Bad in math? Take art!

Lucky me. I had the chance to spend some time the other night with my old friend and networker extraordinaire, Lisa Kimball. Lisa’s been working of late with Plexus Institute, purveyors of the concept of “positive deviance.” In a nutshell, this approach to organizational change focuses on what goes right rather than its dreaded evil cousin. Plus, instead of introducing massive initiatives from the top, these folks find those pools of ingenuity in the organization, coaching staff to coach others in very simple interventions that solve seemingly intractable problems. In other words, do-it-yourself because...those who do know best.

Here’s a video that makes the point: Jasper Palmer, for whom “The Palmer Method” has been named, came up with a simple fix for a mounting problem. As staff at Albert Einstein Hospital in Philadelphia began using isolation gowns and gloves in all situations where needed, their trash problem grew exponentially. Some numbers help demonstrate the magnitude of trash growth: from 6000 gowns to 120,000. That’s a lot of paper and latex to get rid of. Mr. Palmer figured out the fix. Take a look.

Now what has this to do with the title of this post? The principles of positive deviance remind me of some beliefs about education that we witnessed working with a child who was doing poorly in math while excelling in art. The parents of said child were advised to tutor her in math. They chose a different approach: they amped up her art education and guess what? The following year, she got As in physics.

Circling back to positive deviance: find what’s working well in your organization and spread the news laterally. Identify areas where processes are good and invest in making them exemplary. The laggardly areas are sure to follow.