In 1990, malnutrition was at an all-time high in Vietnam, with one in three suffering from malnutrition and one in four Vietnamese facing starvation.
The Vietnamese government asked Save the Children, an international organization that helps children in need, into the country to fight malnutrition. Jerry Sternin, who was the US Country Director at that time, was asked to open office in Vietnam.
The expert opinion at that time was ‘malnutrition is inevitable’, due to poor sanitation, lack of clean water and omnipresent poverty. Contrary to expert opinion, Sternin decided to start differently. He adopted a ‘bright spots’ approach to address the challenge: identifying and amplifying successful practices or solutions, rather than focusing on problems and failures.
He travelled to rural villages to learn how local groups of mothers were able to have a well-nourished child in a low-income family. Sternin compared this to the Vietnamese norm for how children were fed and was surprised by the significant differences.
The well-nourished children were fed 4 times per day (where the norm was 2), they received meals supplemented with shrimps and crabs (a food viewed as ‘low-class’) and were fed by mothers’ hand if necessary.
Identify and amplify successful practices or solutions in challenging situations, rather than focusing on problems and failures
Based on these findings, Sternin organized a program in which 50 malnourished families would meet and prepare food in groups of 10, implementing the principles of well-nourished children in low-income families. Eventually, the program reached 2.2 million Vietnamese people in 265 villages and achieved a sustained reduction in malnutrition rates of 65-80%.
By avoiding the ‘analysis paralysis’ and having deep faith in the philosophy of Bright Spots, Jerry Sternin heavily contributed to this result.
To search for the Bright Spots in your organization, stop asking:
What is wrong and how can we fix it?
Rather, start asking:
What is working and how can we do more of it?
In 1990, malnutrition was at an all-time high in Vietnam, with one in three suffering from malnutrition and one in four Vietnamese facing starvation.
The Vietnamese government asked Save the Children, an international organization that helps children in need, into the country to fight malnutrition. Jerry Sternin, who was the US Country Director at that time, was asked to open office in Vietnam.
The expert opinion at that time was ‘malnutrition is inevitable’, due to poor sanitation, lack of clean water and omnipresent poverty. Contrary to expert opinion, Sternin decided to start differently. He adopted a ‘bright spots’ approach to address the challenge: identifying and amplifying successful practices or solutions, rather than focusing on problems and failures.
He travelled to rural villages to learn how local groups of mothers were able to have a well-nourished child in a low-income family. Sternin compared this to the Vietnamese norm for how children were fed and was surprised by the significant differences.
The well-nourished children were fed 4 times per day (where the norm was 2), they received meals supplemented with shrimps and crabs (a food viewed as ‘low-class’) and were fed by mothers’ hand if necessary.
Identify and amplify successful practices or solutions in challenging situations, rather than focusing on problems and failures
Based on these findings, Sternin organized a program in which 50 malnourished families would meet and prepare food in groups of 10, implementing the principles of well-nourished children in low-income families. Eventually, the program reached 2.2 million Vietnamese people in 265 villages and achieved a sustained reduction in malnutrition rates of 65-80%.
By avoiding the ‘analysis paralysis’ and having deep faith in the philosophy of Bright Spots, Jerry Sternin heavily contributed to this result.
To search for the Bright Spots in your organization, stop asking:
What is wrong and how can we fix it?
Rather, start asking:
What is working and how can we do more of it?
