A collection of modern business ideas and their applications using creative metaphors

1. DR.
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LI
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Selected Thoughts
by: Ali Anani phd

3. Dr. Ali Anani - Managing Partner
Dr. Ali Anani : As General Manager, Dr. Ali Anani heads and supervises a team of
talented young professionals, and manages the overall brand strategy - ensuring
the cohesiveness and creative parts of each campaign for all Agency clients.
Dr. Ali Anani holds a PhD from the UK (1972). He has a wide experience in many
fields. His accomplishments include the writing of more than eighty publications in
international journals, the writer of three printed books in Arabic and one E-book in
English. He has written widely for the media and presented a TV program and
many radio programs.
Dr. Anani main credit is his creativity thinking where he scored among the top %5
creative people worldwide. Dr. Anani is an invited lecturer for more than fi y
international conferences and an author of many business slogans. Moreover, he
has travelled to more than fi y countries as an invited speaker and consultant and
has consulted for many international agencies including UNIDO, Atomic Energy
Agency, UNDP, ESCWA, private businesses and governmental agencies.

4. Managing Partner
Phenomena Communications
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5. Index
1- 6 Approaches to Storytelling 1
2- The Iceberg of Habits and Storytelling 4
3- Saddening Educational and Societal Observations 7
4- The Reverse Golden Circle and its Business Implications 10
5- The Story of Two Friends- which is yours? 13
6- Social network Structures and Polymers Network Structures-
Great Managerial Analogies 15
7- Turning of Days 17
8- Who are the Influencers? A New Perspective 19
9- Creative and Challenging Perspectives on Employees' Disengagement 22
10- O.T.H.E.R. 25
11- How to Think Differently and Shine? 29
12- Raise Your H High 32
13- Experiment and Experience the Hypothesis 35
14- The OTHER Side of Doing Business 38
15- Paint Your Organization with Durable Success 40
16- Tension Marketing 43
17- 4 Metaphors for leadership- Is it more of Same? 46
18- How to Benefit from Marketing Using Emotions Gaps? 48
19- Toxic Employees and Toxic Chemicals 51
20- The Habits Footage and Applications 53
21- It is not Employee Profile as much as it is Employee Habits 55
22- Collaboration beneath the Surface 57
23- When the Best Decision Isn't to Make One? 59

