Dan Heath is best-selling of author who wrote, along with his brother Chip, a number of amazing books such as Made to Stick, Decisive, Switch, and the Power of Moments. In Dan’s recent solo book, Upstream, he dives into the concept of solving problems before they exist and not simple rushing around to put out fires. A very clear example of this comes through Dan’s retelling of a parable, best known in world of public health and healthcare.
It is what inspired him to write the book. He tells it like this, “You and a friend are having a picnic on the bank of a river. And you’ve just laid down your picnic blankets, you’re about to have your meal when you hear a shout from the direction of the river. You look back and there’s a child thrashing around in the water, apparently drowning. So you both dive in, you fish the child out, you bring them to shore. Just as you’re starting to calm down you hear another shout. You look back, there’s a second child splashing around again, apparently drowning and so back in you go. You fish them out, then there are two more children who come along right behind and so begins this kind of revolving door of rescue, where you’re in and out, and fishing kids out and it’s exhausting work. And right about that time, you notice your friend is swimming to the shore, steps out, starts to walk away as though to leave you alone, and you cry out, “Hey, where are you going? I need your help. All these kids are drowning” and your friend says, “I’m going upstream to figure out who’s throwing all these kids in the river.”
So today, the Self-Help industry is a Billion Dollar industry. Fortune 500 companies are spending a great deal of money on speakers, seminars, and programs in enhance the leadership skills of their workforce. These are the best of the best. They are successful in their field but the space that they are looking to grow the most in is LEADERSHIP. These are the people drowning in the river. People are working hard to put out some “leadership fires” in businesses all over the world. Now what might it look like to take a run UPSTREAM?
Rather than wait to engage people in Leadership Training when they recognize they need it, let’s engage people sooner, in safer environments by introducing the concepts of leadership to young people. Leadership Training, like building any other muscle, takes time and reps. It is hard to get those reps when you are in pressurized corporate environments with a mortgage and family. The stakes are higher, so change is harder. Youth Sports, where kids are spending 15-20 hours a week is an environment chock full of leadership lessons and opportunities to get reps, figure out what works and doesn’t, and build a Leadership Foundation. The big opportunity is to introduce the leadership concepts to young athletes and allow leadership to become part of the experience.
I look forward to bringing Leadership to the next generation NOW before they need to be rescued from the river.
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