Collection of creativity metaphors

This e-book is mostly a collection of
creative metaphors that I published n
LinkedIn. Most of these metaphors are
nature-based hoping this would make them
living metaphors and also to find a thread
of commonality among all the metaphors. I
hope the readers of this book to enjoy
reading it. I warmly welcome comments
from the readers.
Collection of
Creative
Metaphors
Metaphors mostly nature-
derived
Ali Anani

Collection of Creativity Metaphors
This e-book is mostly a collection of creative metaphors that I published n LinkedIn. Most of these
metaphors are nature-based hoping this would make them living metaphors and also to find a thread of
commonality among all the metaphors.
I hope the readers of this book to enjoy reading it. I warmly welcome comments from the readers.
Ali Anani, PhD

A Forest of Ideas ...........................................................................................................................................3
Hairy Communication Feedback Loop ..........................................................................................................4
The Illusion of Control...................................................................................................................................5
Hairy Ideas- a wonderful creative world to explore .....................................................................................6
Coating of Pain..............................................................................................................................................7
Power of Jumping Ideas................................................................................................................................8
The Balance of Ideas .....................................................................................................................................9
Social Alertness and Response....................................................................................................................10
Ageing of Humans and Businesses..............................................................................................................11
Holding Believes Firmly...............................................................................................................................12
Sound of Rumors.........................................................................................................................................13
Overstretching the Stressed .......................................................................................................................14
Stressed Marriages and Corona..................................................................................................................15
Social Distancing and Emerging Problems..................................................................................................16
Avoid These Practices at Home...................................................................................................................17
Knowing what to do and not to do.............................................................................................................18
The Lotus Effect and the Corona Effect ......................................................................................................19
The Strangeness of a Paradox.....................................................................................................................20
Self-Cleaning ...............................................................................................................................................21
Emerging Social Character ..........................................................................................................................23
Turning the Cracks in Our Hearts to Beauty ...............................................................................................25
Business Strategies and Corona Strategies.................................................................................................27

A Forest of Ideas
What sparked the idea of this post is the image below. I saw the image of a tree lamp and seeing it
as tree of ideas growing in our minds. I stretched the idea further and saw the resemblance of a tree-
like neurons networks in our minds. Ideas interact with each other and so new neurons networks
appear- just as the neuron networks in our brains do. I am sharing one idea here. Not all trees adapt
to changes including abrupt changes the same way. Some ideas behave like few trees who hard
shells to protect the seed within. These shells break under fire and the seeds are released. This is an
extremely antifragile behavior and is more than resilience. The released seeds thrive on having very
little competition from other seeds and so find access for the scarce nutrients. Few ideas stay
dormant in our minds. Suddenly, a burning fire of desire breaks the shells of these ideas and the
released seeds of ideas are freed. These are the antifragile ideas that survive the fire of initial
criticism. I recorded more than fifty ideas from the image above that I plan to share soon in a
detailed post. What ideas this image inspires you with?

Hairy Communication Feedback Loop
The hairy bees have a great way of communicating with plants using a three-way communication
loop. This phenomenon is fascinating. Electroreception allows organisms to detect external electric
forces, has long been known in animals living in aquatic, electrically conductive environments. But
bees fly in the air and not in water and them still use electroreception for communication. The
sensory basis for electric field detection in bumble bees appears to rely on the bees’ hairs, which are
mechanically deflected by an applied electric stimulus. The mechanical deflection of these hairs in
turn provokes neural responses, carrying information to the bee’s central nervous system. The
interaction of the charged bees, the negatively-charged flowers and the electric field with both
positive and negative charges is complex and is uneasy to resolve. It is the interactions of the three
elements that make the bees locate the nectar-enriched flowers. We humans we need to cater more
for attentive communication. It isn’t enough for our hairs and eyebrows to rise with surprises. Our
bodies emit a bio-electromagnetic field. Humans have hairs as bees do. Why humans then fail to
communicate as efficiently as bees do?

