PD Japan Network

The PD Japan Network, a volunteers organization, was founded organically and spontaneously after the first visit in 2011 of Dr. Arvind Singhal, invited as a foreign distinguished scholar by the government. It was the year when the Great East Japan earthquake, yielding a massive tsunami disaster, and the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, hit Japan and the whole nation was upended. During such dark times, Dr. Singhal brought the light to our heart by introducing the concept of Positive Deviance (PD).

The organization has been active with its members consisting of professionals from diverse disciplines such as education, healthcare, international development, business and market, to spread the use of the PD approach, to conduct research and most importantly co-learn PD and the PD approach as the methodology of social innovation and organization development. It has also released and supported several books in Japanese on the Positive Deviance approach (see publications listed below).

They host a monthly dialogue session to support the communities that are facing complex problems, as well as a newsletter, annual workshops and so on. Moreover, they conducted many free sessions of Conversation Café using Zoom in 2020 when it was the beginning of COVID-19 infection. Through Conversation Café, they have expanded relationships across Japan and disciplines thanks to the communication technologies, such as Slack. The network also offers the delivery of PD seminars and workshops for your community.

They may not have created big social impacts in Japan yet. However, they apply the PD concept into small practical projects and in our daily private and working lives. The few core members who are business consultants apply the PD concept and approach to the organizational development projects with their clients. Another core member who is a nurse specializing in infection, has completed her thesis for the master’s degree, using the PD approach and Liberating Structures. They celebrate and are proud of their members’ accomplishment!

If you’d like to promote social innovation or organization development in Japan, please visit the following PD Japan Network websites:

Publications

  • The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems has been translated and published on March 12, 2021, from Tokyo Keizai.

  • FLIP that focuses on Positive Deviance, Liberating Structures and Entertainment Education in organization development has been published on January 19, 2021, from Book Trip.

  • Be a Changemaker that features PD has been published in December 18, 2018 from Gentosha.