Positive deviance is a method that identifies uncommon but successful behaviors or strategies used by individuals within a community or organization that enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers, despite facing similar constraints. It involves observing community members to identify "positive deviants" whose exceptional behaviors enable better outcomes, analyzing what exactly makes them successful, and sharing those insights with others to help solve community problems from within. Examples of positive deviance include Vietnamese families who fed their young children shrimp, crabs, and greens to prevent malnutrition, and Egyptian parents who fed a diet including eggs, beans, and vegetables contrary to custom. A positive deviant school integrated whole grains into its lunch menu despite barriers.

1. Positive
deviance

2. Question # 1
What is positive deviance?

3. In every community / organization / group, there are individuals
whose exceptional behaviours enable them to get better
results than everyone else with the same resources.
Without realizing it, these “positive deviants” have discovered the path to
success for the entire group if their secrets can be analysed and shared
with the rest of the group.
https://www.fastcompany.com/42075/positive-deviant
https://hbr.org/2010/06/positive-deviance-and-unlikely

4. https://pixabay.com/en/smilies-emoticons-especially-1607163/

5. To use the positive deviance method, start with
a beginner’s mind. Observe what people do.
Listen to what people say.
https://www.fastcompany.com/42075/positive-deviant

6. When you listen to and observe what people do, and how
they do what they do, you will see the positive deviants. It
will become clear that the deviants have found a better
way. Their results will prove it.
Analyse and list the behaviours that the deviants have in
common. Find out what exactly makes them successful.
https://www.fastcompany.com/42075/positive-deviant

7. From the positive deviance perspective, individual
difference is regarded as a community resource.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sme/the-power-of-positive-deviance-2054213.html

8. The positive deviants tell you what the heart
of the company is.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/positive-deviance-secret-weapon-success-darrell-saguity-boriboun/

9. The success of the positive deviance approach rests on its
ability to mobilise the community to identify
role models, who use uncommon, but successful
strategies to tackle common problems.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC527707/

10. https://www.aaccnet.org/publications/plexus/cfwplexus/library/books/Documents/WholeGrainsSummit2012/CPLEX-2013-1001-14B.pdf
The positive deviance approach is based on deep respect
for community, its members and its culture.
The positive deviance approach works by involving people
to help solve problems.

11. People, who discover a positive deviation, spread
the word, so other people can learn and develop
their own curiosity about it.
https://www.fastcompany.com/42075/positive-deviant

12. Question # 2
What are examples of
positive deviance?

13. In Northern Vietnam in 1990, more than 2/3 of all children between
the age of 1 and 4 were malnourished.
“Positive deviant” households were gathering freely
available shrimps and crabs from the rice paddies
each day and feeding them to the children along
with widely accessible greens. These nutrients, along with
hand-washing and more frequent feedings each day, were the
difference that made the difference.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sme/the-power-of-positive-deviance-2054213.html

14. We asked them if they knew of any children under age 3, who came
from poor families but were well nourished. The answer came back:
“Có” (pronounced Gah), the Vietnamese word for yes.
Then we asked, “You mean it’s possible today in this village for a very
poor family to have a well-nourished child?” Again, we got the same
answer: “Có, có, có.”
https://www.fastcompany.com/42075/positive-deviant

15. In Egypt, contrary to custom, parents of poor but well nourished
children were found to feed their children a diet that included eggs,
beans, and green vegetables.
Child nutrition programmes that provided opportunities to parents
of malnourished children to follow this and other new behaviours,
for example hand washing and hygienic food preparation, improved
child growth.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC527707/

16. https://www.aaccnet.org/publications/plexus/cfwplexus/library/books/Documents/WholeGrainsSummit2012/CPLEX-2013-1001-14B.pdf
A positive deviant school regularly integrated whole grains
into the school lunch menu despite barriers such as extra
preparation time.

17. https://pixabay.com/en/poppy-only-isolated-form-ile-red-1819645/

18. Questions for you

19. What examples of positive deviants can you think of?

20. What can you do to become a positive deviant?