New Explorations Interview with Arvind Singhal on the Power of Positive Deviance

At PCI Media, we address the world’s challenges through storytelling. Our friends at StoryWork International use stories similarly. In this four-part interview series, Richard Stone, the CEO of StoryWork and a PCI Media board member, talks with Arvind Singhal, the Samuel Shirley and Edna Holt Marston Professor of Communication and Director of the Social Justice Initiative at the University of Texas at El Paso. Singhal is an internationally recognized expert in positive deviance, an approach to change that examines how the uncommon behaviors of some community members can lead them to solve complex issues—like malnutrition—despite having similar resources to their peers. The series explores how this approach can upend the stories we tell ourselves about the best ways to spread innovation and effect positive social change.

Watch part 1 of the series above. Visit StoryWork to access parts 2, 3, and 4.