Are
you the odd one out?
Back in Australia, preparations
are underway for my 20 year high school reunion.  Sadly,
I won't be attending – the 24 hour flight from Canada
makes that commute a
tad difficult. I really wish I could go. I'm deeply curious
to see what paths people have taken, knowing that no one foresaw
then, where (and who) they'd be now.
One group of people I'd
be interested in seeing
are those who were on
the edges, those who
were a little different
and a little weird. In
high school (as in any
place) different and
weird can be a cold and
lonely place. But it
can also be the place
where the interesting
stuff is happening, where
the pressure to toe the
line and conform is ignored.
That resonates today
for me as I do work in
organizations to help
them change and evolve.
Rather than bringing
in outside experts to
explain "best practice",
an approach that is gaining
popularity looks within
the system to the "positive
deviants". It's
a concept I first read
about five years ago
in a Fast Company article
that told of a Save the
Children project in Vietnam.
In its quest to feed
malnourished children
in an impossible time
frame, the project leaders
inverted the traditional
approach to change with
stunning success. At
the heart of the project
was this concept of positive
deviants, which I talk
about more below.
Know anyone who's a positive deviant? Know anyone
who should know about
positive deviants? Please
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Michael Bungay Stanier
Principal, Box of Crayons
Don't
take my word for it
"Without deviation, progress is
not possible."
Frank Zappa, musician
"The weirder you're going to
behave, the more normal you should look.
It works in reverse, too. When I see
a kid with three or four rings in his
nose, I know there is absolutely nothing
extraordinary about that person."
P J O'Rourke, author
"You have to be deviant if you're
going to do anything new."
David Lee, producer of TV show Frasier
Positive
deviants
In the 1990s, Jerry Sternin was invited
by the Vietnamese government to come and
battle infant malnutrition. It was a tough
task made near impossible by the time frame
given: six months. That meant that the
traditional systemic approaches to change
of fixing water supplies, sanitation, and
food distribution patterns didn't
have a chance.
Sternin's different approach was
based on the observation that in every
group there are a minority of people who
find better and more successful solutions
to the challenges at hand. These are the
positive deviants, and even thought they
have access to exactly the same resources
as the rest of the group, their uncommon
practices or behaviours allow them to flourish.
A metaphor that sums up the insight behind
the Positive Deviance approach is that
of the human immune system. Like the immune
system, individuals and institutions reject
what is perceived as "foreign matter".
Strategies for change that are externally
generated rather than "invented from
within" fail to take hold. The positive
deviant approach builds the solution from
within the system so that both the solution
and the host share the same "DNA".
Those in a community or organization are
helped to discover the positive deviants
in their midst, understand the strategies
they employ and then create among themselves
a process for enrolling the larger community
in the desired change.
In Vietnam, Sternin worked with four villages
and had the women chart infant growth by
age and weight. As part of that process,
Sternin asked if there were any children
who came from poor families but were nonetheless
well nourished. This was the "a-ha!" moment
for the Vietnamese mothers – they
realized that it was possible for a poor
family to have well-nourished children.
It became apparent that there were a number
of differences in how the positive deviants
fed their children:
- First, they fed them small but regular
meals (as opposed to once or twice
a day)
- Second, they were willing to feed them
greens and small crabs, food that the
social norms had decreed as low-class
and common, even though they were nutritious.
Sternin
and his team set up a number of processes
where the mothers were exposed to this
different approach of feeding their children,
processes where the mothers actually
experienced the benefits of eating the
foods (rather than just being told about
them).
The Fast Company article lays out a number
of key principles behind the Positive
Deviant approach. Three that stood out
for me were:
- Identify conventional wisdom. You need
to know what's "normal" (what
you can do, what you can't do)
before you can understand what might
deviate from it.
- Identify and analyze the deviants.
Who's behaving in a different way… and
succeeding?
- Let the deviants adopt deviations on
their own. This, Sternin says, is absolutely
critical. It's not about reporting
on a "best practice", but
to set up ways for the news to spread
from the "deviants" themselves.
When it's down in black and white
like this, it can all sound obvious.
So why don't "positive deviants" thrive
more often? There are a number of reasons.
First, when things need to change the
focus tends to be on what's broken.
Rather than relentlessly trying to fix
what's broken, the positive deviant
approach (which is closely related to
the Appreciative Inquiry school of thought)
looks to find what's good and what's
working, and then seeks to amplify it.
A second reason we resist the model of
positive deviants is the power of strong
social norms. For all the focus on our
bold individuality, we still seem to
be an animal that finds comfort in the
herd. Charles Mackay writes "Men,
it has been well said, think in herds;
it will be seen that they go mad in herds,
while they only recover their senses
slowly, and one by one."
And a third reason to resist deviating
is our societal practice to blame those
that are different when things go wrong.
This is a recognized phenomenon – creating
a scapegoat. It's most classic
form is when an outsider is brought in
to "save the day", only for
the organization to turn against them
and blame them when the system does not
change.
SOMETHING
TO PRACTICE
What's the challenge you're
facing?
Who is tackling a similar challenge in
a "deviant" way… and
succeeding?
What are they doing that's counterintuitive… but
works?
What ideas can you borrow from them?
How are you "wimping out" because
you're bowing to social norms?
What would the bold action be?
What would be the cost of doing something
different? What's at risk for you?
WANT TO LEARN MORE? HERE ARE SOME USEFUL
"DEVIANT" RESOURCES
The Fast Company article
on Jerry Sternin that started it all for
me:
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/41/sternin.html
Bibliography from the Positive
Deviance Initiative: http://www.positivedeviance.org/materials/bib_subj.html
The Plexus Institute draws
on the concept of Positive Deviance in
the work it does. Its mission: Fostering
the health of individuals, families, communities
and organizations and our natural environment
by helping people use concepts emerging
from the new science of complexity.
http://www.plexusinstitute.org/about/index.cfm
Harvard Business
Review. The May 2005
edition will carry an article on Positive
Deviance, which you'll be able to
buy online.
The Thin Book of
Appreciative Inquiry [Canada US]
The Scapegoat Society,
a solid resource for further information
on the phenomena of the scapegoat. http://www.scapegoat.demon.co.uk
Comments?
Feedback?
Michael@BoxOfCrayons.biz
Norway
beckons
I'm
looking forward to the European ICF Conference
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If you're interested in hearing what
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Get
Unstuck and Get Going - the book
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Here's what people are saying about the tool:
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Because of its unique structure, you can
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Michael Bungay Stanier
helps people, teams and organizations to
get unstuck and get going
on the stuff that matters. You can find
out more at www.boxofcrayons.biz
or you can contact him directly at
Michael@BoxOfCrayons.biz
or +1 (416) 532-1322.
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