To Korean readers
What is Upstream?
A website that saved $100 million by changing its mindset | What is Upstream? | Why we always lock the barn door after the horse has bolted | Is reporting a crime the best way to solve it? | The American healthcare system and upstream | Let's go upstream!

Part 1: Why We Struggle with the Same Problems Today as Yesterday

Chapter 1.
Because you don't know if the problem in front of you is a problem: problem apathy
Why NFL Players Are Chronically Injured | Chicago Public Schools Raise Kids' Graduation Rates by 25 Percent | Why Did Radiologists Never See the Gorilla? | Fix It or Make It Worse: The Two Faces of Habituation | The Invisible Battle Over Problem Agnosia | Allow Natural Births! | Change Begins When You Accept the Problem

Chapter 2.
The question, "Can I really step forward?": Lack of ownership
If not me, no one can solve it | Make people feel connected to the problem | Why pediatricians advocated for mandatory car seats | The surprising results of ownership | From being a victim of the problem to being the owner of the problem

Chapter 3.
A little later, after I take care of the urgent matters: tunneling syndrome
Why is upstream activity so rare? | Tunneling Syndrome that blinds us | Why smart people form dumb organizations | Laziness is necessary to escape the tunnel | The brain, instinct, and risk aversion | How humans almost became frogs in a pot | How to use our instincts to upstream.

7 Action Strategies to Move Upstream Part 2

Chapter 4.
Recruit the people you need to drive home the seriousness of the problem: Talent
Teens Take Over the Streets | A New Vision for Combating Drugs and Alcohol | Reduce Risks and Increase Protective Factors | Surround the Problem for Upstream Intervention | Women Falling Through the Cracks of the System | The Secrets Gibbs Revealed in Crime Scene Photos | Building a Dream Team to Tackle Domestic Violence | Organizational Success and Data Success | How Rockford Solved Homelessness in One Year | A Mindset-Shifting Victory

Chapter 5.
Redesign the structure that causes the problem: the system
Sweden and Afghanistan in the same city | “But what is water?” | Whether you know it or not, it’s all about the system | A sad tragedy in the social welfare field | Should Donerschoos be abolished? | Don’t solve problems at an individual level | Create power! Start the change! | Even if I’m not the one who reaches the finish line

Chapter 6.
Find the levers you need to solve the problem: Explore the intervention points.
Find the levers you need for success! | A new equation for violence | Becoming a man | Different ways to focus on problems | Is this lever really the right one? | Medical students who left the classroom | Finding the real way to approach problems

Chapter 7.
Create a system to predict risks: Building an alert system
LinkedIn nearly halved its churn rate in two years | The power of early warning: minutes or seconds, saving lives and money | The warning systems that permeate our daily lives | Why thyroid cancer is on the rise in Korea | Sometimes, being wrong is better | Evan and the "Safe to Say Something" program

Chapter 8.
Question the Data: Avoiding Phony Wins
Beware of Illegible Victories | First Illegible Victory: When External Factors Drive Goals | Second Illegible Victory: When Short-Term Measures Succeed but Miss the Original Goal | Third Illegible Victory: When Short-Term Goals Actually Get in the Way of the Ultimate Goal | Use Dual Measurement | Four Questions to Ask Before Upstreaming

Chapter 9.
Beware the Cobra Effect: Avoiding Side Effects
The environmentalists' war on Macquarie Island | The system is more complex than we think | The unexpected side effect: the cobra effect | What kind of scars will the doctor leave behind? | So fast and accurate that it can't possibly improve | How to create a feedback system | A wise leader asks questions before acting | From humility to great success
Chapter 10.
Ultimately, the issue is money: cost.
Who pays for things that never happen? | When money goes into and comes out of the same pocket | When money goes into and comes out of different pockets | Solving the wrong pocket problem | What if someone told you before your appliances broke? | Waving the carrot! Get people moving!

Part 3: Beyond Upstream

Chapter 11.
How to Deal with Unprecedented or Unexpected Problems
Unavoidable, Uncommon, or Unbelievable | Was the Y2K Problem Just a Frantic Frenzy? | If Damage Occurs Despite Predicting the Problem | How New Orleans Averted the Worst | Habits Will Save Us | The Black Ball That Could Destroy Civilization | The Prophet's Dilemma Must Continue

Chapter 12.
Final advice for those moving upstream
Daddy Doll, a doll with a father inside | Leave your problems aside and start from the everyday | If you want to break free from yourself and leap toward a bigger goal | Take on the challenge! Get started! Change your organization!

Next steps
supplement.
Why programs that work for the few don't work for the many
Acknowledgements
annotation

Are you going upstream to really solve the problem?
Are we content to repeat the same thing downstream?

