Upstream

 

Give me a moment to indulge a "business" book. And my apologies to anyone who works with or near me after I've read it. I'm a little obsessed with the notion of thinking upstream. And, I have Dax Shepard to blame for it.

I'm a disciple of Dax's Armchair Expert podcast and I've read several books solely because of their author's appearance on his show. I read Accidental Presidents because of his book, along with City of Girls. The next book on my list also ended up there because of the podcast. I haven't been steered wrong yet.

Dan Heath's appearance formally introduced me to the concept behind what I've known for some time: we can either keep fixing the same problems over and over or we can go upstream and figure out what's leading to these issues in the first place.

It's such a simple concept, but one that most businesses and organizations don't take the time to see. The book shows examples of major companies and mid-size cities using the concept to solve everything from customer service issues to homelessness. 

I love the concept, but like most business books, had the gist down in the first few chapters. The rest was just supporting evidence. Still, I've already used the phrase "I'd like to go upstream on this..." in an email to our company's controller, so I guess you could say the concept is sinking in. They can blame Dax Shepard for that.