Positive Deviance is a unique problem-solving and change management approach that focuses on identifying and leveraging the behaviors and strategies of individuals or groups who have succeeded in similar circumstances where others have failed or struggled. Developed by Jerry and Monique Sternin in the 1990s, this approach offers a fresh perspective on addressing complex social and organizational challenges.
The Positive Deviance approach is rooted in the idea that solutions to complex problems often already exist within the community or organization experiencing the issue. It challenges conventional problem-solving methods by shifting the focus from deficits and limitations to strengths and existing resources. Positive Deviance is applicable in various contexts, including healthcare, education, social services, and business.
The approach is guided by several key principles:
Community or Organizational Asset: Positive Deviance views communities or organizations as possessing inherent strengths and capacities that can be harnessed to drive change.
Asset-Based Thinking: It emphasizes a shift from deficit-based thinking (focusing on problems and weaknesses) to asset-based thinking (identifying strengths and assets).
Leveraging Positive Deviants: The approach identifies individuals or groups within the community or organization, known as “positive deviants,” who have achieved exceptional results despite facing similar challenges.
Local Solutions: Positive Deviance seeks solutions that are context-specific and developed from within the community or organization, ensuring relevance and sustainability.
Participation and Engagement: It emphasizes the active involvement and engagement of community members or employees in the problem-solving process.
Components of Positive Deviance
Let’s explore the components of the Positive Deviance approach in more detail:
1. Identifying Positive Deviants:
The first step in the Positive Deviance process is identifying individuals or groups (the “positive deviants”) who have achieved better outcomes than their peers facing similar challenges. These positive deviants are living proof that solutions exist within the community or organization.
Example: In a healthcare setting, positive deviants might be healthcare workers or patients who have lower infection rates in the face of similar hygiene challenges.
2. Discovering Deviant Practices:
Once positive deviants are identified, the focus shifts to understanding the specific behaviors, practices, or strategies they employ that contribute to their success. These practices are often unconventional and challenge the status quo.
Example: Positive deviants in a school setting might use creative teaching methods or engage parents in unique ways to improve student performance.
3. Engaging the Community or Organization:
The Positive Deviance approach places a strong emphasis on community or organizational engagement. This involvement ensures that the solutions generated are not imposed from external sources but are co-created and owned by the community or organization members.
Example: In a corporate setting, employees are actively engaged in identifying and implementing positive deviant strategies to improve workplace safety.
4. Scaling and Sustaining Change:
Once deviant practices are identified and tested, the next step is to scale and sustain the change. This involves disseminating successful practices and ensuring that they become integrated into the community or organization’s culture.
Example: In a community health program, successful practices identified through Positive Deviance are scaled up and incorporated into healthcare protocols.
Significance of the Positive Deviance Approach
The Positive Deviance approach holds significant importance for organizations and communities for several reasons:
1. Leveraging Existing Resources:
Positive Deviance recognizes that communities and organizations already possess the resources and potential to address their challenges. It encourages the identification and utilization of these existing assets.
2. Local Ownership and Empowerment:
By engaging community members or employees in the problem-solving process, Positive Deviance fosters a sense of ownership, empowerment, and responsibility for driving change.
3. Cost-Effective Solutions:
The approach often leads to cost-effective and sustainable solutions since it leverages local knowledge and resources, reducing the need for external interventions.
4. Innovative Problem-Solving:
Positive Deviance encourages innovative thinking and problem-solving by highlighting unconventional practices and strategies that have proven effective.
5. Community and Organizational Resilience:
Implementing Positive Deviance can enhance the resilience of communities and organizations by equipping them with the tools to tackle future challenges.
Practical Applications of Positive Deviance
The Positive Deviance approach offers practical applications for both organizations and communities:
For Organizations:
Problem-Solving: Organizations can apply Positive Deviance to address complex challenges, such as workplace safety, employee engagement, or process improvement.
Change Management: It can be used as an alternative approach to traditional change management methods, promoting employee involvement and innovative problem-solving.
Leadership Development: Leaders can use the Positive Deviance approach to develop leadership skills that empower employees and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
Innovation: Organizations can harness the unconventional practices of positive deviants to drive innovation and adapt to changing market conditions.
For Communities:
Community Development: Positive Deviance can be applied to address issues like public health, education, or poverty within communities, empowering residents to drive change.
Local Governance: Communities can use the approach to engage citizens in local governance, identifying solutions to pressing issues.
Social Services: Organizations providing social services can adopt Positive Deviance to improve the effectiveness of their programs by leveraging the strengths of their clients.