The Illusion of Control
Today, I am exploring the control we exercise on employees and whether it is an illusion or not. You
can’t comb the hair of a hairy ball. This is known as the Hairy Ball Theorem. It explains why all
attempts to comb a hairy ball to flatten all the hairs shall end up in vain. The scientific reasoning is
beyond the scope of this post. It is more than simply rubbing dry hair will generate static electricity.
This is because electrons from the dry hair get transferred to the comb and now the comb induces a
dipole that attracts. There are other factors. Controlling employees to flatten them is like controlling
the hairs of a ball- it just doesn’t work. With representing every employee as a dry hair on a ball their
alignment is difficult. The relationships among employees and employees and managers will be
charged and shall repel each other. Angry employees being “charged’ they may attract conforming
employees to line up with them. They repulsive force gains momentum and revolt more. Rubbing
hair of hairy plants and rubbing employees will charge both. Managers need to be careful of what
they do.

Hairy Ideas- a wonderful creative world to explore
The title may sound funny; in truth it isn’t. What are the benefits of using hairy plants and animals as
metaphors for creative ideas in our lives? I am drafting a series of posts on this topic. I was looking at
hairy seeds and a question bounced in my head “do these seeds get static electricity if we comb
them as humans’ hair do”? This question unlocked worlds for me to discover. - Of what importance
are hairs for hairy plants and animals? More wonders to add to my excitement. - If hairs have such
value for plants and animals why humans throw their hair away when they go to barber shops?
Aren’t there uses for this waste hair? More surprises my research revealed. - What are the advantages
of hairy seeds and what commercial products can we develop in emulation of these seeds? Great
possibilities arose. - Can we make kind of “hairy offers” to attract the attention of potential
customers? Creativity revealed great possibilities are embedded in this question. - Why is it
impossible to comb straight hairy fruits? A great lesson for managers and leaders.

Coating of Pain
An oyster gets irritated by a painful sand grain infiltrating in its shell. This pain triggers the oyster to
respond by depositing layers of mineral coatings to ease the pain. But the grain remains inside, and
so the oyster keeps adding more layers of protection and so a pearl forms. Humans suffer from many
painful irritants such as emotional, social, environmental and physical painful invasion of sandy
events that enter their lives. As long as humans keep the grains of pain inside them trigger different
reactions. If they keep the pain inside it cascades into other pains and their health deteriorate. One
way to relieve the pain is taking drug formulation with a coating of the active material so that it only
releases into the desired part of the body. The pain remains and so more coating layers are needed
to relieve the pain. Oysters produce pearls from their pain. Humans may produce pearls as well such
as emotionally-moving stories, poems, movies and books. Even novel creative pain killers were the
source of eliminating pain. The challenge is to turn the pain into a creative work and not in letting
pain deteriorate our health. Painful lockdown these days is an opportunity to turn pain into pearl.
How do you accept this challenge?

Power of Jumping Ideas
We say sometimes that an idea jumps in my mind. What do we mean? When an idea jumps, how and
why? These questions reminded me of recent research findings in that some crystals jump as we heat
them. Heating changes the crystal other crystal forms. What happens is that these crystals change
their structural arrangement due to the stress that heating causes to them. This is known as thermal
stressing. Changing structure means relaxing them. Amazingly, this sudden and rare case of jumping
occurs for distances up to two meters. This change happens at very high speed. This is the power of
jumping. This jumping is hard to explain. However, just before these crystals change they produce
sound waves that were recorded. The thermal stress and mechanical stress energies transform to
acoustic energy. Jumping of ideas then may occur in our minds when we heat the ideas percolating
in our minds with the heat of thinking, imagining and pondering on them. We stress those ideas and
make change form into another creative idea. The emerging creative idea jumps in our minds for joy.
Creativity is a jumping idea as a jumping crystal is

