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I’m fascinated by the idea of modelling excellence. This is a concept I first came across when studying Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) more than 15 years ago. And the same concept informs the discipline I now specialise in – positive psychology. Modelling excellence involves seeking out what anthropologist Gregory Bateson called the “difference that makes the difference”. In positive psychology we refer to the notion of positive deviance. This means aberrating from the norm in a constructive way.  

Take this stunning example of positive deviance in action. A group of volunteers from villages in Thailand taught mothers to become vigilant about putting mosquito nets over their children at night. Using positive reinforcement techniques, the volunteers made the use of mosquito nets more common and widespread. This helped the entire western region of Thailand significantly reduce malaria rates.   

Sometimes it just takes one role model to seed positive change in a group. Keep this in mind when you’re thinking about ways to improve performance at work. Positive deviance techniques work just as well in teams as they do in Thai villages.   

About the author of this fast fact: 

Eleanor Shakiba is a master trainer and coach. Her passion is teaching ‘positive deviants’ to think positively and communicate constructively. A specialist the field of Positive Psychology, Eleanor is author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also provides coaching and training for trainers and facilitators. 

Are you interested in boosting positive deviance in your team or organisation? Here’s a great positive psychology case study for anyone who wants to spread the word about the power of positive deviance.  

The BackTrack program in Armidale is a non-profit organisation that focuses on helping young people get back on track. The program seeks to take children between the ages of 12 and 19 years and place them on a path to positivity. Some children are faced with complex challenges that can make it harder for them to achieve success than others. However, non-profit members at BackTrack have noticed that seeing the good in these young people, rather than seeing them as no-gooders, has the biggest impact on their future success.  

BackTrack has an 87% success rate when it comes to showing young people the right kind of training and education. The program employs a model of positive deviance to show that pointing out good behaviours and rewarding young people for these good behaviours is much better than punishing them for the bad ones. Treating at-risk youth like family members is proven to accelerate their chances of success. This is just another example of positive deviance in action. Individuals, organisations and institutions can benefit from implementing a model of positive deviance in the workplace – or even in personal life. 

For more positive deviance case studies, follow Eleanor Shakiba and her team of positive psychology trainers on Facebook or LinkedIn today.  

About the author of this article: 

Eleanor Shakiba is a positive psychology trainer. Her passion is working with positive deviants – the people in communities and organisations who break paradigms and build new solutions to entrenched problems. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also runs a range of specialist retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators. 

Every team or community has outliers – people who think and behave in exceptional ways. Positive psychologists call these people ‘positive deviants. If you become a positive deviant you will stand out as a thought leader and a master practitioner in your field.   

Positive deviants succeed where others fail. They learn from others and they design new solutions to old problems.  So how can you think in a constructively deviant way? There are three main steps involved in thinking like a positive deviant.  

1. First, pinpoint a problem that the majority of people struggle with in your business. This should be a problem which impacts efficiency because it happens so often.  
2. Next, seek out people who  do not seem to struggle with that problem. Look for people who are succeeding where others fall short, despite equal access to resources. Observe them. Watch what they do and how they do it. The more you understand their behaviour, the easier it will be to take on that behaviour yourself.  
3. And that’s step three: adopting – and possibly improving – success strategies which already exist. Keep doing your new, deviant behaviour until it is no longer deviant, but a habit.  

The benefits of learning to think with constructive deviance include increased creativity, better problem-solving, enhanced relationships and more personal engagement with your work. So get started today!  

About the author of this tip: 

Eleanor is a master trainer and facilitator.  She specialises in positive psychology, helping leaders and HR practitioners build flourishing organisations. She is known as a creative, dynamic facilitator with a flair for helping ‘positive deviants’ excel at work. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She runs a range of practitioner retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators. 

Want to run training in positive deviance strategies for your team? Call Eleanor Shakiba. 0433 126 841 

A group of researchers tested the concept of positive deviance to help Vietnamese communities tackle childhood malnourishment in 1990. Within two decades, the approach reduced severe malnutrition by 74%. 

Positive deviance is one of the most discussed examples of positive psychology. It’s the process of looking for people who succeed where others fail given the same resources. 

The concept originated with work completed by Marian Zeitlin at Tufts University in the 1980s. Zeitlin researched developing communities in Egypt to find out why small groups of children were healthy when most children were malnourished. 

The healthy children were the “deviants.” Their parents’ positive deviance allowed them to thrive despite having access to the same amount of food and resources as other families. 

Jerry and Monique Sternin then came up with the idea of amplifying positive deviance. They worked with communities in Vietnam to uncover examples of positive deviance instead of trying to find new solutions for dealing with malnutrition. 

By finding positive deviants and learning more about their secrets to success, the Sternins could apply the same techniques to the entire community. This led to a major reduction in malnutrition among children and is now the model for rehabilitating malnourished children in over 20 countries. 