6. Stories attract attention in proportion to the conflict embedded in them. I have
written many presentations on this subject that I feel it worthy to summarize my
main approaches.
Storytelling Is like a Chemical Reaction
You want to convert your readers to become new persons, to buy your product, to
adopt a view or whatever your purpose is. Like a chemical reaction it needs to reach
an exited state before converting to a product, so is your story. It needs to excite
the reader to convert to a new person.
Avoid side stories in your story as they are like undesired byproducts. Focus to
excite. Orient your readers to your story to react like molecules that shall not react
unless they have the right orientation.
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6 Approaches
to
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7. Use of Story Attractors
You need to understand the attractors to which your readers, customers, business
partners or prospects have fallen into overtime. People develop repeated pattern of
behavior. Your story may build on this to create conflict between what your
customers are habitual to and the new status you want to convert them to. The
emotional attractors are diamond-like in shape. Move the negative feelings till they
reach the bottom of the diamond. The deeper the diamond is, the greater the
conflict is. Then your story is the hello that moves the sufferers from grudge to
hope. It is like an earthquake where if you show how kids are "melting" from the
hot lava and you are the rescuer- all hearts shall attach to whatever you offer.
Story Turbulences
In using the story attractants discussed above, you need to avoid the overdose use
of "emotional turbulences". No one likes air turbulences and the same applies to
frequent and strong drops of emotions.
The Visual Storytelling Approach
You want to fuel the hearts of your readers and kindle their emotion then you need
to tell them a great story. Having a conflict in your story is a sure way to grab
hearts. The greater the acuteness of the conflict, the greater your story is.
Consistency is a must if you want to write a convincing story. All the elements of
a story using a unified scale are shown in the diagram below. Remember that
thoughts and values give beliefs, which form attitudes that shape up behavior. The
more you are on the opposite ends of any scale the greater the conflict is.
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8. Maximizing Pain before Maximizing Delight
You want your story to be moving? One way of doing that is maximizing pain first
and then delight shall look great. It is the illusion effect. Add pain to a pain till you
reach the climax. Now show the delight of your story. When people are tense and
your story is the happy end then people shall remember it for long times to come.
Maslow's Pyramid for Storytelling
Maslow's Pyramid for storytelling has barely been studied. In fact, this pyramid
provides a great opportunity for writing thrilling stories.
Suppose a man knows a girl to satisfy his ego of attracting girls. The girl genuinely
galls in love with him. Having his ego satisfied the man turn his back to her. He
starts to phone less, sees less of her and so on. The conflict starts. Imagine now if
you have a products that comforts the lady and it works. I strongly feel this use of
Maslow's Pyramid needs more attention.
I hope these presentations help you in writing your story.
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9. Understanding habits is of paramount importance in marketing, storytelling and
almost any researched field of human activities. Habit Marketing relates to
understanding habitual behaviors so that we market products that don't negate
habits; instead reinforce them.
I like very much the quote of Mahatma Gandhi
“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”
The Iceberg of Habits
and Storytelling
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10. I pondered on habits and wondered if habits
have more "revealing" values.
My thinking leads me to think of an Iceberg of Habits. What we see on the surface
may have its roots below the surface. Let us take one example. We see a smoker
and we may notice upon observation the following sub-habits:
throwing cigarette ash carelessly
changing cigarette brand frequently
Smoking cigarettes half way and then extinguishing them
Puffing off smoke angrily
Extinguishing cigarettes violently
Are these sub-habits related or interconnected? Do they form what we call the
Cobweb of Habits? If so, how would these habits affect the value and hence the
destiny of a smoker?
Extinguishing a cigarette careless may reflect that the smoker is a risky person who
might not care for the safety of others or their feelings (the smoker smokes half of
a cigarette reflecting he goes half way with his/her friends and then quits them).
Not only that as this person end the friendship violently as he/she does with the
cigarette having finished smoking it. The person changes cigarette brands easily
and it is the same to change friends. Loyalty has a low profile.
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11. Cobweb of smoking
This leads me to the Spanish proverb that says: Habits are first cobwebs and then
cables… If cobweb indeed, then do habits grow like we see in the logistic equation
that ends up in a cobweb formation? Is there a limited human capacity to hold
habits? Is there cannibalism in habits where one habit is a prey and another is a
predator? To form cobwebs then the answer would be yes to all previous
questions.
Storytellers may draw the cobweb of habits to shape up their characters. Having
visual cobwebs of all characters will help in observing the conflicts of habits, which
in turn may lead to different conflicting values and identities. This makes the story
more logical and more factual. I invite authors to try this approach. It also allows
authors not to see the surface of the Iceberg of Habits; more to dive deep and study
the deep and hidden habits of their characters.
I dedicate this post to the great thinker and man of great habits
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Dr. Milos Djukic
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12. We learn a lot from sports. In a penalty shoot out to determine the soccer cup
winner the score was equal. Team B had the last shoot and if they scored they
would be the winners. The goalkeeper managed to stop the ball and his team won
the cup.
A correspondent asked the goalkeeper post the match how he managed to predict
the direction of the goal and thwart the opponent famous striker from scoring. The
goal keeper said that all previous penalty shooters shot the ball from near
distance. Being so close to the goal it made it difficult to observe their body
movement and hence their intentions to where to direct the ball. However; the last
striker decided to move away from the penalty spot. Focusing my eye on his feet
and distance from the people he reached a short distance in which it was difficult
for him to change his direction. I predicted he would shoot the ball to my le and
he did. I quickly oriented myself to throw my body to the le and that was it.
Saddening Educational
and Societal Observations
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13. A great observation is the starting point to success. The opposite is true also. Lack
of observation could lead us astray. How Generations a er generations have seen
the tree leaves and that they are not regular engineering shapes. Generations have
glanced tree branches and that they are mostly copies of each other. Generations
have glanced tree branches that tilt at an angle of about 107 degrees from the
stem. Glancing is something; observing is another. To observe means to question
why you see what you see. To ponder on it, to hypothesize it, to experiment the
validity of a hypothesis and reflect on what you experiment.
The more I think, the more valuable I find the O.T.H.E.R. Loop of Rod King, Ph.D
is. Rightly, he commented on one of my previous posts that Reflect may seem the
least important; in reality it is not. I suggest a metaphor for Reflection. It is BOTH
the forward and backward mirrors in a car. The backward mirror allows you to see
the past and learn from it. The forward mirror allows you to see the future and
prepare for it. You may not be able to extend the past to the future, but you may
learn from it to least hypothesize why the future is not an extension of the past.
It is this reflection that warrants great attention. Our educational systems teach
history. It is the backward camera without reflecting on the lessons learnt.
Forecasting techniques focus on the forward-looking mirror without great attention
to the past.
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14. Educational systems tend to focus on assumption. The longer we have held those
assumptions, the more we tend to hold them. Disruptive observations that negate
long-held assumptions are discarded. It is when we need to discard assumptions
that we find resistance to challenging those assumptions. How long did it take us
to accept that air is not one material and that it has many gaseous components.
How much resistance Copernicus faced when he said the earth rotates? These are
the lessons we should learn from looking backwards and yet we still keep making
the same mistakes.
Worse still is our tendency to draw straight lines from one point! If an Arab
commits a crime then all Arabs are criminals!!! If a Moslem makes a blatant
mistake then are Moslems are the same. We still make assumptions based on
scattered incidents and we tend to believe them.
This reminds me of a story and real one too. Few of us were gathering in a friend's
flat before leaving to the airport on a trip back home. It was an early morning flight.
We decided to play cards to pass time. One of us went inside. During his absence
we decided to play a game on him. We agreed to turn off the light soon a er he
returns. We resumed playing cards and one of us extended his hand to the light
switch and turned the lights off. It was very dark. We continued playing as if we
could see. Poor man as soon he started shouting I am blind…I see nothing…and he
went into a hysterical phase.
How many societies lead individuals to blindness?
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15. It is amazing how doing business in inward-outward fashion may give different
results than doing it in reverse: that is outward-inward fashion. A great example is
the Golden Rule as shown in the image below.
Should we start with what to analyze what we do to reach why and what purpose
it satisfies? Or, should we start with why and move outwards to what? Does that
make any difference? If yes, what implications on businesses our approach will
have? Do we experience what I coin The Golden Circle Hysteresis, as I shall explain
later?
The Reverse Golden Circle
and its Business Implications
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16. I like to expand the questions to emotions as it relates to Emotional Marketing.
Would you start with the what emotions by analyzing and then what emotions to
use to address customers? Or, is it better to start with the why questions?
People shall gather around a magnetic purpose- a grand one that appeals to all
employees. The greater the purpose is, the greater is the willingness of people to
pool around. Likewise; the greater the purpose is, the more appealing shall
customers find it. This is also true for politicians in spite of short-sightedness of
some politicians.
People want a product, a political speech, an advertisement or whatever you offer
them that they know why it helps them and not what it does for them.. Why
signifies the purpose and this purpose should be appealing to the masses. This s
the hot spot that triggers attention.
Starting from what and going back to why means deferring knowing the purpose.
This is like putting the cart before the horse and "tailoring" purpose to suit the
what. Most likely, this shall end up in a mini-scale purpose or a purpose that is
egoist.
Egoism in purpose defining may lead to conflicts. Water issues may lead to
conflicts as is the case in the Middle East and Africa. When a country builds a dam
to collect water and deprive other countries from it this leads to the development
of voids of differing sizes. Whenever such voids form the system weakens for all
countries. The strength of a material is determined by the largest voids in it and the
strength of a region is determined by the biggest voids in neighboring countries.
Building strength in one country while weakening that of a neighboring one will
eventually weaken both of them.
The same it goes for writers and including me. So I write to attract views? This is
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17. egoism. It is much more purposeful if I write to communicate my experiences to
others, to try to make the world better, to enlighten people about certain issues
and the like. Make the purpose useful to the masses and not yourself. Jonathan's
Seagull didn't learn to fly higher for himself, but to teach other birds to fly.
Business is not different and it should always start with why to derive a big purpose
for the enterprise. Having a purpose of "killing" a competitor doesn't match a
purpose of beautifying peoples' life. Businesses have to remember having purpose
based on hot negative emotions that cool a erwards may have different paths than
starting with "cool" emotions that warm up the emotions of customers later on.
Going the route from why how what and then what how why may lead to what I
call The Golden Circle Hysteresis. Like some materials do and financial systems do
by exhibiting hysteresis so I expect the same to apply to the Golden Circle. In
financial systems When some negative shock reduces employment in a company
or industry, there are fewer employed workers le . As usually the employed
workers have the power to set wages, their reduced number prompts them to
negotiate for even higher wages when the economy improves instead of letting the
wage be at the equilibrium wage level, where the supply and demand of workers
would match. This causes hysteresis: the unemployment becomes permanently
higher a er negative shocks. Negative shocks or negative emotional shocks in the
stock market, in expectations, in approaching businesses and in advertising there
a ermath might be higher a er their negative shocks. That is my expectation.
The Hysteresis of the Golden Circle
There is one sure way: to start from the Why
Acknowledgement: The great comment of Rod King, Ph.D on my previous post on
The Story of Two Friends inspired the idea of this post.
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18. There were two friends who shared many things with misery of poverty standing
out. They were poorer than clayey soil that was deprived of water for long times.
Like clay fractures when dry, so were the two friends. So, they decided that the
only way out of poverty is leaving to promising lands separately. They believed
they negatively affected each other's good fortune and the best way for them was
to migrate to two different places.
They did. One of them started working in trade and his business turned into smiles.
The other one continued with his misery. He struggled for years and then decided
to go back home. Poverty made him look much older than he really was and
wrinkles on his face looked liked very fractured clay.
One day as he was walking down town the poor man saw people gathering around
a rich man. He went and found the rich man distributing parcels of food to the poor.
The Story of Two Friends-
which is yours?
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19. Upon focusing on the rich man's face he was surprised to find out that he was his
"poor" friend". He rushed to him asking him by name how good was he doing? But
who are you, asked the now rich friend?
In tears, the poor friend replied "do you remember those miserable days in which
you always said if death was offered for sale, you would buy it"?. That moment the
rich man realized that this was his old friend. He embraced him and took great care
of him.
I remembered this story because when I look at views on LinkedIn posts I find great
disparity between what I get here and what I get on SlideShare. I have views
exceeding half a million on SlideShare and few thousands on LinkedIn. I am rich
on one platform and poor on the other.
But what is richness on social platforms? Is it the number of views? Is it the
number of comments? Is it the number of likes? Is it the number of shares? Or, is
it all these together? Is LinkedIn my misery land and I should consider migrating
to other platforms? If I do would I end up more miserable, or shall I find a fertile
land even though the clay has dried up?
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Is richness in numbers? We live
in the age of long-tail
distribution wherein few shall
find the fertile land and mostly
will end up in the wrinkles of
misery
Dear Dr. Vincenzo de Florio
shall know why I wrote this
post.
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20. I dedicate this post to a dear and thoughtful friend- Dr. Vincenzo de Florio.
Just have a look at a social network structure and a polymer network structure-
your eyes may depict some similarities between them. Both structures have weak
and strong ties and varying graph densities, just to give two examples. This finding
is not surprising as both are built by accumulation. Things that develop their
organization by new parts being added to existing ones, develop accumulative
designs that become harder to change over time.
We discuss polymer hardness, which The effect on the properties of increasing the
length of a polymer chain. This results in decreased flexibility and increased rigidity
of the polymer. Branching the same polymer makes it less crystalline and more
rigid.
Social networks that have many branches may eventually lose their flexibility.
They become rigid, less tolerant to changes. They are like the roots of trees where
their entanglement reduces their mobility and increases their rigidity.
Social network Structures and
Polymers Network Structures- Great
Managerial Analogies
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21. As good as self-organizing
structures are, they are bound
to suffer from the loss of their
rigidity. This throws the idea
that should we always think of
applying some control on
self-organizing teams so that
they may stay flexible? Should
we talk about self-organizing
systems with some enforced
boundaries? There is always
the danger of exceeding a limit
whereby the undesired result
start to take more control Is
too much of self-organizing a recipe for chaos? Is
there a sweet control as there is a sweet stress?
Is there a social network rigidity as much as there is polymer network rigidity?
There are many more analogies such as the weak and strong ties in social networks
and weak and strong bonds in polymers. Are the strength of both determined by the
weakest tie (bond). If so, polymers network structures might have many more
lessons to learn from.
Take two trees one with long added branches and another tree with less
packing and shorter branches. You shall see
visually that as branches add the tree
becomes less resilient and its flexibility
decreases. Likewise; snowflakes eventually
shall lose their flexibility the more
snowflakes are added to the snowflake
fractal. Fractals are the classic example of
increasing additions to a system in a regular
fashion.
Tres and snowflakes are examples of
fractals. They keep increasing their size by
repeating the addition of a the same moiety.
In the trees picture below the tree with high
density branches and elongated one is less
flexible than the tree with less density of
branches and with shorter ones.
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22. Today, the big soccer match between Norwich City and Middlesbrough ended in
Norwich winning the game, the prize of promotion and financial gains that are
reported worthy more than (130) million Sterling Pounds. I found myself writing
the losers' name as Middlesb-rough as it was rough indeed for the loser.On a
personal level I am delighted. I graduated from the University of East Anglia in
Norwich where I still keep great memories of my times there. If we could
extrapolate previous results to predict the future then Norwich should have lost.
Norwich lost their two last games to the competitor.So, what happened that
changes the expectations?
Turning of Days
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23. First it was self-belief that didn't wreck the nerves of the underdog as Norwich lost
their last two games to the same competitor. Norwich learnt from their previous
mistakes and built a formidable defense.
Second is having a manager who not only gained the players' trust, but also
genuinely planted his trust in the players. Mutual trust is a great ingredient of
success.
Third is the support of the crowd. Like flying birds make encouraging sounds to the
leader, so did the crowd who believed the job can be done.
Fourth early successes are crucial. Norwich managed to score two early goals and
that relaxed the nerves of all.
Fi h is balancing the play as Norwich players kept the balance between defensive
and offensive play. They developed the game without ignoring the reflections they
got from their opponents.
Sixth is luck as the opponent could have scored and early goal, but the crossbar
prevented it. However; luck may come to those who deserve it.
There are other factors that led to Norwich victory. However; I am asking here if
these factors aren't the same that make a business a winner?
I send my congratulations to Norwich city fans while reminding them that the
forthcoming challenges are hard shells. I wish also they would remember that
Nowrich fans' joy is the source of sadness and grief for the competitors' fans. Live
the joy, but be considerate of other people's feelings.
I wonder if this post would suggest a practical definition of emotional intelligence!
If you emerge as a winner how considerate you are to the loser reflects the intensity
of your emotional intelligence.
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24. Are influencers special type of people that have a particular structure that makes
them act like magnets attracting people to them? If so, is their magnetism kind of
paramagnetic or ferromagnetic? By that I mean do influencers become magnetic
only if placed in a magnetic field (paramagnetic), or they have a lasting magnetism
because the way they are. What makes influencers special type of people in social
networks? How do they attract people around them? I thank Luc STENGER for it is
the exchange of comments with him that inspired the idea of this post.
Let me take a chemical metaphor. Individuals vary in their character. Some people
are extremely introvert and difficult to bond with others. They have their own
space. Other people are on the extreme opposite as they bond freely with others
and they occupy large spaces. In between there are people who bond with others
in new ways. Like elements in the Periodic Table that show different bonding
behaviors depending on where they are on the Table.
To make the discussion easier for the reader let me give a general description of
bonding. Let us assume two friends go on a trip together. One possibility is that one
Who are the Influencers?
A New Perspective
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25. takes food and the other eats it (exemplary of ionic bonding). If one friend takes
food and the other doesn't eat all, but shares it with his/her friend then we have a
coordinate bond. If both friends take food and share it then we have a covalent
bond. The question is what type of bonding influencers make and how?
The bonding type determines the eventual structure of molecules; likewise they
determine the network structure of influencers.
What elements attract other elements or molecules to them? Most likely these are
transition metals with a magnetic character that makes other molecules firmly
attach to them (chelate in scientific language). What is special on their atomic
structure? Are these related to influencers to make them special type of people?
Transition metals have different energy levels. Electrons occupy those energy
levels in a specific order. The higher energy levels are, the more specified number
of electrons they may accommodate. No way we may locate the exact position of
the electrons, but with some certainty we may identify the orbital (space cloud)
they may occupy. More important is that these metals shall be magnetic because
they have unpaired electrons. This is the magnetism they have to attract other
molecules to pair their electrons of the transition metal. Coordinate bonding is
highly welcome because both the metals and the attaching molecules benefit. The
more unpaired electrons the transition metal has, the more attaching molecules it
may attract.
Do influencers have unpaired needs? Needs that are magnetic and are thirsty for
pairing? If we compare the structure of chelates and that of influencers chelating
structure we may notice the similarity between them.
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26. The receding discussions indicate that true influencers must have:
• Unmet needs themselves. They aren't fully satisfied or in a state of not wanting
others. It is built in their "structure". I wonder if the LinkedIn influencers would
agree to this! I think this ideas need further exploration.
• Influencers have a natural tendency to build levels of contacts. Like transition
metals, influencers make their unpaired need available for others to satisfy
them. Influencers have built-in drive to do that and claw to them.
• The greater the influencer spreads, the greater that he/she exposes his/her
needs. They influence because others are willing to pair their needs with those
of the influencers.
• Transition metals have unpaired electrons at different energy levels. Influencers
also may have of varying energies to increase their potential to claw their
followers.
I believe there is a need to redefine who are influencers and the source of their
magnetism that allow them to make strong bonding with their followers. What are
these "magnet needs" that attract people to them. Are these needs derived from
the Maslow's Pyramid of Needs, or are they more subtle ones? If the needs are
common then these influencers shall be similar to others and forming Claws
Clouds shall not be possible.
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27. Paints disengage from their substrates. Leaves, skin and branches disengage from
trees. Are these disengagements similar? And are they extensible for human
disengagement, or at least would provide early indicators that employees'
disengagement is nearing?
As for the possible similarities of
disengagement in paints and trees pictures
speak louder than words.
Paint Wrinkling and Paints Wrinkling
Winkles for when the top layer dries faster
than the bottom layer or when top layer is
applied on a contaminated surface.
Creative and Challenging Perspectives
on Employees' Disengagement
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28. Is that strange to organizations? We may expect that in hierarchical organizations
that when the top managerial level dries fast of ideas, resources or information
that "managerial wrinkles" would form and disengagement of employees follows.
Paint Cracking and Tree Cracking
Paint Cracking and Tree Tracking is a common property between paints and trees.
Mud Cracking is a sign of cracks that resemble cracked mud. One of the main
reasons that paints show this phenomenon is that paint applied too thickly, to
improve inherent poor coverage of a lower quality paint.
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In organizations that attempt to cover low-quality
work or customer service by applying cosmetic
measures shall suffer from having Organizational
Cracks leading to lowered spirits of employees and
hence their disengagement.
Paints Foaming and Trees Foaming
Both paints and tress exhibit foaming under certain
conditions. Foam formation may be attributed to the
use of low quality paint or to incorrect application of
the paint by using excessive rolling of the paint.
Exposing employees to Excessive Rolling may do
the same and may lead to make them volatile,
less-resistant to rolling and thus foaming their
disengagement.
Paints Spots and Tree Spots
Paints Spots and Tree Spots is again a shared
phenomena. Black, gray or brown spots or areas on
the surface of paint. Trees show similar spots. The
presence of spots indicates that most o en the
presence of damp areas that are not exposed to
enough sunlight.
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29. Employees who are dampened by the management and kept in the darkness of not
knowing may tend to spot the organization with spots of disengagement.
Paint Flaking and Tree Flaking
Paint Flaking and Tree Flaking is a common a shared attribute between paints and
trees. The formation of flakes is a sign of aging. What starts as a hairline crack
develops into flakes.
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Organization age in their thinking, staff and leaders,
resources and equipment. Some employees shall be
flaking and not only disengage, but also shall peel
off.
Paint Print Resistance and Tree
Print Resistance
Paint Print Resistance and Tree Print Resistance
reflect the inability of a paint or tree to take the
shape of an object that is placed on it.
Employees who take the shape of their bosses and color issues and opinion to the
taste of their bosses have no engaging roots. Beware of employees who say yes to
their bosses all the time.
I could go on and give more examples. However; my intension here is to draw
managerial lessons from nature and to reflect on disengagement in a broader
scope. Like paints disengage from their objects and leaves disengage from their
tree so are employees. The reasons vary, but nature is a genuine teacher.
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30. O.T.H.E.R.
Loop Magic and Applications
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Rod King, PhD published recently a brilliant post about using O.T.H.E.R. for
Loop-producing creative ideas that stand the test of time. I am still so
absorbed with this loop that I decided to spotlight it in this post. The figure
below shows the components of this loop. These are Observe, Think,
Hypothesize, Experiment and Reflect.
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The starting of the loop with Observe is remarkable. By Observe we mean
drumming all our senses to really see, feel, taste, smell, and touch the world
around us so that we are so immersed that we become part of it.
It is very unfortunate that we teach in closed classrooms. We teach students how
to think, but we don't expose them to observing. If we wish students to be part of
nature and observe its astonishing creativity then we need to change the
schooling model. In part, some classes should be held in different rich natures so
that the students may develop the habit of observing. Observation is more than
just seeing and hearing as it includes all our senses. How would a student smell
flowers or notice the fractal arrangement of trees or thrill on the view of flying
birds in V-form when they are trapped in closed classrooms?
Scientific discoveries that were based on observation from nature are too many to
count. Let me start with an example. I show below an image of drops of water
covering leaves. What do we observe about these drops? What is striking to the
eye What our senses tell us? Are the water droplets distributed evenly? The
leaves look pure- amazingly pure.
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32. DR.
NANI
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A
The ball-like water drops do not flow on the leaves like water does on a wooden
surface. Why is that? How come the water drops magnify the surface beneath
them? Is there a waxy material that make water from droplets? Or, is it a thorny
or needle-like substructure in the leaves that make them repel water and forcing
it to make droplets?
In business, observing customers reveal unique uses of products. Whirlpool
washing machines in India was studying the market for the Whirl products in
Northern India where most people consume buttermilk made out of curd.
To company managers' surprise, many families used their washing machine for
stirring curd and making buttermilk! The reason was simple: washing machines
were cheaper than stirrers and more suitable. Observation is not limited to nature,
but also to actual users of products. We know of many products that were sold
for one use, but customers found other uses for them and even more profitable for
the owner company. Starch is one example.
Observe more and you shall succeed more. Encourage students and employees
to observe. I have a suggestion here. Instead of asking employees to come up
with a creative ideas ask them to come up with unusual observations. If the first
step is right then we have covered more than %50 of the road to reaching new
products.
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33. DR.
NANI
LI
A
I call for open-air classrooms in inspiring places with the aim of generating
observations, some of which might be extremely valuable. I also call for new
management tool: asking every employee to come up with one observation every
month or whatever agreed times. Observation needs nurturing to shape up. We
all have senses, but we need to put them to effective use.
In a forthcoming post I shall give a full example of the use of O.T.H.E.R Loop. I
stop here to ask Dr. Rod King, Ph.D where he would accommodate imagination?
Post to Publishing:The comment of Rod King, Ph.D is so rich and thoughtful
prompted me to make a Mind Map of it and is shown below.
28