You must overcome the instinct to avoid the situation right in front of you!
How to overcome comfortable weakness and face real problems, Upstream

You went on a picnic to the river with your friends.
A child floats down the river, crying out for help.
When you rescue one, another one comes down, and when you rescue one, another one floats down.
Something must have happened upstream.
Will you head upstream to solve the problem, or will you simply scoop up the endless stream of children floating downstream? "Upstream" is the new book from Dan Heath, the author of "Stick!" and "Switch," beloved by three million readers worldwide.
Dan Heath begins Upstream with the above anecdote.
When most people hear this story, they will say they should go upstream and find out what happened.
But we don't actually do that.
Instead of going upstream, we focus on small solutions that save children.
Because the cause remains, the problem repeats itself, and we tire of only dealing with fake problems.
This is the "downstream" problem that the author says hinders the progress of all organizations and lives.


The author asks us, who are only looking at what is right in front of our noses, painful questions.
Are you wasting time addressing recurring small issues? Are you postponing urgent matters with the excuse that you have more pressing concerns? Are you trapped in a tunnel of vision and thinking due to money, time, or circumstances? Are you mistakenly believing your problems aren't your own? This book argues that if we move beyond these short-sighted, stopgap measures prevalent in society and individuals and adopt a more fundamental, "upstream" approach, drastically different outcomes are possible.
There are many examples of companies that fell into organizational traps but overcame them, such as a bicycle company that reduced its product delivery rate by 80% by printing expensive TV pictures on its boxes (page 142), LinkedIn that reduced its churn rate by 50% by predicting which customers would cancel their service (page 180), and a high school that increased its graduation rate by over 20% by focusing its resources on first-year (9th grade) students (page 42).


In doing so, it presents three reasons why we continue to struggle with the same problems (problem apathy, lack of ownership, tunneling syndrome) and seven upstream strategies (exploring talent, systems, and intervention points, etc.) for truly solving the problem.
It makes you realize your own weakness in avoiding the real problem while solving only small problems, and provides realistic upstream solutions.
As in his previous works, "Stick!" and "Switch," the author accurately points out the most fundamental points for personal and social change.


Why do employees only act passively?
Why do smart people become stupid when they get together?

Finding the real problem with data
Focus your organization's resources on the target!

"Upstream" is also helpful for leaders of companies and organizations.
When we look at each individual employee, they are talented individuals with strengths and abilities, but when they work together, they often lose their long-term perspective and vision and become short-sighted.
The biggest problem is when we focus solely on achieving the goals set for organizational innovation, thereby distorting the original intended innovation itself.
What can we do about police who focus on "playing cop"—catching traffic violations—rather than working hard to prevent traffic accidents? How can we stop police officers who downplay rape as "service theft" to achieve crime reduction goals?

What about school principals who are desperate to transfer underachieving students to boost graduation rates? How can we change an organizational culture where setting specific goals only achieves numbers, contrary to the original intent? This book provides vivid examples of how upstream behavior can be used to transform organizational culture and translate that into results.
To avoid falling into the trap of "company play"—setting lofty goals, only increasing the achievement rate, and praising yourself—you can gain several weapons to focus on.


Of the weapons the author has handed me, one that is particularly interesting is the 'double measurement method'.
"Upstream" tells us that simple data obscures the problem, so we need to use a dual measurement method that considers both quality and quantity.
For example, in Boston, a curious phenomenon was discovered where sidewalk repairs were concentrated in wealthy neighborhoods with good sidewalks, rather than poor neighborhoods with severe sidewalk damage.
The poor did not file complaints because they thought the government would not help them, and the politicians only listened to the rich.
This phenomenon cannot be detected by relying solely on faulty data such as the number of complaints handled.


But most leaders use data only as a whip for rewards and punishments, enslaving their employees and ultimately exacerbating the problem.
In addition, "Upstream" offers solutions to numerous challenges faced by leaders and organizations seeking to solve problems, including how to accurately assess organizational performance, how to prevent adverse effects from incorrect measures, and how to identify appropriate intervention points for problem resolution.

From the small, daily chores
Public areas for all of us, including healthcare, welfare, and education.
There is a different way to deal with the fundamental problem.

"Upstream" provides a "frame" for examining and identifying problems in numerous social phenomena, including not only individual lives but also corporate operations and public issues.
For example, the author frequently cites the American health care system as an example of a problem in the public sector.
The US has a distorted system (downstream) where it spends astronomical amounts of money to cure diseases after they occur, while it neglects effective methods (upstream) that cost a small amount of money to prevent major diseases.


On the other hand, Korea has suffered side effects such as a 15-fold increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer (which is not particularly fatal) due to excessive health checkups.
Perhaps the best example of an upstream solution is Kelly Dunn and Jacqueline Campbell's '20-Item Questionnaire'.
They noticed several patterns in the way women were abused by their husbands and ended up murdered, and created a questionnaire to prevent these disasters.
Another good example would be a smart elevator that checks if the elevator door closes slowly and sends a repairman before a breakdown occurs.


The "upstream" frame is a universal problem-solving framework that helps us honestly look at the true source of a problem and pinpoint the precise point of intervention.
We often ignore the bigger problems by looking for small solutions, but because we all make such weak choices, lives are ruined and buildings collapse.
Are your decisions now truly directed upstream? When you're tempted to close the door to shallow satisfaction, this is the mindset you need to recall once again. It's a mindset you must master for your own life and our society: "upstream."