Contribution from a DrPH student (SPH Community Health Studies class) from the Teikyo University website

July 23, 2020Looking for Positive Deviance "Solutions are hidden - Let's look at local health issues through a different lens"

In a lecture titled "Behavioral Change and Positive Deviance in Community Health," Koichiro Watanabe, representative of the Malnutrition Prevention Network, made this appeal to the students. Only about one-fifth of the students answered that they knew about positive deviance, but they were able to learn the essence of it through brainstorming sessions and group exercises.

PosiDevi is an approach to problem solving that identifies individuals or groups in a community or organization who are successfully solving problems without any special resources, but who use different actions and methods than others, and then spreads their actions and methods.
This is in contrast to the problem-solving approach, which identifies problems (lack) and tries to meet those needs through external support. The Positive Divide approach encourages people to change their behavior by utilizing solutions that already exist in the community or organization, so it is also effective in ensuring sustainability, which is often an issue with problem-solving approaches, as was clear from the examples introduced in the lecture.

In the lecture, Representative Watanabe introduced the "Child Nutrition Improvement Project" that he implemented in collaboration with Save the Children USA as the first representative of Save the Children Japan (SSCJ) in Vietnam as an example of the Pojdev Approach. The students learned the specific steps of the Pojdev Approach: "Identifying the problem" (Step 1), "Understanding the existence of Pojdev children and families" (Step 2), "Discovering and analyzing Pojdev actions" (Step 3), "Planning and implementing activities based on the analysis results" (Step 4), and "Monitoring and evaluation by the community" (Step 5).

There are three main realizations that I have gained from these cases. The first is that "when looking statistically at data collected through quantitative surveys, the key to transforming organizations and society lies not in the average or median, but in the ends of the distribution curve," and that "in order to portray the unique and creative behavior of people at the edge as it is, it is important to conduct various qualitative surveys by experienced researchers," and finally, "the need for a change in the mindset of those providing aid."
It is important to remove the bias that those promoting PosiDevi tend to have towards their target audience, that is, "poor people can't do it," and to facilitate dialogue with local leaders to help them develop the will to solve problems.

Although the cases introduced this time were aimed at developing countries, the targets of the Positive Divide Approach are close to us. For example, one group's examples of Positive Divide that they discovered during a brainstorming session included a karaoke shop that rented out private rooms as space for people to work from home, as many businesses are facing financial difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a restaurant that found a way to survive by cooperating with a taxi company to deliver boxed lunches.

Do you know someone who is achieving results without having any special skills or budget? Their slightly unusual behavior may be a positive deviant and lead to the solution of your problem. Why not try to find a positive deviant yourself?