Several years ago I heard a speech I still think about, so it must have been a good one. I thought about it again recently when I had a discussion with someone about “benchmarking” – which is when an organization changes its practices to better mirror those of top performers. As the discussion progressed, I asked them if they had ever heard of “positive deviance.” They hadn’t. So I told them this story.

NH Charitable Foundation and Jerry Sternin. Five or six years ago when I attended the annual meeting of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation they had Jerry Sternin, who has since passed away, as a guest speaker. He started his talk that night, as he often did, by saying, “You cannot think your way into a new way of acting, you have to act your way into a new way of thinking.” He then told us how important it was for organizational and community leaders to understand “positive deviance” because it is the best way for groups of people to learn how they can change. It is especially effective when there are problems that people care about and are motivated to improve.

They use the words “positive deviance” to describe the highest performers who excel, stand-out, and deviate most from average performers. The word “deviance” in this case comes from studying standard deviations and looking for the performers who reside in the highest or most “positive” deviance from the norm.

Sternin’s Example – Malnourished Children in Vietnam. Jerry told us about when he and his wife, Monique, were asked to help Vietnam solve a large and worsening nourishment problem for the village children. The Sternins were affiliated with the Save the Children Fund at the time. Vietnam had tried many different ways to get food distributed to the villages, but the children’s health still declined. They needed help and Jerry thought they could use positive deviance to solve the problem.

Four Ds of Positive Deviance. He used this Vietnamese story to teach us about using the 4Ds of positive deviance.

1. Define problem. The problem was that more than 60% (I believe) of the village children were malnourished and the percentage was worsening. The political leaders cared about it because these children were the country’s future workforce. The parents cared about it because they wanted healthy children.
2. Determine if positive deviance exists. Sternin started their work at the village level, where he met and engaged village leaders. He assumed there were also several healthy children in the village, so he asked the leaders if they knew who these children were. They did.
3. Discover practices that help the positive deviants excel. Sternin met with the families of the very healthy children. His team discovered that the mothers of these children followed a very different meal preparation process. The norm in these villages was that the moms would go out into the rice patties and harvest rice, boil it, dump the water, and feed the children good portions of rice generally two times a day. However, the moms of the healthy kids also caught shrimp in the rice patties and cooked the shrimp in the water with the rice. They also added sweet potato greens to the same water. The rice absorbed additional vitamins and nutrients during this process. These moms also fed their children several, smaller quantity meals each day.
4. Develop other people’s habits so they can replicate the outcomes of the positive deviants. Sternin and his team taught the village leaders how to teach the families to follow these other practices in meal preparation. The result was a rapid improvement in child nourishment in the selected villages.

Sternin described how positive deviance was being used in several other industries including hospitals, where they were working on reducing the spread of infectious diseases in some hospitals. You can read a more in-depth description in this Fast Company article.

I have been involved with groups of people who have used various forms of this process since and it can be very effective. The key is to clarify the problem, make sure the group of people wants to change, and then guide them to learn how to change. If you find yourself in this kind of leadership situation, I suggest starting with the 4 Ds of positive deviance – you might just find nourishment among the deviants.

I recently attended the Masters Golf tournament for the first time – it was on my bucket list. The Masters is played every year at the same course - Augusta National, which is in Georgia. Augusta

National and The Masters is for golfers what Jerusalem is for Christians, Jews, and Muslims – a holy place. And, like Jerusalem, it is a place where humans have sought perfection at the expense of others. I wondered as I walked around those hallowed grounds whether it was right for me to admire a place developed by leadership I couldn’t admire.

First, My Experience. I was lucky to be there on a beautiful day and I got to see the fun Par-3 tournament. I have hundreds of pictures of golfers and especially like this one of Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson after Arnold autographed a flag for Tom. I followed Tiger and Fred Couples around the back-9 as they practiced for the tournament. I was able to look at the greens and see how difficult they are. The grass is perfect, the azaleas beautiful, the food inexpensive, and the amenities for spectators nearly perfect. So, I can see why everyone says that as golf courses go, Augusta National is nearly perfect.

Four Examples of Questionable Leadership. Augusta National was developed by Cliff Roberts and Bobby Jones and opened in 1932. Bobby Jones, a name familiar to golfers, was the greatest golfer of that era and grew up near Augusta. He was loved by everyone and having his name associated with the course contributed significantly to its quick rise in popularity. However, Cliff Roberts ran the whole operation and controlled everything and ruled with an iron fist from 1934 to 1976. From a book called The Masters by Curt Sampson, here is a partial list of questionable practices under Cliff Robert’s leadership:

1. Roberts did not pay small local contractors in the 1930s for construction cost overruns. Roberts told the rich, northern charter members that he thought the locals would not legally pursue them because the contractors would not want to affect their positive personal relationships with the revered Bobby Jones. From those early days until his death he treated the average Augusta citizens with contempt.
2. Roberts insisted for most of his reign that all the caddies be black and that members could only be white and male. He once said, “As long as I'm alive, all the golfers will be white and all the caddies will be black." The first black member, Ron Townsend, wasn’t admitted until 1990. Only in 2012 did women finally make it when former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and financier, Darla Moore, were invited to join.
3. Roberts required concession workers to cut holes in their pockets to discourage them from stealing sandwich concession money. There were numerous published examples of how he cruelly treated workers
4. If Roberts didn’t like certain golfers, he would make them feel unwelcome. He often confronted golfers for very modest breaches of protocol and demand they write letters of apology or they wouldn’t be invited back. The list of professional golfers who have felt his wrath is long.