34. How to Think Differently and
Shine?
DR.
NANI
LI
A
It is teatime to visit the T habit of the O.T.H.E.R five habits loop that serves
to building great organizations as suggested by Rod King, Ph.D. In my
previous post I covered the Observe habit.
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35. DR.
NANI
LI
A
In the age of uncertainty, short-lived products, crowdedness of products and
services conventional thinking may be hazardous to business health. Thinking
differently is more than just a mind setup. It means approaching problems in
new, innovative ways. conceptualizing problems differently and understanding
your position in relation to any particular situation in new ways.
Whatever issue you may have to deal with it has a prerequisite: approaching it
passionately. passions help your mind relax and think creatively. You observe
something curious and it grabs your passions to find out more about what you
observe. This inner drive that turns curious observations into passion shall help
your juicy creative ideas to flow. Benjamin Franklin said "If passion drives you,
let reason hold the reins". Let your passion fuel you to think differently.
Thinking creatively means thinking differently. Let me explain by example. If
you can't measure it then you can't manage it. It is equal discard with it because
it is not measurable. A thinking mind will express it differently such as if you
can't measure it then it might have different and amazing behavior. Passionately
say to yourself that you have new horizons to discover, new knowledge to
acquire and knowledge to add. Mandelbrot noticed that the length of the coast
of Britain can't be measured precisely and that led to his great contributions on
what he coined fractals. Thinking differently entails passion for knowing more
and diving into the unknown waters.
Observation of unfamiliar behavior, shape or whatever if kindles passion then
imagination will also open new possibilities. Thinking about new possibilities
means thinking differently and outside the known. This way we go into places
that we haven't been to and the discovery journey starts. Imagination needs
distancing ourselves from the familiar land. You see problems in a different
light. You want to solve a mystery with passion coupled with imagination.
Thinking differently means asking more questions than giving answers. The
problem is knowing what to ask before jumping into answers. Using the six-hats
is a great way of doing that. This method, which was originated by Edward De
Bono, allows for mentally wearing and switching hats so that new thinking may
appear.
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36. DR.
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Yellow hat symbolizing brightness and optimism.
White hat symbolizes information gaps
Black hat symbolizes judgment. It is the devil that questions findings or
ideas
Red hat symbolizes feelings. It is sharing the emotions about the
thinking ideas.
Green hat symbolizes creative ideas, perceptions and concepts.
Blue hat symbolizes the management of the thinking process.
Like we mix colors to end up with different colors, so is mixing the hats. The
possibilities are great indeed.
In his recent book Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman points out that we
have two thought process on the go. One is slow burn, expertise-building that
allows us to organize and access a body of evidence about our lives and reality.
The other style of thinking is the rapid decision making that we might have to do
when we’re forced to recognize new patterns. Our mind oscillates between the
two thinking patterns. However; the rapidity of change and the complexity of our
world are pushing more towards rapid thinking and decision making. This is an
important issue as we need to gain experience, but the rapidity of change having
to make decisions may rob us of the experience accumulation. We need to think
differently, but pressures don't allow for that.
We need to think faster in different directions, but then we need to converge our
directions. As trees grow with limits and they branch out with self-imposed
limitations, we need to branch out our ideas with the realization that the tree
metaphor is kept in mind.
31

