Raymond A. Mason School of Business Events

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Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen 

So often in our organizations and communities, we fall into a cycle of reaction. A problem happens, and we respond. We fight fires. We contend with emergencies. Researchers call this "tunneling": We don't see the big picture, and we don't think about the future, we just keep pushing forward from one crisis to the next. What if instead we could shift our energies upstream -- uncovering and addressing the source of those problems?

In this webinar, Dan Heath will reveal how some leaders have learned to spot problems in advance: There's a school district that can predict which students will drop out -- 4 years before graduation. There's an internet service company that can predict which customers are likely to cancel their subscriptions -- as early as two weeks after they sign up! When we shift from downstream response to upstream planning, it can cause miracles: One company eliminated 20 million customer support calls by asking, "How can we make sure our customers never need to call us?"

Dan will share the three forces that push us downstream, as well as the powerful levers we can use to start preventing problems before they happen.

Dan Heath is the co-author, along with his brother Chip, of four long-running bestsellers: Made to Stick, Switch, Decisive, and the The Power of Moments. The Heath Brothers’ books have sold over three million copies worldwide and been translated into 33 languages. Dan’s new book Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen debuted in March 2020 and was named one of the best books of the month by Apple’s iBooks and the Financial Times.

Contact

Questions? Contact Mason Alumni Relations at alumnirelations@mason.wm.edu.

This Event Appears On

• Arts & Sciences Events
• Government Events
• Raymond A. Mason School of Business Events
• Mason Alumni Events
• Washington Area Alumni Business Alliance (WAABA) Events
• Mason Alumni of Color Network