Conflict Resolution: In conflict-prone regions, the approach can be employed to identify and promote peace-building practices.
Challenges and Considerations
While the Positive Deviance approach offers a unique and effective way to address complex challenges, it is essential to consider some challenges and considerations:
Cultural Sensitivity: Identifying and implementing positive deviant practices must be done with cultural sensitivity to ensure that solutions are context-appropriate.
Resistance to Change: Positive Deviance may face resistance from individuals or organizations accustomed to traditional problem-solving methods.
Resource Allocation: Identifying positive deviant practices and implementing change may require resources, including time and funding.
Measurement and Evaluation: Evaluating the impact of Positive Deviance interventions can be challenging, as traditional metrics may not apply.
Sustainability: Ensuring that positive deviant practices become ingrained in the community or organization’s culture and are sustained over time requires ongoing effort.
Future Directions in Positive Deviance
As the Positive Deviance approach continues to evolve, several future directions and areas of study can be anticipated:
Technology and Positive Deviance: Exploring how technology can facilitate the identification and dissemination of positive deviant practices.
Cross-Sector Collaboration: Examining how Positive Deviance can be applied in cross-sector collaborations to address complex, multi-dimensional challenges.
Global Health and Pandemics: The approach’s potential in addressing global health challenges, including pandemics and disease outbreaks.
Educational Innovation: Further application of Positive Deviance in educational settings to improve student outcomes and engagement.
Conflict Resolution and Peace-building: Research on applying Positive Deviance to promote peace and reconciliation in conflict-affected regions.
Conclusion
The Positive Deviance approach represents a powerful shift in problem-solving and change management. By recognizing and harnessing the strengths and innovative practices of individuals or groups who have succeeded in similar circumstances, organizations and communities can drive positive change from within. This approach encourages a departure from traditional deficit-based thinking and embraces the idea that solutions are often closer than we think. In a world marked by complex challenges and uncertainties, the Positive Deviance approach offers a refreshing and effective path toward unlocking untapped potential and creating meaningful, sustainable change.
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In a flat organizational structure, there is little to no middle management between employees and executives. Therefore it reduces the space between employees and executives to enable an effective communication flow within the organization, thus being faster and leaner.
Project portfolio management (PPM) is a systematic approach to selecting and managing a collection of projects aligned with organizational objectives. That is a business process of managing multiple projects which can be identified, prioritized, and managed within the organization. PPM helps organizations optimize their investments by allocating resources efficiently across all initiatives.
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Mintzberg’s 5Ps of Strategy is a strategy development model that examines five different perspectives (plan, ploy, pattern, position, perspective) to develop a successful business strategy. A sixth perspective has been developed over the years, called Practice, which was created to help businesses execute their strategies.
The COSO framework is a means of designing, implementing, and evaluating control within an organization. The COSO framework’s five components are control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and monitoring activities. As a fraud risk management tool, businesses can design, implement, and evaluate internal control procedures.
The TOWS Matrix is an acronym for Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses, and Strengths. The matrix is a variation on the SWOT Analysis, and it seeks to address criticisms of the SWOT Analysis regarding its inability to show relationships between the various categories.
Lewin’s change management model helps businesses manage the uncertainty and resistance associated with change. Kurt Lewin, one of the first academics to focus his research on group dynamics, developed a three-stage model. He proposed that the behavior of individuals happened as a function of group behavior.
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Airbnb follows a holacracy model, or a sort of flat organizational structure, where teams are organized for projects, to move quickly and iterate fast, thus keeping a lean and flexible approach. Airbnb also moved to a hybrid model where employees can work from anywhere and meet on a quarterly basis to plan ahead, and connect to each other.
The Amazon organizational structure is predominantly hierarchical with elements of function-based structure and geographic divisions. While Amazon started as a lean, flat organization in its early years, it transitioned into a hierarchical organization with its jobs and functions clearly defined as it scaled.
The Coca-Cola Company has a somewhat complex matrix organizational structure with geographic divisions, product divisions, business-type units, and functional groups.
Costco has a matrix organizational structure, which can simply be defined as any structure that combines two or more different types. In this case, a predominant functional structure exists with a more secondary divisional structure.
Costco’s geographic divisions reflect its strong presence in the United States combined with its expanding global presence. There are six divisions in the country alone to reflect its standing as the source of most company revenue.
Compared to competitor Walmart, for example, Costco takes more a decentralized approach to management, decision-making, and autonomy. This allows the company’s stores and divisions to more flexibly respond to local market conditions.
