What is Positive Deviance?
Positive Deviance is based on the observation that in every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors 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.
The Positive Deviance approach is an asset-based, problem-solving, and community-driven approach that enables the community to discover these successful behaviors and strategies and develop a plan of action to promote their adoption by all concerned.
News & Events
07.08.09
On July 8, 2009 the Centre for Innovation in Health Management and Plexus Institute will hold a conference at the University of Leeds in the U.K. The conference will focus on using the Positive Deviance (PD) approach for social and behavioral change, with a specific focus on how the PD approach has been used in the prevention and eradication of MRSA (Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infections in US hospitals. Attendees will have the opportunity to practice PD facilitation skills. To learn more about the conference and to register, click here.
+ read more06.12.09
The New Yorker
On June 12, 2009, Dr. Atul Gawande addressed the graduating class of the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine with a message about how the Positive Deviance approach can be used by people in the healthcare field to cut costs, provide better care, and ultimately help the entire country emerge from this troubled economy. During the speech, Atul discussed how the Positive Deviance approach was used by Jerry Sternin to significantly reduce malnutrition in Vietnam. The approach that Jerry used in Vietnam gave ownership to the community, encouraging people to look within the community for people who already had sustainable and successful solutions-"positive deviants." Atul gave examples of physicians who are positive deviants, as well as examples of hospitals that have managed to be low-cost, high-quality institutions. Atul encouraged the students to seek out the positive deviants in their own communities and to learn from them as a strategy to improve US healthcare system.
Multimedia Center
Click the thumbnails below to view videos about Positive Deviance. See more videos in our Multimedia Center