The Balance of Ideas
Can you guess the analogy between ideas and wood? We run into times where we feel we are dry of
ideas. Other times we feel the idea pouring like rain in our heads and we get dry. What is an optimal
place to be? I thought of dry wood and wet wood. If wood is too dry it shall shrink chaotically as it
begins to lose that excess moisture. Excess moisture will cause the tearing of the tools that are used
to cut wood. Gluing cut pieces of wood will be difficult if they are wet because water reducing the
gluing effect. Moist wood hosts mold and allow it to replicate. To the opposite of wet wood that
shrinks when dried, dry wood will swell upon absorbing moisture randomly and loses its dimensional
stability. It becomes difficult to work with. It also harms the working tools. Don’t be too dry or too
wet with ideas; else you shall suffer from working them out. Generate ideas and then stop to smell
them to produce more flowery ideas. It is a balancing game. Make sure the new fruity ideas don’t
become dry or too wet again. Keep the cycle in balance

Social Alertness and Response
t is critical to observe the social alertness to crisis such as theCovid-19. This is because if one person
fails to follow the instructions it could lead to dramatic social expenses in lives and resources. For
example, studies show the likelihood of one infected person with corona virus to infect three others.
This is possible because the corona virus has a long lifespan compared to the previously known
viruses. Visualization of the dramatic effect of one person unaware/hiding his infection with
coronavirus in the graph. Visualization helps us see the problem more clearly. Social mocking of the
infected, social retaliation in response such as spitting on money to infect others, selling ineffective
masks, social tolerance to the defecting persons who don’t commit to the need to stay at home and
crowded bakeries without keeping safe distance from others all show that social alertness is below
bar.
We need more visual and effective communication to solve above issues.

Ageing of Humans and Businesses
Humans and businesses undergo similar phases through their lifespans. They both grow fast, mature
and then decline rapidly. As humans age their bodies change. One example is the reduction of
humans’ lungs’ capacities to hold up air for circulation throughout the body. Same with businesses
their capacities vary over times and the “business lungs” mayn’t be able to hold the same “active and
oxygen-like” customers. Only 20% of customers are like the oxygen in the air- 20% of them
generates 80% of the profit for a business. I am drafting a lengthier post on this topic. For now, I
want to highlight one key point. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should reflect this fact. Not all of
them are relevant to both ageing and startups and growing and maturing businesses. KPIs should be
relevant to the phase of a business they are in. The focus for the old business is to supply the lungs
with fresher air (profitable customers) and release the unprofitable ones. Equally important is finding
ways to expand the capacity of an old business. Do you think KPIs for businesses should be pertinent
to the age of the business? I would love to hear your views and suggestions.

Holding Believes Firmly
Don't hold too firmly to your ideas, beliefs and assumptions for you might break them.
Do you agree?

Sound of Rumors
Living species use different forms of communication. I am focusing on sound here. We even say
sound comments. Cats may make sounds as if they were barking like a dog. Sound communication
serves different purposes to send warnings, attract mates, defend terrains, and coordinate group
behaviors. What purpose rumors about coronavirus serve? Rumors are public communications that
reflect private assumptions about how the world works. They are efforts to add up in order to
comprehend uncertain situations. Rumors are unconfirmed information of uncertain origin transfer
by sound, which is by word of mouth. They are like viruses only reproduce if they reside in a living
body. If the virus does not find a new host to infect rapidly it will lose its ability to infect. Rumors are
like viruses. I wonder if we may manage them the way we manage the coronavirus!.

Overstretching the Stressed
In these difficult times of global worry about corona we all need to stretch our stress away. Equally,
we need to stretch the right way; otherwise stretching may be harmful. Unfortunately, there are
examples of people behaving chaotically and make people do the wrong stretching or
overstretching. Examples include: · spreading rumors by anonymous people · An infected man by
corona who intentionally spitted on paper money to spread the virus · increasing the prices of basic
food when people are running out of cash and have no income · passing wrong medical advice by
laymen that may hurt or give false hopes In stressed times we need to stretch the right way and not
make the darkness darker. I just wonder about the human behaviors that show only chaotic patterns.
What is the motivation to behave in such a way when all it offers is increased stress without any
benefit to the initiator? Do you have an explanation?