Dell has a functional organizational structure with some degree of decentralization. This means functional departments share information, contribute ideas to the success of the organization and have some degree of decision-making power.
eBay was until recently a multi-divisional (M-form) organization with semi-autonomous units grouped according to the services they provided. Today, eBay has a single division called Marketplace, which includes eBay and its international iterations.
Facebook is characterized by a multi-faceted matrix organizational structure. The company utilizes a flat organizational structure in combination with corporate function-based teams and product-based or geographic divisions. The flat organization structure is organized around the leadership of Mark Zuckerberg, and the key executives around him. On the other hand, the function-based teams are based on the main corporate functions (like HR, product management, investor relations, and so on).
Goldman Sachs has a hierarchical structure with a clear chain of command and defined career advancement process. The structure is also underpinned by business-type divisions and function-based groups.
Google (Alphabet) has a cross-functional (team-based) organizational structure known as a matrix structure with some degree of flatness. Over the years, as the company scaled and it became a tech giant, its organizational structure is morphing more into a centralized organization.
IBM has an organizational structure characterized by product-based divisions, enabling its strategy to develop innovative and competitive products in multiple markets. IBM is also characterized by function-based segments that support product development and innovation for each product-based division, which include Global Markets, Integrated Supply Chain, Research, Development, and Intellectual Property.
McDonald’s has a divisional organizational structure where each division – based on geographical location – is assigned operational responsibilities and strategic objectives. The main geographical divisions are the US, internationally operated markets, and international developmental licensed markets. And on the other hand, the hierarchical leadership structure is organized around regional and functional divisions.
McKinsey & Company has a decentralized organizational structure with mostly self-managing offices, committees, and employees. There are also functional groups and geographic divisions with proprietary names.
Microsoft has a product-type divisional organizational structure based on functions and engineering groups. As the company scaled over time it also became more hierarchical, however still keeping its hybrid approach between functions, engineering groups, and management.
Nestlé has a geographical divisional structure with operations segmented into five key regions. For many years, Swiss multinational food and drink company Nestlé had a complex and decentralized matrix organizational structure where its numerous brands and subsidiaries were free to operate autonomously.
Nike has a matrix organizational structure incorporating geographic divisions. Nike’s matrix structure is also present at the regional and sub-regional levels. Managerial responsibility is segmented according to business unit (apparel, footwear, and equipment) and function (human resources, finance, marketing, sales, and operations).
Patagonia has a particular organizational structure, where its founder, Chouinard, disposed of the company’s ownership in the hands of two non-profits. The Patagonia Purpose Trust, holding 100% of the voting stocks, is in charge of defining the company’s strategic direction. And the Holdfast Collective, a non-profit, holds 100% of non-voting stocks, aiming to re-invest the brand’s dividends into environmental causes.
Samsung has a product-type divisional organizational structure where products determine how resources and business operations are categorized. The main resources around which Samsung’s corporate structure is organized are consumer electronics, IT, and device solutions. In addition, Samsung leadership functions are organized around a few career levels grades, based on experience (assistant, professional, senior professional, and principal professional).
Sony has a matrix organizational structure primarily based on function-based groups and product/business divisions. The structure also incorporates geographical divisions. In 2021, Sony announced the overhauling of its organizational structure, changing its name from Sony Corporation to Sony Group Corporation to better identify itself as the headquarters of the Sony group of companies skewing the company toward product divisions.
Starbucks follows a matrix organizational structure with a combination of vertical and horizontal structures. It is characterized by multiple, overlapping chains of command and divisions.
Tesla is characterized by a functional organizational structure with aspects of a hierarchical structure. Tesla does employ functional centers that cover all business activities, including finance, sales, marketing, technology, engineering, design, and the offices of the CEO and chairperson. Tesla’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, decide the strategic direction of the company, with international operations given little autonomy.
Toyota has a divisional organizational structure where business operations are centered around the market, product, and geographic groups. Therefore, Toyota organizes its corporate structure around global hierarchies (most strategic decisions come from Japan’s headquarter), product-based divisions (where the organization is broken down, based on each product line), and geographical divisions (according to the geographical areas under management).
Walmart has a hybrid hierarchical-functional organizational structure, otherwise referred to as a matrix structure that combines multiple approaches. On the one hand, Walmart follows a hierarchical structure, where the current CEO Doug McMillon is the only employee without a direct superior, and directives are sent from top-level management. On the other hand, the function-based structure of Walmart is used to categorize employees according to their particular skills and experience.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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