emergencies as they strike that we often don’t stop to think about how we could prevent crises before they happen. The notion of preventing problems is an evergreen need in our professional and daily lives. Drawing on insights from his own extensive research, as well as hundreds of new interviews with unconventional problem-solvers, he delivers practical solutions for preventing problems rather than simply reacting to them.