How corporate leaders can use the Positive Deviance approach to stimulate radical change

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present an interview with management guru Richard Pascale, author of The Power of Positive Deviance, outlining the basic steps executives should follow to successfully implement positive deviance, an unconventional change methodology.

Design/methodology/approach

The interview examines the positive deviance approach, which derives from a deceptively simple idea. Faced with a seemingly intractable or impossible problem or situation, a few people having the same resources as their peers manage to succeed against all odds.

Findings

The PD process entails identifying these unusually effective individuals – the positive deviants – and adopting their practices.

Practical implications

The author explains that only when the community takes ownership of the problem and validates the need to change will “something else happen different from what has already happened.”

Originality/value

Richard Pascale explains how a technique that was invented to solve intractable social problems can work in a corporate setting.

Citation

Allio, R.J. (2011), "How corporate leaders can use the Positive Deviance approach to stimulate radical change", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 39 No. 3, pp. 32-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878571111128793