2012 PRESENTER

Dr. Richard Pascale, Author, Scholar, Business Consultant

Join us for an evening with Richard Pascale to discover the power of Positive Deviance, and how unlikely innovators solve the world's toughest problems. Positive Deviance works with the notion that in every community or organization there are some people whose uncommon practices and behaviors enable them to succeed against all odds, yet with the same resources as their peers. The approach relies on the community to: 1) define the problem that it wants to solve, 2) collect data on the scale of the problem and the common (and largely unsuccessful) methods of tackling it, and 3) identify uncommon practices (of the “Positive Deviants”) who are achieving better results. The community then designs a culturally appropriate approach for emulating these practices across the broader social system.
  
First piloted in Vietnam in 1990, the evidence of PD’s efficacy has been widely demonstrated:

• Reduced antibiotic resistant bacteria (MRSA) in US hospitals
• Improved sales at Goldman Sachs, Genetech, Merck and more
• Dramatically reduced endemic malnutrition in Vietnam
• Curtailed the trafficking of girls in East Java
• Stopped the spread of AIDs/HIV in Myanmar
• Improved retention rates in rural schools in Argentina

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