Cliff Roberts had an individual vision of perfection and he did everything in his power to achieve it. Apparently he had hundreds of male golfers who either agreed with his vision or ignored their reservations just to become or stay a member. Thus, his coercive leadership style went unchecked. I suppose he had control right up to his end when he committed suicide on the banks of the par-3 course at Augusta National in 1977.

A Wonderful Example of a Pursuit of Perfection. This week my friend Bob Devantery introduced me to the work of Harvey Fite. Fite was a sculptor and artist who bought an old quarry in Saugerties, NY in the 1930s. His goal was to personally sculpt the whole quarry into a piece of art. He spent 37 years building terraces, alleys, ramps, steps and pools. Fite estimated it would take him 40 years and so he named it Opus 40. (This is Bob’s picture of Opus 40.) Unfortunately Fite died 37 years into the project from a fall in the quarry.

No doubt both Roberts and Fite were motivated by their pursuit of perfection. Since Fite worked independently on his pursuit, his final product is arguably one of the most perfect rock quarries in existence. But, although Roberts created nearly a perfect golf course, the final product is so tarnished with human rights stains, it can never be perfect.

And the leadership lesson for me is to always question a leader whose personal pursuit of perfection pushes followers from the fairway into the unethical rough – for once you are in this rough there can be no perfection.

If you are from the greater Boston area, you won’t forget the Boston Marathon massacre for the rest of your life. We all know people who were there and many of us know people who were killed or injured. As I look back on this time, there are three management and leadership lessons I will remember.

Lesson 1 – Importance of Planning. Before I write about leadership, a quick note about planning, which is primarily a management rather than leadership activity. I think the response to the Boylston Street explosions and subsequent search and capture of the suspects is a noteworthy example of why planning is such an important activity. Deservedly, a great deal has been reported positively about how well emergency responders, police, and the FBI handled the events following the explosions. This happened largely because these groups were trained to respond and many logistical details were planned and written down in advance.

Of course there were hundreds of variables that entered this situation that weren’t planned for, but they did plan in advance who would handle the hundreds of decisions related to the unknown variables. And, after the dust settles they will sit down again and explore what worked and what didn’t and they will be better prepared should another tragic event happen.

Lesson 2 – Helpers are Leaders. We have seen and read about how in the seconds following the explosion, a group of fellow human beings surged into the exploded area to help victims. I’m sure it inspired you as much as it did me when you watched it. What is notable is that there were a few people who fearlessly began the surge and others followed. These first helpers showed others, who might have hesitated at first, that it was okay to go in.

These helpers are great examples of “servant leaders.” They clearly demonstrated two aspects of servant leadership that have been described by Robert Greenleaf – they put service before self-interest and they nourished others and helped them become whole.

As Jen Daysa, our church’s Director of Youth & Family Ministries, reminded me on Sunday, when parents try to talk with their children about these events, they often go back to good old Fred Rogers. Rogers said, “"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world."

In addition to the first helpers, there were hundreds of other caring people – runners who continued on to the hospitals to give blood, hospital personnel who went in and helped without being paged, and even runners who gave their medals to runners who didn’t finish.

Lesson 3 – When Helpers Inspire Others. Speaking of caring people, here’s one story that really inspires me that you might have missed during the Marathon news eclipse. Cameron Lyle is a senior track shot-putter from the University of New Hampshire. He has just donated his bone marrow to help a cancer patient, who would have only six months to live without a transplant.

Lyle chose to help because his marrow is rare and there are no other donors with such a perfect match. Two things are really inspiring about Lyle’s decision. First, he is giving-up competing in his last two championship meets of his career. And, second, he doesn’t know the patient. Lyle’s decision is inspiring others to now donate bone marrow. That’s leadership.

Please feel free to share other lessons from this week by commenting on this Blog post.

I think that a positive attitude comes when we are happy, when we are having fun, and when we laugh at ourselves and the situations we find ourselves in. As Jimmy Buffet reminds us,

“It’s these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of our running and all of our cunning
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.”

In Part I of this Blog post I wrote about the importance of positive attitude and how to recognize the symptoms of negative attitude. Let’s explore how someone can try to change negative attitude.

Changes in Attitude. John Maxwell says, “The key to having a good attitude is the willingness to change.” Whether you need to change your own attitude or help another change his or hers, here are eight choices you can make.