37. Raise Your H High
DR.
NANI
LI
A
It is time move on to discuss the H of O.T.H. E.R. H stands for hypothesize
having covered in the previous two posts the Observe and Think differently.
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38. DR.
NANI
LI
A
Hypothesizing means making an assumption that can be validated through
experimentation and observation. Here we note the Observation (O in
O.T.H.E.R.) showing up again. Observation is use is further expanded to include
the possible validation of hypothesis. Observation plays two key roles one in
generating ideas and one in validating them. Great care must be exercised to
separate the two roles of ideas generation and ideas validation.
Equally important is the realization of the difference between asking questions
and making a hypothesis. A hypothesis differs from a research question; it is
more specific and makes a prediction. It is a tentative statement about the
relationship between two or more variables.
Is there any special value to hypothesizing in business? Successful business
create value for customers. The greater the delight is and the less pain is, the
greater he value is. Rod King, Ph.D is the one who proposed the Delight/Pain
ratio as a thermometer of the warmth of this ratio. I elaborated in my SlideShare
presentation: The King and I the value of this ratio. The King here is Rod King.
Do you think that the value created is tempting enough for the customer? This
question may be turned into a hypothesis such as: The introduction of this
attribute shall increase sales by %10 as observed by the rapid disappearance of
the product from the shelf. You need now to validate if this hypothesis of %10
is validated or not. It is important to notice here the specific value of %10 to
make the hypothesis valid. Saying the sales will increase significantly doesn't
mean anything as significantly can't be measured.
There is a great risk in making assumptions that may obsess us to the extent
that we may believe in them without validation. When we say… the best value
for customers…. and keep repeating that then this belief turns into a habit. If this
belief is wrong it becomes like a snake under our skin. The snake is hiding, but
who knows when it shall bite us? I discussed this issue in my presentation on
Snaky Habits, which you may refer to for a greater detail.
Creative hypothesizing is an interesting area where one would ask question that
turn into different hypothesis. It is an area where expansive imagination
increases the possibilities and later to able to narrow them down. A good guide
might be Constructive Hypothesizing. Constructive hypothesizing is described as
a process in which there is a movement back and forth between knowing and not
knowing. Imagination has a fertile land this way. It is in the sweet spot of their
interaction that imagination may flourish. Or, it is at the edge between knowing
and not knowing.
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39. DR.
NANI
LI
A
I started a discussion on linkedin that has relevance to this post. Hypothesizing is
greatly assisted by the use of creative metaphors to help in visualizing, asking
creative questions that may be turned into creative hypothesis. Imagine a huge
tree planted in a pot. Sooner or later the tree shall outgrow the pot. What should
we consider before selecting the pot and the tree? What precautions we should
take? If this was a lean startup system what would you consider?
The tree represents fast-growing "things" such as information and technology. The
pot represent our restricting factors such as time, capacity, financial capability,
resilience and others. What do we learn from the natural tree-pot system? How
may we maximize our social capital? What the accumulated experience of
startups would teach us?
34

