This book is about examining a fundamental question all public servants ask themselves (or should ask themselves) at some point in their career: How do we solve problems before they happen? The author, Dan Heath, explains the concept of ‘upstream thinking’ and shares practical ways of solving issues or reducing their impact as best as possible before they occur. The book covers aspects ranging from how to approach complex problems, how to instil upstreaming thinking in your own mind and the challenges (and opportunities) of facing seemingly impossible-to-solve problems.

So often in my life I’ve come across a problem and thought to myself “That’s just the way it is.” But in recent years I’ve begun to challenge myself, asking: “Why is that? Who decided this is how things should be? Was this intentional? Can this be changed?”

In government, we work diligently to improve the wellbeing of citizens across the globe: be it senior citizens, local residents, students, people of colour, lower-income folks and many more. Across multiple aspects of their life as well: travel, local parks, education, etc. But in order to truly improve people’s lives, we have to face the elephant in the room – that many problems hold us back, and in order to move forward, we need to fix them at the source. This book is a major step towards instilling that mindset in us.

I was surprised by its practicality when using ‘frames’ or new ways of looking at things. The one lesson that has stuck with me since I read it is “data for learning” or developing ways of tracking feedback and information through a lens of “what is important to know, what is it telling us, and how do we use it to improve?”

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