1. Evaluate your present attitude – understand what causes your negative feelings and recognize the feelings in advance so you can manage your attitude.
2. Realize that faith is stronger than fear – often negative attitudes come from fear of change. If we believe things will work out and be good in the end, we can reduce our negative attitude.
3. Internalize your purpose – You can get at your purpose by following these three (3) steps daily:
   • (a) Write down your goals for the day
   • (b) Share your objectives with an encouraging friend, colleague, or team leader
   • (c) Take action on your objectives and share results with the friend, colleague, or leader. This builds-in a natural level of accountability.
4. Have the desire to change – I think this is the toughest one; people have to want to change. If you are not changing, explore the reasons. Create your own ways to get out of the rut. As Mark Twain once wrote, “Take your mind out every now and then and dance on it. It is getting all caked up.”
5. Live one day at a time – Stop thinking about what happened yesterday. Don’t worry about tomorrow, it isn’t here yet. Focus on today’s goals and the successes that come with their achievements.
6. Change your thought patterns – Maxwell says, “We can control our thoughts. Our feelings (and attitude) come from our thoughts. Thus, we can control our feelings by learning to change our thoughts.” There are some very good resources on line to help you do this.
7. Develop good habits – An attitude comes from a habit of thought. Bad attitude comes from bad habits of thought. Here are steps for you to change your bad habits:
   • (a) List your bad habits
   • (b) What was the original cause of the habit?
   • (c) What do you do that supports the habit?
   • (d) Determine a positive habit to replace the bad one
   • (e) Think about the good habit, its benefits and results.
   • (f) Take actions to further develop the new habit.
   • (g) Act daily on the new habit to reinforce it.
   • (h) Reward yourself my noting one benefit of the new habit.
8. Choose your attitude – In the fun book called FISH , which gives us four tips on raising morale, they remind us to “choose your attitude” every day. In the video, which I have seen many times at employee functions, team members at Pike Place Fish Market talk about starting the day with a positive attitude. I recommend turning-on your positive, work attitude “light switch” before you arrive at work. If you have any challenges in your private life, turn them off before you arrive.

The most important job of a leader is to manage the attitude temperature of both ourselves and our teams. If you can’t help a person change their attitude, then it’s our job to move them off the bus, free them to their future, and make sure we don’t all go insane.

Last week I had the pleasure of participating in several interviews with young people looking to advance their careers and move into formal leadership positions. During the interviews I could hear Herb Kelleher’s famous quote in my head, “Hire for attitude, train for skill.” All of the final applicants had proven to have great attitudes - so now we needed to train them.

One of the candidates did something few candidates do – she asked for advice. We each gave suggestions and I reminded her to learn to delegate. Up until now she had been a solo performer on a team and was mostly responsible for achieving individual outcomes. Now she will be responsible for the achievements of the whole team. She will need to focus on helping her team members be successful rather than just herself. She can help them be successful by delegating duties to them, especially ones they do well.

As John Maxwell has said, “Leaders have to give up to go up.”

What I Should Have Said. With hindsight I realize now I blew the question. I should have said, “Remember every day to use your positive attitude to inspire your team.” That is the first job of every leader.

Attitude is a Compounding Variable. The Stanford Research Institute concludes that only 12.5% of your success is based on your product or service knowledge and 87.5% on how well you get along with people. And I think “attitude” drives most of that 87.5%. As a leader we need to remember that attitude can make or break our team’s success – both our own attitude and the attitude of individual team members.

Attitude is contagious and spreads when it comes in contact with other people. A positive attitude increases success. A leader’s positive attitude at the beginning of a new initiative or change has the largest impact on whether or not a group will be successful.

And negative attitude spreads faster than positive attitude. A leader must identify bad attitude, try to help the owner of it change, and, if unsuccessful, move the person out. If you don’t remove a rotten apple from its barrel, the whole barrel soon will be rotten.

Recognizing Poor Attitude. In John Maxwell’s book Attitude 101 he reminds us that because poor attitude is so subjective we often don’t deal with it. When we observe it in others we think it might just be us, other people might like the person. But, we are usually right.

Maxwell says, “People always project on the outside how they feel on the inside. Attitude is really about who the person is. That overflows into how he acts.” Maxwell goes on to suggest that a leader watch for these six symptoms of rotten behavior that will infect a team’s spirit:

1. Inability to admit a mistake – this is the person who always says it was someone else’s fault.
2. Failing to forgive someone – this is the person who holds a grudge and can’t let go.
3. Petty jealousy – this is the person who gets upset when another gets recognized. “It’s not fair.”
4. The disease of me – this person believes they are more important than everyone else. They may not say anything, but this belief affects how they interact with others.
5. A critical spirit – this is the person who finds fault with everyone else’s ideas and actions.
6. A desire to hog all the credit – this person always lets you know what they did and that the team’s success was because of them.

In Part 2 of this Blog, I’ll explore what you can do to try to help someone change who has a poor attitude.