Monique Sternin at TEDx MidAtlantic

By William Seidman Positive deviance is a core component of our approach to organizational change. In a previous blog post, “Introducing the Positive Deviant,” we explained the genesis of the term and how three social scientists (Richard Pascale, Gerry Sternin and Monique Sternin) coined the term after identifying people in Vietnam who deviated positively from the rest of the population, with positive results. On October 26, the incredible Monique Sternin shared her story about the beginning of the approach in Vietnam at TEDx MidAtlantic. The timestamp of Sternin’s talk is 22.40 to 37.26. http://new.livestream.com/tedx/tedxmidatlantic/videos/33230866 As Sternin points out in her talk, if you have a difficult and persistent problem, “look at existing solutions and the people who have them in your organization.” The people within your organization who have the solutions you need are your positive deviants, or star performers. In our forthcoming book, “The Star Factor,” we’ll show you how to quickly identify these top performers and their solutions, and show you how to motivate others to adopt their approaches.]]>