40. Experiment and Experience
the Hypothesis
DR.
NANI
LI
A
It is now about time to visit the E of Rod King's O.T.H.E.R. E stands for
Experimentation.
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41. DR.
NANI
LI
A
Your business makes a Value Hypothesis for its customers. Now, the time is ripe
to test your guess of the value you offer by experimentation and observing.
Remember the value you offer reflects your opinion and not necessarily that of the
customer. Experimentation serves two purposes:
Let me share this story to elaborate more on this vital point. Solar cookers were
suggested as a great product for the over 300,000 Indian villages. Indian women
usually spend considerable time daily to collect wood for cooking. Saving them
this time seemed of a great value for them. It was decided to give random
families with a free solar cooker each to test the hypothesized value proposition.
Two months later the manufacturer found that all solar cookers were down. Was
it a technical problem? No and it turned to be a multi-facetted one. Indian love
spicy food and solar cookers didn't mix the spices to the desired level. One
notable cause for rejecting the solar cooker was its deviation of the social habits
of Indian men. The fact that wives didn't have to go searching for wood disrupted
the normal life of men. Capturing on the fact that spices didn't taste as before,
they grumbled about the solar cookers hiding their real concern of a technology
that interfered with their social habits. The proposed value proved false. The pain
of men offset the delight of women.
The previous story highlights an important point. In proposing value remember
that the pain of one side might be the delight of another side. This polarity of
value might lead to a total failure of the offered value of your offer.
The value of strawberry-flavored so drink had a different fate. The value of the
so drink as refresher from the sun heat during summer proved false. All sales
were done surprisingly in winter for this particular product. My research showed
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that it was mostly young women aged between 25-18 who bought the so drink.
Surveys later showed that they bought it as a cheap substitute to lipsticks. As
universities were open during winter girls bought the strawberry-flavored drink in
winter and its value subdued during summer with no male students around. The
value for the so drink was negative for men, but extremely positively high for
females. This time women won. Doubling the concentration of the strawberry
increased demand for the so drink even at much higher prices.
Rod King, Ph.D highlighted the value of maximizing the Delight/Pain ratio. He is
absolutely correct. However; this ratio has its validity range. I wrote a
presentation on this issue titled The King and I. I gave an example of a lady
wearing a long-heel shoes. The feeling of being fashionable (Delight) exceeds the
discomfort of the long heels (Pain). However, if you fill the shoes with broken
glass the pain escalates and shall make the Delight/Pain ratio unprofitable.
If we go back to the solar cooker example it shall reveal a great lesson for
startups. The question is should we produce solar cookers? Or, can we market
solar cookers? Assuming that we have a salable product can be the biggest trap
for any business.
I have just experimented with a Hypothesis Value. I tested a new website
-making idea. I sent the link to all my e-mail subscribers assuming they would
love the idea of creating fancy and functional website in few seconds. So far, I
have received 15 thanking e-mails applauding the idea and 1 e-mail objecting the
irrelevance of the idea. See my website here http://bit.ly/1I4TLTz. It is amazing
how new ideas may be tested now. I may coin the term CROWDTESTING, in
emulation of crowdfunding.
37

