Page 51 - The Power to Change Anything

40 INFLUENCER

We concluded that the teams that had successfully im-
plemented Six Sigma techniques did so not because they
learned the methods better or had received more support from
their bosses, but because they knew how to step up to crucial
conversations.
The good news with positive deviance techniques is that
these methods for uncovering vital behaviors are available to
everyone. Start by examining the exact population and the set-
ting you are interested in changing. Next, look for people who
should be experiencing the problem but aren’t. Then discover
the unique behaviors that separate them from the rest. When
applying positive deviance techniques to yourself, compare
yourself to you. Think back to a time when you were success-
ful, and figure out what you did that caused your success.
Finally, take care to identify recovery behaviors as well.

TEST YOUR RESULTS

Let’s add a word of caution. With standard research methods—
such as the work done by Ethna Reid—scholars compare top
performers to poor performers, codify and record behaviors, and
then have the computer tease out the answer to what causes
what. With positive deviance you typically don’t have this lux-
ury. Practitioners interview and watch successful subjects on
site until they think they’ve discovered how top performers dif-
fer from their less successful counterparts. Then they draw con-
clusions about what causes success—in their heads.
There’s the rub. Allowing one’s brain to complete the final
calculations can be dangerous. One can easily draw bogus con-
clusions. With Guinea worm disease, modern medicine ex-
plains the worm’s entire life cycle, so when practitioners
observed villagers filtering out larvae in their skirts or avoiding
contact with their water source when the worm was emerging,
they immediately and correctly concluded that these specific
techniques eliminated the noxious worm.