The Jordan Harbinger Show 350: Dan Heath | Solving Problems from Upstream
May 12, 2020
Dan Heath, a Senior Fellow at Duke University's CASE center and co-author of several bestsellers, discusses the power of upstream thinking. He highlights how society often overlooks simple solutions to persistent problems. The conversation delves into the failures of reactive approaches during crises like Hurricane Katrina and the pandemic. Heath contrasts the U.S. healthcare system’s focus on treatment over prevention with more proactive strategies from other countries. He shares innovative examples of preventative measures and urges a mindset shift towards addressing root causes.
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Episode notes
The Drowning Children Parable
- A parable illustrates upstream thinking: rescuing drowning children is downstream.
- Going upstream means finding the source of the problem, like the person throwing the children in.
Rewarding Downstream
- Downstream work gets rewarded because it's tangible and easily measured, unlike prevention.
- Proving prevention's effectiveness requires proving something didn't happen, which is challenging.
The Two Police Officers
- Two police officers illustrate contrasting approaches: one prevents accidents, the other issues tickets.
- The officer preventing accidents does more for public safety, but the ticketing officer gets rewarded more.