43. The OTHER Side of Doing
Business
DR.
NANI
LI
A
It is not the Other Side of Midnight; it is the final episode of O.T.H.E.R. Loop
suggested by Rod King, Ph.D. I have previously covered Observe, Think,
Hypothesize and Experiment. Today I complete the Loop by discussing
Reflect.
As I was looking images of immature currants I Observed that the fruits
darken and lose their maturity as they ripen. WOW as I am back to Observe.
This Observation made me Think of the possibility that some organizations
start transparent and then turn dark. I am hypothesizing that maturity leads
to less transparency. Less transparency means less Reflection. If so, why
plants lose their transparency and whether similar reasoning may extend to
organizations?
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44. DR.
NANI
LI
A
Startups may enjoy freshness, lean processes and fresh beginnings, but they may
become dark. Is it because of the stress of he competition they encounter by not
tailoring products and services that delight the customers while minimizing their
pain? Is it because they get engaged in matters that have no relevance to the
customers? Is it because initial difficulties lead to fear and mistrust? What are the
Observable Reflections from such a work culture? Most likely, these are initial
reflections focusing on internal issues and are hardly relevant to the customers.
Internal work environment for the some startups may be "injured" by the knives of
mistrust, leading to reflecting less and absorbing more. They are like an apple as
soon as you cut it it turns brown. Are dark colors Reflecting "injured work
environments" as well?
A fruit that is Reflective turns into a dark one as it matures. The same fruit may
turn dark when you cut it. Same are startups if they turn dark from the outside and
inside. They either reflect, or if they do they send wrong reflections. For that not
to happen, these firms must keep repeating the O.T.H.E.R. loop. The frequency
and magnitude of the waves of this loop shall determine to a good extent the
freshness of their fruits (products, services, ideas,…).
Apples, pears, bananas, potatoes, and other fruits and vegetables turn brown
when they are cut or damaged. Like different fruits show a similar behavior upon
cutting, do different firms have common behaviors that poison them? More
importantly, are there simple measures to prevent the unwanted coloring of
organizations as we do for fruits by simply coating them with generous amounts
of lemon juice?
Asking Reflective questions will help a lot in identifying many businesses issues.
The What, How and the Why questions to start with. It is important to realize that
assumptions may be a poison to a business. This post is filled with assumptions
based on my initial observations. To believe I am right without Thinking,
Hypothesizing, Experimenting and Reflecting is a sure way to disaster. That is
why I am grateful to Rod King, Ph.D for stirring my posts on O.T.H.E,R.
One sure thing and I am not hypothesizing is that the O.T.H.E.R. Loop is a sure
way of storytelling. Your hero observes something (whether internal or external
issue). He/she then thinks about the issue and makes a hypothesis. He/she
experiments different tactics and fails. He/she reflects on the failures and learns
from them to finally succeed. It is not only the stories of startups; it is our stories
as well.
39

45. Paint Your Organization with
Durable Success
DR.
NANI
LI
A
Out of nowhere a metaphor popped up in my mind for the building of
successful organizations. It is the paint metaphor. The questions that apply
to the selection of a paint are extensible for organizations.
The selection of a paint is not a simple exercise. Color, finish, gloss, cost,
technology employed, quality, nature of object to be painted, intended use,
ambient conditions and taste are among the important factors in paint
selection. It is understanding the process of choosing a paint and applying
it correctly that helps in painting your organization with the right image that
stands the test of time.
For a paint to meet its usage requirements manufacturers add several
additives to upgrade the application and serviceability of the paint. For
example, additives include gloss enhancers, mildew resistance enhancers,
improved paint washability and toughness. Don't organization have same
requirements?
No paint job, including the image of your organization, shall be successful
without answering the following questions:
40

46. DR.
NANI
LI
A
• Purpose of the painted room (purpose of the organization). You don't want a
striking color for a bedroom. no organization shall succeed without knowing its
purpose.
• Location- sun-exposed rooms may require different paints than less sun-exposed
ones. If your organization is exposed to too much sunlight is different if it is still
a modestly exposed one.
• Longevity- if you are planning to stay for a long time in the dwelling it makes
more sense to use expensive, but durable paints.
• Nature of the surface to be painted- applying paint to a wood will be different
from applying it to aluminum. You need to understand how the paint shall bond
to the substrate. Organizations are not different and their bonding with clients
may have different requirements.
• Technology employed- how will the paint be applied by brush, paint gun or
spaying are issues for consideration. Organizations need to consider different
technologies and their appropriateness to customers.
• Who shall paint the wagon? It is crucial that the correct paint needs the correct
painter. Organizations need not only to sell the correct paint, but also must
ensure the painters (employees) are trained and experienced in performing the
required jobs.
• Environmental impact. Some paints peel off after sometime and fail the test of
usage. Likewise, organizations that paint a false image shall fail the test of
time.
• Watch for unseen events. Like an eye color may vary as an instance of
structural color, which varies with varying lighting conditions, so watch for the
color of your organization and how people eye it.
Painting save a metaphor for the complexity of organizations. The flow of
questions for selecting the correct paint may extend easily to organizations. The
interactions of factors influencing the selection of paints may extend to the study
of interactions and feedback in painting a true image of organizations.
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47. DR.
NANI
LI
A
What you plan to paint?
What are the specific requirement of the site?
How to ensure the correct application of the paint?
How to monitor the performance of the paint?
What lessons do we learn?
How may we avoid the recurrence of the same mistakes?
How do we pass the learning and information acquired to the whole paint
industry?
How to deal with harsh environmental conditions? For organizations this could be
harsh economic conditions, to give one example.
These are interconnected questions. The selection of the wrong painter
(employee) will affect the performance of the paint (work) and shall dim the
image of any organization. That each question is asked separately doesn't mean
that questions are working in isolation.
Like the paint industry learns from its mistakes and upgrades itself to a new
identity so are all organizations.
42

48. Tension Marketing
DR.
NANI
LI
A
I wish to thank Russ Klein for alerting me to the value of tension marketing.
I fail to find the right words to thank him enough. I dedicate this post to him
with the hope that it reflects a small part of my gratitude to him.
Amazing is the disruption of the marketing landscape. The 4Ps of marketing
involved 3 strategic components (promotion, Place, Product) and one
tactical component that is price. Price is the only component that generates
revenue for a business.
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49. DR.
NANI
LI
A
As much as it is surprising that people are the real ones who generate revenue,
surprisingly this component was added later to turn the 4Ps into 5Ps. Later it
progressed to 7Ps to cater for Process and Physical evidence.
Marketing strategy developed accordingly. Emotional laddering has been
introduced recently to highlight that we need to trigger emotions to market
successfully. Habit marketing was later introduced to use habits as trigger for
wanting a product.
Very recently, Russ Klein commented on one of by posts by saying " I began
research in 1997 on "Tension-Based Communication". Whether it's a press
release, a novel, long form content, or a :30 second TV commercial...I have
identified an irrefutable correlation between so-called effective communication
and tension. This led me to develop a proprietary tension-based briefing process
that inspired the long running Gatorade "Is It In You" campaign. That comment
and a subsequent one opened my appetite to dive more in the sea of Tension
marketing.
Is Habit Marketing different from Tension Marketing? A recent study that involved
a lady who kept biting her nails that the trigger for biting was her feeling bored.
That feeling arose tension in her fingers and led her to build the habit of biting her
nails. Habits are then based on tensional triggers. It is then very helpful to delve
into tension marketing. The thinking of Russ Klein is elevating.
Not all emotions may trigger tension high enough to build habits. However;
feelings of tense, shaky, panicky, restless, uneasy, anxious and nervous are
among the strongest feelings that lead to tension.
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50. DR.
NANI
LI
A
The idea is not to stop at making customers tensioned. Stopping there would
infuriate customers. They are buying solutions and not nervousness. So, once you
take the customer to the peak of his/her tension show how your product relaxes
the tension. The bigger the tension is, the more valuable the product is.
You need to take the customer to the edge of his/her discomfort before Aladdin
lamp appears. Of great importance here is to understand the attributes of your
customers and what makes them tense. O en, tensions have their iceberg. For
example, heavy eaters may be in state of high tension. people who love luxury
cars may be worried about having a "luxurious" social status. They have the
tension of needing to feel their individuality. Offer a message that intensifies this
worry and then Aladdin Lamp shall lighten up his/her worries with your product.
The Golden Rule is then Build the Tension and soon a er release it.
Tension on the edge will "condition" customers to accept your offer. The works of
Russ Klein provide great example of possibilities. Creative tension is the path to
follow.
Social media has offered great opportunities for visualizing tension and its trend
direction. That shall be the theme of a forthcoming post.
45

