Power of Positive Deviance

Isn’t ‘Positive Deviance’ an Oxymoron (a figure of speech that combines contradictory words with opposite meanings)? If there is a deviance (non-conformance), how can it be positive?  Well, contradictions can be Creative. Collaborative. Disruptive. Innovative. Leading to Sustainable Solutions. Explained by the Theory of Power of Positive Deviance!

The Positive Deviance (PD) approach is “based on the observation that in every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviours and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers, while having access to the same resources and facing similar or worse challenges.” …In simple terms it means ‘Solution to a problem lies within the problem itself’. Only an outlier individual or group can find it. They involuntarily and unconsciously apply the Power of PD. 

Sample these….

Problem statement: “The legal sector lacks social intermediaries to help people navigate the law on the ground. Getting an FIR registered, visiting a government office, applying for social welfare are all actions that people often have to do by themselves. For those who don’t work in the legal industry, these can be daunting tasks.”

Solution: “What the law needs right now is the equivalent of ASHA workers, and at Outlawed, we are currently creating a platform of paralegals providing services to low-income and vulnerable communities who cannot afford legal aid, in order to enable them to independently access law and justice. We facilitate up-skilling and awareness workshops for government school students, Anganwadi workers, daily wage labourers, etc. Our focus is on building skills such as filing RTI applications, filing PILs, getting a complaint filed with the police, etc”.

……says Outlawed Founder, Vibha Nadig, a young NLSUI lawyer who started this not-for-profit company for the ‘underserved communities’ by involving their own members, trained by volunteer law students. Incidentally the first cohort of paralegals have just graduated in August, 2024!

Problem statement: The year was 1905. Young men were struggling to speak in public, conduct meetings, plan programmes and work in committees. A young gentleman, Ralph C Smedley who worked at YMCA held many informal meetings to give them an opportunity to speak. Yet they lacked self-confidence to communicate. 

Solution: Smedley set up the first official club of the Toastmasters International in October, 1924 (after 19 years of relentless efforts!) in Santa Ana, California to help men hone their communication skills in a formal meeting setup.

Thus was born Toastmasters, the world’s largest communication and leadership training organisation consisting of the very people who lacked the two important skills. Learning by practising, learning at one’s own  pace, learning from peers ….Thus began a 100 year old journey, thanks to the brave decision of a young man that has changed the lives of many men and women (by the way it wasn’t until 1973 that the first woman was admitted as a club member!). 

Problem statement: In the 1980s, a  businessman of keen perception, recognized the vexing issues of adulteration and exorbitant prices plaguing the food industry in Bangalore.

Solution: An innovator, food connoisseur and consultant, R Prabhakar who had travelled to different countries and seen the likes of QSRs like McDonald and KFC hit upon the idea of a restaurant which provided quick, hygienic, hot, freshly prepared South Indian food at affordable prices in an open kitchen setting and self-service model with minimalist dining furniture for customers on the go. 

The first “Café Darshini” was born in 1983 in Jayanagar, thanks to the non-conformist Prabhakar who defied all nay-sayers back then. The solution was found within the problem itself leading to the unique ‘Darshini’ culture of Bangalore which is exclusive to the city!

Problem statement: At our own firm, we felt challenged when one of the teams couldn’t deliver on time with respect to a particular type of service due to various issues. This happened more than once.

Solution: Recognising the pattern, we used the PD approach and handed over the problem to a newly created SME (subject matter expert) group that was focussed and solution driven. Focus shifted from democratic growth of every individual and team to leveraging the strength of such individuals in SME teams. First team was freed up to do something else they were best at!

We had to break away from the traditional working structure and find a new model that was a win-win for all – individuals, teams, customers and our firm.

Positive Deviance theory is said to have been used in the year 1990, by Jerry Sternin and his wife Monique (from Save the Children organisation) who came to Hanoi, Vietnam to help the Vietnamese government fight child malnutrition.  Previous efforts by outsiders to combat child malnutrition in the Vietnamese countryside had all failed. Faced with huge challenges, Jerry requested his volunteers to study the behavior of these families.

While one set of children were fed twice a day, from a communal bowl with poor hygiene that lacked high protein food, the other set had well-nourished kids thanks to a different pattern of feeding – small helpings spread across the day since children couldn’t digest larger meals at one time, feeding by hand so that the right quantity is consumed and variety in food that made it interesting and fortified. Jerry Sternin was able to identify some bright spots within the same community when others failed to observe, thanks to the phenomenon called Positive Deviance.

I urge you all to use PD approach to identify sustainable and innovative solutions. 

As you ponder upon PD and its applicability, do scroll down to catch up with the regulatory updates that dotted August, 2024 through this 303rd issue of Samhita.

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