How To Breed An Innovative Business Idea — #22 of 31 Proven Skills [Research]
Skill #22: Link Resources to Encourage the Desired People Result
Encouraging people to behave in some desired manner usually requires a lot of effort, especially if they are uninterested or worse, are opposed to such behavior. The innovative way to tackle this challenge is to seek something that people are predisposed to do anyway and link what you want them to do to that disposition
In an inspirational attempt to create an incomparable dining-out event, a restaurant operator envisages a ‘dining in the dark’ experience, focusing on heightened sensory participation without any visual distractions. An immediate and obvious issue is the multitude of problems that arise if diners cannot see anything. What can be done to connect them reliably with their unique dining adventure? In a radical use of Skill #22: Link Resources to Encourage the Desired People Result, the operator employs blind people to guide diners through the entire event. This innovative initiative cleverly aligns sightless diners with their food and, in so doing, succeeds in delivering a novel eating-out alternative that benefits not only patrons but provides employment to visually impaired people as well.
Linking is one of four Transition Resource skills that can be utilized to connect Initiating Resources (a darkened restaurant in the above vignette) with Responding Resources (expectant diners) so that a desired outcome is achieved. Three of the skills involve People as Responding Resources and one involves Things. All four skills are part of 31 personal skills discovered through research into thousands of innovative business ideas.
The fundamental thrust of Skill #22 is that once the Initiating Resource has been innovatively primed to attract the People Responding Resource, it is linked to the intended audience who becomes aware of it and then, hopefully, behaves as intended. The exact response of the target People group is not guaranteed for the simple reason that the linking strategy allows a choice. However, because the People from whom a desired response is required at least know about the initiative being mounted, Skill #22: is more assured Than Skill #21.
Other Examples of Linking to Get People to Respond*
Another good illustration of the Transition Resource of linking being used can be seen in the innovative initiative employed by an inter-city train operator. The system containing travel timetables with fixed passenger departure times reduces occupancy because frequently travelers are unsure of their movements and do not lock in a train booking and risk wasting money. A change is instituted that allows passengers to choose, for a small added cost, to travel at an earlier time with the same ticket if that suits them. Tickets can be sold for their original, later booking, often to others who are traveling earlier than intended. Linking people to such an option means more of them use the inter-city train, attracted by the greater flexibility on offer.
Along with any organization receiving payments by credit cards, a charity sees its much-needed income from donors reduced by the transaction fees that apply to each amount promised. It restores the income it receives back to the amount pledged by inviting donors to specify that any fees attaching to their donation be added to the specified amount. This is incorporated in the documentation involved. Linking the donation particulars and the donor in this way is an innovative solution to the dilution of donation income by transaction fees.
Sometimes it is possible to establish a direct link between an Initiating Resource and the audience of people it is designed to influence. The strategy of linking brings with it the comfort of knowing that the target Responding Resource is aware of the initiative. This allows full emphasis to be placed on tapping into a disposition of that audience that will lead to the desired behavior. Linking the two resources is the essential step. Then, the more innovative the linking strategy, the more certain and rewarding the result.
*Thousands of categorized innovative business ideas can be found at Sebir.com