Stressed Marriages and Corona
I noticed from my observation that couples may develop different trajectories of their lives after
marriage. A "marriage gap" develops and this gap tends to grow fast after passing a tipping point
and reach a point of no return. The Corona Effect on marriages is a testing time for marriages.
Husbands and wives are lockdown a home. If their relations are strained then they may experience
“emotional distancing” They mayn’t be talking to each other and if they do they aren’t listening. This
proximity might stir anger and blame. With the stress of corona and lack of basic needs these
strained relations may only get worse. Emotional distancing between couples may increase
accordingly. Corona is a testing time for the healthiness of marriages. I wonder if corona would
generate marriage disruption. What do you recommend for stressed marriages so that they may
relax?

Social Distancing and Emerging Problems
First a quick lesson from the past. During 1973 following the oil crisis regulations were made to stop
air infiltration to the inside of heated buildings. Two years later people suffered from molds indoors.
The act of excessively controlling air ventilation led to a huge problem indoors. Social distancing is a
solution for controlling the spread of the coronavirus. People are staying indoors and I am not
worried about humidity problems as much as about human building a “social gap” that may widen
exponentially if this distancing is kept very strict for long times. Other issues include the need for
eating well to enhance our immunity. But shelves are empty of vegetables and fruits. Even for the
majority if they were available they have no money to buy them. How do you view social distancing
and its pros and cons?

Avoid These Practices at Home
We tend to do practices that lower drastically our immunity without even realizing we are doing so. I
am writing this post because I heard a conversation on the phone that lowers the immunity of our
bodies. A lady on the phone advised my wife to wash vegetables with a commercial product but with
the addition of alcohol to the product so that it can better kill the germs. And for how many other
ladies she passed this evil advice to I don’t know. It is well-known that adding alcohol to bleach or
any product that has chlorine is an invitation for these substances to react and produce chemicals
such as chloroform and more risky ones that impair the lungs, nervous systems, kidneys, skin and
eyes. If enough chloroform is produced then more trouble is coming because we may suffer from
nausea and dizziness and may lead to the loss of lives. We don’t want to trade one probable risk with
a more assured one. The substances we use at home have reactive chemicals. When we mix them we
may produce side effects that may endanger our lives. The producers of bleaches don’t add alcohol
to the bleach. They know the harm that may generate. Somebody might have advised you to add
vinegar to the bleach. Again, this is a recipe for greater risks.

Knowing what to do and not to do
Coping with the corona virus requires balance between mild worry and excessive worry to do the
right things and avoid what actions not to do. There is a sweet zone between the extremes.

The Lotus Effect and the Corona Effect
The Lotus Effect refers to the self-cleaning properties of the lotus flower due to the structure of its
leaves that make water form easily-running droplets on their surface. These droplets don’t adhere
firmly to the leaves’ surfaces and flow easily carrying the dirt with them. These are the times that we
need to have a social structure that is self-cleaning not only to halt the spread of the coronavirus, but
also to clean us from the dirt of bad actions and intentions. We need to clean our minds and bodies
from spreading rumors, fake news to blowout fear so that our minds and bodies remain healthy and
possess greater immunity to the alarming virus.
Enjoy the video below:
Lotus-Effect® Self-Cleaning Facade Paint and Render Finish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHcd_4ftsNY

The Strangeness of a Paradox
There are certain materials and species found in nature such as the Lotus flower and the wings of
butterflies that amaze me with their paradox. Even though these materials and species are extremely
hydrophobic (water-hating); yet they are the cleanest because they have the structure and chemicals
to make water roll off their surfaces. In the process the running water carries with it dust, bacteria
and dirt and make these surfaces self-cleaning. This is what we are experiencing with corona- as
much as we hate it water in Sicily is purified and the environment is less polluted. What we hate most
may be of much benefit to us. Our worst enemy may show up as our friend. Let us exercise self-
cleaning by turning the corona that we hate most as our inspiration for cleaning our bodies and
souls from harmful behaviors that benefit no body. Let the disruption of corona virus lead to the
creation of new life styles. This is the way to go and it has all to generate from within every one of us.

