Learning to Embrace Positive Deviance

How Leaders Can Unlock Better Change by Challenging the Status Quo

Most change initiatives fail not because people resist improvement — but because organizations unintentionally suppress the very behaviors that make improvement possible.

In this on-demand webinar, Paul Wainwright explores the concept of positive deviance and why organizations that learn to embrace it are better positioned to lead sustainable change, foster engagement, and improve performance from the inside out.

Rather than relying on fear, urgency, or top-down mandates, this session reframes change as a leadership responsibility — one rooted in empowerment, trust, and learning.

Originally hosted by KaiNexus, this webinar challenges conventional thinking about leadership, culture, and continuous improvement.

Key Insights

Many organizations unintentionally create environments where employees feel anxious about learning, afraid to speak up, or reluctant to challenge established norms. This webinar explains why those conditions stall improvement — even when leaders have the best intentions.

Paul introduces positive deviance as a way to shift how change happens. Instead of waiting for crises or “burning platforms,” leaders can design systems that encourage experimentation, questioning, and ownership at every level.

You’ll gain a deeper understanding of how leadership behaviors influence psychological safety, how fear impacts creativity, and why empowered employees often bend the rules for the right reasons. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to recognize positive deviance when it appears — and how to nurture it rather than shut it down.

What You’ll Learn

• Why traditional, fear-driven change efforts often backfire

• The difference between survival anxiety and learning anxiety

• What positive deviance looks like in real organizations

• How empowerment fuels sustainable improvement

• The leadership behaviors that encourage challenge and experimentation

• How to create conditions where people improve work because they want to

Who This Webinar Is For

This webinar is especially valuable for:

• Continuous improvement and operational excellence leaders

• Lean and Lean Six Sigma practitioners

• Executives and managers leading change initiatives

• Healthcare, manufacturing, service, and public-sector leaders

• Anyone experiencing resistance, disengagement, or change fatigue

If you’re trying to move beyond compliance-driven improvement and build a culture where people take ownership, this session offers a powerful shift in perspective.

Watch the Webinar On-Demand

Access the full recording to explore how positive deviance can become a catalyst for meaningful, lasting change in your organization.

👉 View more on-demand KaiNexus webinars:
https://www.kainexus.com/webinars

About the Presenter:

Paul Wainwright

BSc (Hons) MSc MBA CMgr MCMI
Managing Director,  Initi8 Business Excellence

Paul is the Managing Director of Initi8 Business Excellence, a consultancy business specializing in enabling organizations to achieve positive an progressive change. The eight core elements supporting the Initi8 Business Excellence framework are focused on Strategy, Design, Leadership, Process, Change, Customer, Learning & Empowerment

Having worked with a range of organizations in various sectors Paul has experience of leading business improvement projects, introducing continuous improvement frameworks and working with senior leaders to train and develop their leadership and management skills. As a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Paul is very familiar with the challenges that organizations face 'on the ground' and actively works with leaders of organizations to go to Gemba and overcome these challenges.

Paul also works closely with a local university delivering material on their MBA course whilst also offering free consultancy to local charities to help them formulate and deploy operational strategies enabling them to reach their goals and objectives.