KSS July Edition eKourier 2025

FEATURE

BRIGHT SPOTS

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‘ The Positive Deviance (PD) approach is a method for driving social and behavioural change by uncovering and using the uncommon but successful practices already present within a community Deviants", manage to find better solutions to problems despite facing the same obstacles and having the same resources as others. This Positive Deviance or Bright Spots can be applied to business, govern- ment, and many other aspects of community life. The idea of solving a problem by observing others within your organisation and uncovering what they do differently even though they are operating under the same conditions with the same resources. In our business for example, we share the KPI results of every centre with everyone, Team Members who are having challenges achieving particular KPIs can search the results for Bright Spots, those Team Members who are doing well under the same conditions. Team Members can speak with their Operations Manager who have the experience of working with other centres and can advise on who is doing what well or differently. The discovery of Bright Spots, is the solutions to your challenges, and the strategies to change your fortune!

B right Spots a phrase coined by Jerry Sternin, who in 1990 was sent by the “Save the Children” foundation to help find a solution to the severe malnutrition problem in children in remote regional areas of Vietnam. The Government at the time were sceptical that anyone could do anything to help the problem and gave Jerry just six months to make an impact. Jerry was aware of the causes of malnutrition – poor sanita- tion, poverty, lack of education, and the like. Reversing such causes in six months was a monumental task. So, Jerry decided to take a different approach, one that became known as “Positive Deviance”. Jerry asked the mothers of these remote villages if there were any remote poor villages where the children were bigger and healthier, and the answer was yes. Sternin would visit these villages where the children who were better nourished while living under the same circumstances as the undernourished children. Sternin discovered these mothers were in fact doing things differently. They were feeding their children small portions more often, they were feeding their children shrimp

brine from the rice fields, greens, sweet potatoes grown in gardens. These foods were considered lower class and not for consumption. These mothers were adding the foods to the children’s soup and ladling the soup from the bottom ensuring that the children’s bowl was full of these nourishing ingredients. Sternin called these families Bright Spots, notable exceptions achieving above-average results using the same resources available to everyone else. Using this newfound knowledge Sternin went back to the poor villages and asked the mothers to observe the mothers who had achieved exceptional results in nutrition for their children. In six months Sternin had improved the malnourishment by 65% in the villages he visited. The Positive Deviance (PD) approach is a method for driving social and behavioural change by uncovering and using the uncommon but successful practices already present within a community. It’s built on the idea that certain individuals, known as "Positive What is “Positive Deviance”?

Darren Marshall Chief Operating Officer

11 Kennards Kourier July 2025