Self-Cleaning
These are difficult times fighting against the corona virus. This is an enemy that emerged suddenly
and confused our minds. One condition for controlling this virus is keeping the environment hygiene.
However; more important is keeping us hygienic. This requires that we only do activities that increase
the value of keeping protected against the virus by refraining from throwing the wastes of our
thoughts, habits and resulting behaviors on others. It is lean self-manufacturing that produces hardly
any waste and increases the value of living a healthy life. In emulation of lean manufacturing we
need to follow the 5S steps. These are sorting out our habits and behaviors to dispense with the
wasteful ones. Nest is setting in order what we need to do. Sweeping is next to map our activities
and visualize the value chain. Nest is to standardize our activities to keep them uniform. Last is
sustaining and strengthening the good habits and behaviors. This way we may drop many activities
such as smoking, making false claims and spreading rumors that weaken the society. A second
approach is to apply the Blue Ocean Strategy on what we think, believe and behave. We need to
remove or eliminate the bad ones and increase the good ones and be able to create new us

Collection of creativity metaphors

Emerging Social Character
While individual character describes the richness of the character structure of an individual, the social
character describes the emotional attitudes common to people in a society. Hit is how people
perform under the grinding of a catastrophe or an epidemic such as the one we are experiencing
now. The prevailing culture of a society is the emerging result of the interactions among individuals.
The character of a society as determined by its tenacity- resistance to break- under extremely
unfavorable conditions- is possibly the result of the interactions of the characters of the individuals in
that society. The Chinese people proved they have a high tenacity and solid social character. They
challenged the outbreak of corona together and worked in harmony to contain the virus. In some
societies the social tenacity is questioned because of the acts of some individuals who do acts that
are harmful to them and the society. They spread rumors, they expose themselves to unnecessarily to
the corona risk, hide their health status and meanwhile carry the risk to others and even to their
loved ones or create social hysteria such as that of the emerging toilet tissues . The weakest social
group unfortunately determines the overall character of a society.

Turning the Cracks in Our Hearts to Beauty
Two posts aroused my attention back to what we need to do to combat the corona virus. The post
by Anne Thornley-Brown, In her post Anne wrote “"I emerged stronger than ever with prayer, peer
support, and expert advice". This reminded me of my post in which I defined
hashtag#creativityskills “creativity is to identify the hidden pearls of harmful traits and find new
uses for them”. The big challenge in life s to turn weakness to strength that is greater than the
weakness. This is what Nassim Taleb defined as antifragility. The challenge even gets bigger when it
comes to broken hearts and how to not only amend them, but make them stronger than they were
before becoming broken. The Japanese know well how to turn broken items into objects that are
authentic and more attractive than they were before. The cracks in our hearts are what we may repair
uniquely, depending on what cracks we have and finding a way to stick the cracked pieces together.
This is the highest level of antifragility I can think of. Even if our hearts are broken with spreading
corona and its cracking effects, we may piece together the cracks into new and upgraded selves. It is
a testing time for us to turn the cracks into golden opportunities. Together we succeed.

Business Strategies and Corona Strategies
The World Health Organization published a graph showing that corona is retreating in China, but
spreading alarmingly in other countries. I thank Dr. Mohammed A. AlAnsari for sharing the graph.
This brought to my mind the strategy that infected trees follow to containing the virus even though
trees have no immune system as humans do, Trees do this by a three-pronged strategy. These are: 1-
Minimizing the spread of damage to other parts of the infected tree and nearby trees- and by
producing chemicals to halt the damage 2- By building new walls so that the trees may confine the
damage, and 3- By growing new tissues around the infected zone to overtake further infection What
strategies we follow is not different from what trees do. The major difference is that trees follow the
recommendation for that serves their common interest. I read in the news today that somebody
inflicted with corona escaped his confinement for he felt bored. It is these acts that make the spread
of corona easier among humans than it is probably among trees

Collection of creativity metaphors

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