51. 4 Metaphors for leadership-
Is it more of Same?
DR.
NANI
LI
A
We learn, develop, adapt and may accordingly
experience change of beliefs. Authors are on the same
boat as they write on what they experience and believe.
A good way to discuss this topic is having written on
same topic over time. For example, I have come up with
four different metaphors to study leadership and its
main attributes. Have I been consistent? Did the
metaphors lead me in different directions/ What are the
commonalities of attributes generated by the four
metaphors? I decided to find out.
1.The Divers Metaphor
As divers dive into the unknown, have ability to take
risk, knowledge of planning for their lives before
planning for others, knowing where and when to dive
and self-confidence to dive.A driver knows the purpose
of his/her dive if it is commercial, recreational or
scientific. Knowing the purpose helps in planning the
dive. Drive timing is equally important whether it is day
or night and the prevailing conditions during the dive.
Aren't these the attributes of great leaders as well?
ttp://www.slideshare.net/hudali15/diving-into-leadership
2. The Perfume Bottle Metaphor
What kind of perfume you fill the bottle and to what occasion? A dragonfly
may be attracted to fill the bottle. A dragonfly can see from six directions.
Are leaders any different?Having a transparent bottle lets you see what is
inside. So are great leaders as followers see and trust their transparency.
Filling a luxurious perfume bottle with low-quality perfume shall not make
the perfume better. Leaders know that they should fill themselves with
high quality values and emotions if they are to be truly good.
http://www.slideshare.net/hudali15/leadership-in-the-perfume-bottle
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52. DR.
NANI
LI
A
3. The Reaction Vessel Metaphor
As molecules must be oriented correctly to react so are humans. It is the role of a
leader to ensure that his reacting "agents" are oriented correctly.Great readers are
aware that conflicts and including culture conflicts mean disorientation leading to
low productivity of the organization. Not all molecular collisions lead to products
because molecules must have enough energy when collide to convert. Likewise;
oriented employees must have the energy stemmed from their engagement,
happiness and growth potential to effect change. Impure reactants lead to impure
products? Leaders make sure to have clean minds and hearts of their followers to
give the right production.
http://www.slideshare.net/hudali15/leadership-in-the-reaction-vessel
4.The Driving Cars Metaphor
Safe car drivers are not hesitant to decide for if they do they may cause accidents.
Leaders who drive their organizations must have this attribute as well. Stressed
car drivers may cause accidents. So are stressed leaders who don't live a balanced
life. Many times a car driver may have to use intuition which direction to go when
at crossroads with no directional signals. The rapidity of change puts leaders on
similar crossroads and they must have the intuition to decide where to go. A good
driver has alternative routes just in case of emergencies. Are great leaders any
different?
I may conclude that I don't find myself trapped in presenting conflicting attributes
of leaders. Yet; I dare say that not a single metaphor presented the complete
spectrum of leaders' attributes. To rely on one metaphor is relying on seeing part
of the image with no assurance that the unseen part of it is less important.
47

53. How to Benefit from Marketing
Using Emotions Gaps?
DR.
NANI
LI
A
Everyone of us experienced buying a product that excited him/her at first.
Soon the excitement disappeared and our initial joy turned into varying
degrees of disappointment.
This disappointment is proportional to the gap between the drop in the level
between our initial joy and subsequent disappointment. That is to say to the
emotional gap that formed.
You may measure sentiments using Twitter. Quite o en you measure
sentiments at different time intervals and you end up with different
sentiment results. If you notice a drop in the percentage of positive
sentiments then you have an opportunity to fill the emotional gap. I show
for illustration the general sentiments towards telecommunications.
Repeating this measurement shall reveal if positive sentiments increase or
decrease.
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54. DR.
NANI
LI
A
Added: Five minutes post to publishing this post the sentiment changed in
the wrong direction:
People decide by their emotions. I believe that emotions are involved in
each decision we take. Some emotional changes are abrupt. Political polls
testify to what I say. Polls show highly positive sentiments to a politician
and then due to a slip of the tongue, for example, the positive sentiments
turn into sour ones.
People have their expectations and they wish to fulfill them. When they
buy a product or a service they want or need they are joyful. The trouble
starts when the purchased product or service fail to perform as desired. We
all have bought cars, mobile phones and laptops and we were initially
delighted. Soon, of these products failed to work properly. The delight turns
into pain. If this pain persists then the emotional gap deepens and may lead
us to do unexpected actions. I read recently a tweet showing a grieved
customer who got fed up with the performance of his new car. To revenge,
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55. DR.
NANI
LI
A
he donated the car to his municipality on condition that the car shall only
be used for collecting garbage. The result was that the car manufacturer
lost huge sales and it was too late to correct for the damage.
As I am writing this post a bitter tweet arrived about telecommunications. I
extract this part of it… still no service and now you lie. I dare say that
companies which create such emotional gaps shall go bankrupt. It is not
only disappointing the customer; it is making the customer feel cheated and
unimportant. Nobody likes such feelings. If prolonged, bad feelings turn to
revenge that make customers act in unpredictable ways.
Writers of posts are on the same boat. If they writes a post with promising
and attractive titles, the readers would rush to read the posts. Soon, they
find the posts only value were sugar-coated titles. No wonder they start to
make very harsh comments.
Emotional gaps are both an opportunity and a threat. Filling them with the
right product is a way to success. However; creating them in the wrong
direction will make any business phase out.
Attract people with emotions. The challenge is moving those emotions in
the right direction.
50

56. Toxic Employees and Toxic
Chemicals
DR.
NANI
LI
A
Toxic employees share many commonalities with toxic chemicals. Yet; I admit
having hot discussions with some great thinkers who refute the idea of toxic
employees have inspired the theme of this post. Opponents of toxic employees are
even opposed to firing them. Their logic if you remove one somebody else shall
turn into one. How then to deal with them? Well, by bringing them back to the
"herd".
Having thought about this topic I have some new thoughts on toxic employees that
I would like to share them with you. I find that toxic employees are not toxic for a
good reason. How?
Toxicity is not limited to human behaviors as plants and animals alike produce
toxic chemicals for their protection. The idea that clouds my mind if employees
"produce" toxic behavior for self protection as well! Plants can't move to avoid their
predators and so they depend on varying ways to protect themselves. Some plants
have thorns, but most of them depend on chemical-based defense. So many are
the toxic chemicals produce for protection with varying effects on humans. Toxic
effects may include skin, mouth and throat irritation, resulting in swelling, burning
pain, breathing difficulties and stomach upset. One of the most common causes of
plant poisoning. The seeds of some plants are so fatal such that the ingesting a
single seed may cause death.
51

57. DR.
NANI
LI
A
There is an apparent acceptance of the notion of toxic employees. As chemicals
have a wide range of toxicity, so are employees. Not all toxic chemicals are the
same. I may say that not all employees are toxic for no reason. Like plants
producing toxic chemicals for their survival, some managers "freeze" employees
and restrict their movement to extremes that make those employees feel they
can't move? Will such feeling make the only survival option for them is
excreting toxic news, rumors, actions and behaviors?
The behaviors of some managers in tightening the grip on employees may lead
to this phenomena. Toxic employees are then the product of the organization.
Removing the toxic employees in these case shall be fruitless because whoever
replaces them shall mostly turn into toxic employees with varying degrees.
Removing toxic employees shall not remove the cause of toxicity and the
organization shall only produce more of them.
There are important lessons to derive from the toxic plants metaphor:
-1 Toxicity is mostly for self-defense. When employees become toxic this may
reflect their states of fear. Without removing fear, toxicity shall increase.
-2 The degree of toxicity shall increase with the increased intensity of fear.
Managers who plant fear are in actuality creating the climate that plants the
seeds of fear among employees. Some employees shall then become toxic.
-3 The ill-effects of bad managers are not limited to the organization, but
extends beyond its boundary. If an employee develops the habit of producing
toxic actions to defend himself/herself then most likely he/she shall carry the
habit to where he goes such as a new job, for example.
-4 Removing or eliminating toxic employees shall only aggravate the situation
if the cause of the problem is freezing the employees and making them
"motionless". These employees become fearful of losing their jobs and may turn
to be toxic for survival. Handling toxic employees or isolating them shall never
be rewarding.
The cost of bad management that instills fear are far greater than we know of.
People aren't toxic unless we control their movement.
Is there a tendency for employees if tied up to become toxic?
52

