Sustaining community and organizational change: The positive deviance approach

Positive Deviance Initiative. (2010). Basic Field Guide to the Positive Deviance Approach. Boston, MA: Tufts University.

Description

Positive deviance is the idea that unconventional methods of change can lead to the discovery of more effective solutions to problems. The positive deviance approach moves from the idea of the individualistic, top-down "champion of change" to community-driven processes of discovery and innovation. Positive deviants are individuals or groups that have used unconventional approaches to gain successful outcomes.

The positive deviance approach is used to initiate and sustain innovative organizational change. This method encourages community-led discovery of problems and solutions to drive innovative and sustainable change within an organization. This assets-based approach focuses on and amplifies unconventional practices that have produced successful outcomes.

The positive deviance approach was first used to create social change for large, complex problems, such as childhood malnutrition in poor communities. The approach has since been adopted to inform the organizational change process. The approach has also been adopted in different sectors, such as public health, education, nutrition and health care. Examples of case studies for the positive deviance approach include malnutrition in Mali and Vietnam, dropout rates in rural Argentina schools, human trafficking of girls in East Java, HIV/AIDS in Myanmar and female circumcision in Egypt.

Another resource related to innovation and organizational change is the Framework for Adopting an Evidence-Informed Innovation. This method describes the characteristics of innovation and its relationship with decision-making processes.

The positive deviance approach:

  • is asset based;
  • is learning driven;
  • taps into the expertise of the group;
  • leverages innovation from the community;
  • uses existing resources and assets purposely and extensively; and
  • creates a safe and supportive environment to learn through doing.

Steps for Using Method/Tool

Leaders and community or organizational members are equally involved in implementing this method.

Leaders are responsible for:

  • connecting people and groups to build a team of relevant stakeholders to participate in the change process;
  • facilitating multi-targeted communication strategies;
  • inspiring ownership of the problem and solution among stakeholders; and
  • managing the data available on the problem and solution.

All members of the community or organization are stakeholders within the positive deviance approach. Stakeholders are responsible for:

  • owning the process of problem identification;
  • determining the presence of positive deviants;
  • discovering the specific and uncommon practices that enable positive deviants to prevent or solve an identified problem;
  • designing and developing activities to expand the positive deviant solutions; and
  • measuring, monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of its initiatives based on positive deviant findings.

The process of discovering positive deviants and their specific practices is an organization-wide process facilitated by leaders. A condition for this approach to be used is that positive deviants must be identified within an organization.

These summaries are written by the NCCMT to condense and to provide an overview of the resources listed in the Registry of Methods and Tools and to give suggestions for their use in a public health context. For more information on individual methods and tools included in the review, please consult the authors/developers of the original resources.

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