TWO SECRETS TO DESIGNING FOR DELIGHT: THE POWER OF THE BIG LITTLE THINGS

Bad is stronger than good. Psychologically speaking, bad parents, bad days, and bad feedback have bigger and longer-lasting impacts than good ones. In fact, it’s estimated that negative events weigh nearly 5 times more than positive ones .

This psychological phenomenon is called negativity bias. It holds that “people are much more likely to choose things based on their need to avoid negative experiences, rather than on their desire to get positive things.” Now, if all this is true, will someone tell me why companies have become obsessed with “delighting their customers” and “designing for delight?” Isn’t our time better spent preventing negative emotions, than trying to bring about positive ones?

FOUR LEADERSHIP LESSON FROM THE CHINESE ARMY

In 1976, Chinese soldiers dug the earth with their hands to free victims of the Tangshan Earthquake when their only tool, a small shovel, was destroyed in the day-and-night digging. They were part of an army of 240,000 soldiers trying to rescue 100,000 people buried underground.

In 1998, when a dyke breach in Jiujiang City led to an uncontrollable flood into which cars and trucks disappeared, members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) jumped into the water and formed a wall of people arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder. In 2008, in the wake of the Wenchuan Earthquake, paratroopers landed at high altitude in difficult terrain in extremely bad weather with neither meteorological nor ground information.