Positive Deviance
One Concept at a Time
I can remember coming across the term ‘positive deviant’ and being intrigued by it. But when I searched Google Books or elsewhere it is not really used like one or I would have thought.
For an explanation of positive deviance, see pp. 33–36 of the seventh edition of Deviant Behavior by Edward J. Clarke.
I did realize something that I am a bit of a sucker for. Sometimes I feel like I am getting played by a cookie cutter, others, some really good writing, a few really thought provoking. Of course, there is an awful lot of overlap, use of the same sources, do authors even try to use original material in their citations?
That is, taking a concept and writing about it. Concept meaning a perspective, an attitude, a direction, making up a new word, etc.
I had even reserved a section in my library for these.
I’ll not categorize the below with the above. Here is a quick list of such books that I have read over the years.
Triggers — Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter
Obliquity — John Kay
Obliquity — John Kay
Uncertainty — Jonathan Fields
Essentialism — Greg McKeown
Paradigms — Joel Arthur Barker
Simplexity — Jeffrey Kluger
Juice — Evan I. Schwartz
Rework — Jason Fried and David Heinemeier
The Opposable Mind — Roger Martin
Embrace Your Weird — Felicia Day
Start With No — Jim Camp
Flip — Peter Sheahan
Plenitude — Juliet B. Schor
Fixing Broken Windows — George L. Kelling and Catherine M. Coles
Stretch — Scott Sonenshein
Decoding Greatness — Ron Friedman
The Silo Effect — Gillian Tenet
Working With Emotional Intelligence — Daniel Coleman
The list is endless, I could easily list several dozen more.
I imagine also that certain popular authors come to mind as well that write books like these. I left those of the above list.
Perhaps you have a concept to write about, unique to you that others would enjoy learning about? I have tried to write the occasional article along these lines.
Notice I did not list any books that have numbers. Give me a break on that.
Hoping I broke some new ground here.