58. The Habits Footage and
Applications
DR.
NANI
LI
A
It is amazing to what extent sports may stretch our strategic thinking. In a previous
post on habits several commenters made the point that habits are difficult to spot.
As important as habits are for marketing and employment using habit-based
approaches, the difficulty in recognizing habits have precluded great advancement
in this field.
As I was steering on an image of the footprints or movement map (heat Map, if you
wish) of a football player the idea of this post occurred to me. The footprints point
to where the defender starts defending. He looks more of a mid-fielder than he is
a defender. He is risk-taker.
53

59. DR.
NANI
LI
A
If the defender is indeed a risk-taker this habit should spill-over to his driving style.
May be he drives fast or drives for a while before locking in the driver seat-belt.
The spill-over effect of habits may serve as a great way to divulge other habits. I
find this an interesting idea. Let me explain more with examples. If a smoker (I
know it is a bad example, but helps) doesn't care where to throw the ashes of the
cigarette then may have the habit of not caring. If he puffs the smoke out of his
mouth with roughness then he may be a hard person who developed the habits of
one. How he deals with the cigarette when he finishes smoking is also telling. If
he throws it on the floor and extinguishes it with his foot then you may think this
smoker ends his relations violently. Watch-out for possible violent habits with his
family or peers.
My late father asked an interviewee to write a page on any subject he desired. He
did and immediately a er reading his page my father said to him "you don't have
sisters, do you"? The answer was no. I asked my father why did you ask him that
question? He said "because his language was very dry. The job requires dealing
with kids and he is simply unfit for the job". Roughness has spill-over effects. If is
prolonged for long times it then affects behavior and behaviors turn into habits.
You want to hook customers? Well, Hooked is a great book to read and benefit
from.
Source: Nir Eyal, "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products" More at:
www.NirAndFar.com
Like in sports we have the footprints of players, analogously we may have the
footprints of customers. If sports people can do it, so we can. Figuring out habits
might be a hard task, but for businesses who do they are surely successful.
Habits reflect and reflections have stories to tell. That is the subject of a
forthcoming post.
54

60. It is not Employee Profile as
much as it is Employee Habits
DR.
NANI
LI
A
Habits are like imprisonment. We have some habits that we may change in a short
time. They are like short imprisonment; other habits are like long-term
imprisonment and it takes long times to get rid of. It is not a sweet jail when the
habit is bad or repulsive. Unfortunately; many people are imprisoned in their bad
habits.
Let me give an . Few days back I was in a meeting when one person expressed a
different opinion than his manager. The latter got infuriated and started addressing
his subordinate with insulting words such as "if you were ever to understand". The
junior employee responded by asking for the opinion of the attendees. Almost
everybody supported the opinion of the employee. I could see his boss' eyes
traveling sideways fast. This indicated another bad habit: he was not listening; his
eyes movement told everybody that he expected everyone to pause and listen to
him.
One bad habit leads to another. It occurred to me that when we employ we should
consider the habits of the applicants. We call for building of "antifragile" teams we
55

61. DR.
NANI
LI
A
need people with the correct habits. People who listen and don't have the habit of
imposing opinions. We need people who are resilient and may cope with change.
These people must have the correct habits to be resilient and good
communicators.
Organizations are living bodies. Like we discuss human wellness, so we need to
study organizational wellness. The spirit, body, mind and emotions must be in
good health and balanced if we may be moving towards wellness. These four
elements don't work in isolation and feed each other. If you are stressed then your
body start producing chemicals that may affect your body and make you more
susceptible to stress, just to give one example.
But what does this have to do with habits. Well, the following diagram will make
it easier to see the relationship. Being angry (emotion) might affect your body and
generate a behavior.I know of some people who start breaking glass to vent out
their anger. If these people keep doing that repeatedly then their actions become
a behavior. If this behavior is repeated frequently then it turns into a habit.
As we see habits form over periods
of time and if we imprisoned in
them for long spans they shall be
difficult to change. Consider these
questions:
- would you employ a candidate
with proven academic record, but
with very strong bad habits?
- what are the costs of bad habits on your firm?
- How tolerant would other employees be to these bad habits?
- What conflicts will these bad habits generate in your firm?
- What are the bad habits they are most repulsive to you and how likely those
habits would change?
May be it is time to add habits as a determining criteria in selecting candidates. Do
you agree?
I hope we all have the habit of giving feedback.
56

62. Collaboration beneath the
Surface
DR.
NANI
LI
A
Collaboration has become a great source of interest, lately. Through collaboration
we may reach our goals faster; in doing so repeatedly, collaboration may become
a habit.
I have seen collaboration in fish, dolphins, ants, and now—through great video—
whales. This form of collaboration is mystifying.
Whales need to feed and they have a strategy for doing that. They know that their
collaboration is a key factor in their hunt for huge quantities of fish.
Here’s how it works: a few whales synchronize their dive into water to form a circle
around the fish. The whales keep flashing their fins to contain the fish within the
water. Another whale dives below the surrounded fish and makes a frightening,
thunderous sound. The fish try to escape by going upwards, but they are trapped
by a net of bubbles created by another whale. The whales then feed.
57

63. DR.
NANI
LI
A
This is a great example of collaboration. We may learn the following lessons from
it:
1. There must be a great goal for members to collaborate. In the case of whales,
it is survival through nourishment.
2. Synchronization of effort: not all members move at the same time, but follow
each other to achieve sub-goals. In the case of fish, it is circulating the herrings.
Subsequently, a whale goes under the fish, and another above the fish, at
synchronized times.
3. Understanding prey and its reaction. Whales is frighten fish with a thunderous
sound and use that reaction to trap them in a bubble net.
Nature has given us examples to use as guides in collaborative strategy and
movement.
Do enjoy the great video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxC7a3KQKpw&feature=youtu.be
58

64. When the Best Decision Isn't to
Make One?
DR.
NANI
LI
A
It is a viral story that opens up the door for different views, imaginations and
lessons.
The dress in the picture above spurred viral debates whether the dress is blue and
black or gold with white. A simple question that led to curiosity, which in turn
made the dress story a global one.
Who is right? As beauty is in the eye of beholder, it turns out the color is in the eye
of the beholder. Is consensus possible? No, and this is a case in which consensus
is misleading. It is an amazing case. Opinions might have different "colors" to the
viewers and not necessarily any one color would represent the whole truth. An
elimination approach is wrong in these cases and should be avoided.
If we go by majority, and say the majority sees the dress blue and black then we
ignore the fact the the other side seeing the dress golden and white is correct to.
The majority doesn't make the minority wrong. Is the best decision not to make a
decision?
59

65. DR.
NANI
LI
A
We tend to add values to colors. Red color means life for some cultures and death
for other cultures. We see cultures in different colors and some of them are
favorable for some people and even horrifying for other cultures.
Appearances might be misleading and the real "color" of people may not be found.
Judging people from what we see is risky. It is like seeing a fish in a water pool.
We see the fish in one place, but in actuality it is in another place. Appearances
may lead us to put a candidate in one place where in reality he is somewhere else.
For those eyes that saw the dress in gold color I say "remember not all that glitters
is gold". Gold that isn't. How ladies who saw the dress in gold would wear shoes
that match gold, but for friends they saw the dress in blue!
Dress for success. What would happen if somebody dresses for an interview and
then it shows in unacceptable color in the interview? Here we make people pay for
faults that they didn't make.
The dress story merits pondering on as it offers many lessons to reconsider our
thinking. How o en we turn the right anomaly into a wrong decision?
60

66. Managing Partner
Phenomena Communications
DR.
NANI
LI
A

67. DR.
NANI
LI
A