Organisations often spend a tremendous amount of time and resources devising new business strategies. Based on the concept of positive deviance, some solutions may already exist within the organisation. Using the same techniques employed in poor communities to overcome malnutrition may help leaders or supervisors uncover effective work methods. Look for those who thrive in areas where others fail despite having access to the same resources. 

If you want to learn more about the power of positive deviance for businesses, contact Think Learn Succeed to book a training session. 

About the author of this article: 

Eleanor Shakiba is positive psychology trainer. She teaches highly skilled professionals to think creatively, communicate constructively and become positive leaders. Eleanor’s clients work in academia, education, IT, engineering, finance and health. She is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also runs a range of retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators. 

Positive deviants are people who disrupt habits in their industry in positive ways. These people do things differently to everyone else. They are the catalysts for positive change – often prompting ripple effects which influence thousands of people.  

Here’s an example of positive deviance used in a life-saving way. A physician at Penn State College of Medicine identified five key features that improve diabetes care. Taking the positive deviance approach helped identify the models that were most successful in the treatment of diabetes. Because they sought out the differences that made a positive impact, the physicians ultimately improved diabetes care in 25 primary care practices in Pennsylvania.  

Positive deviance can influence the people you work with to change their habits for the better. Recognise and learn from the positive deviants in your workplace today. Or start thinking laterally and become a deviant yourself!  

About the author of this fun fact: 

Eleanor Shakiba is positive psychology trainer. She teaches highly skilled professionals to think creatively, communicate constructively and become positive leaders. Eleanor’s clients work in academia, education, IT, engineering, finance and health. She is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also runs a range of retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators. 

When is deviant behaviour useful? When it provides positive outcomes. In these cases, it is called ‘positive deviance’. Positive psychologists define positive deviance as aberration from the norm in constructive ways. People who solve unsolvable problems are positive deviants. They think and behave in ways that promote success. 

So how is the positive deviance concept useful in practical terms? Positive psychology trainers are very interested in this question, as application into real world contexts is where positive deviance can make a huge difference.  It can be used to promote social or behavioural change. Practical applications of positive deviance are based on the idea that every group has outliers that succeed in areas where others fail. By identifying their behaviour and applying it to the group, it is possible to bring about favourable change. 

Deviance refers to a behaviour that goes against the norm. Positive psychology trainers refer to deviants as those that do not conform to the accepted standards of society. While people typically use this term to refer to negative behaviour, deviance can be positive. 

According to the positive deviance model, there are individuals within each community that thrive where others tend to struggle. Positive psychology trainers and coaches study these people – and leaders should, too. Their constructively deviant behaviour gives them an advantage over others, despite having access to the same resources. 

So just how is positive deviance difference to what most people think of as deviance? Negative deviance includes behaviour that departs from accepted norms in a socially unacceptable way. Criminal acts are typically considered a type of negative deviance. Positive deviance is behaviour that defers from the norms but brings constructive results. 

Businesses can use this model to search for people that deviate from the rules yet produce the best results. The workers that follow their own path may hold the key to overcoming the challenges within your organisation. By working with positive psychology trainers and coaches, you can encourage everyone to become a positve deviance and build a thriving workplace culture.  

The concept of positive deviance was first applied in the field by Jerry Sternin and Monique Sternin with the assistance of Richard Pascale. The group was involved in Save the Children in Vietnam in the early 1970s. This endeavour addressed the spread of malnutrition among children in rural villages. 

To find a solution, the group looked for children in the villages that were well nourished. The families with well-nourished children engaged in positive deviance.  

They followed their own approach, such as eating small meals throughout the day. This deviated from the same routines and diets as their neighbours,. By designing a program that followed the positive deviant behaviour, the group helped decrease malnutrition in the area by 85%. 

Since the publication of this model, many organisations have employed the same techniques to uncover new business strategies or practices. Positive deviance can help organisations find employees who find better solutions when faced with the same challenges as their peers. Finding these outliers and seeing what they do differently allows groups to identify and implement new approaches to existing problems. 

So, how do you apply this model within an organisation? Positive psychology trainers recommend taking five core steps: 

• Define the problem or challenge 
• Identify positive deviants 
• Observe the behaviour of positive deviants 
• Replicate the behaviour among the group 
• Reward and reinforce the new behaviour 

Remember that deviance is not always a bad thing. The positive deviance model gives teams and organisations a powerful tool to identify a more successful approach to problems or challenges. Instead of following the same old business practices, find those that are succeeding and replicate their behaviour. 

About the author of this article: 

Eleanor Shakiba is a master trainer. She runs workshops in positive psychology techniques such as positive deviance, learned optimism, constructive communication and positive leadership. Eleanor can help your people build a thriving business, and a flourishing workplace culture. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also runs a range of retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators.