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Yours truly,
Amir
In this issue:
(a) Hot news flash
(b) Creative ideas for...
(c) Creative tool - Spreading Synonyms
(d) New on Best100Ideas.com
(e) Recommendation of the month
(a) Hot News Flash
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(b) Creative Ideas for Restaurant Service / Home Dinner for Friends
This list of ideas may be used by restaurant or coffee-shop owners, or by anyone who is about to invite people over for dinner at home. Naturally, the idea has to be slightly changed to fit either case, but basically remains similar.
- Serve Historically "Flavored" Dishes: Each dish you serve would have a special historical story or anecdote related to it. The story may be written down on a small card or may be told by a waiter. For special dishes you may even have someone dress up as the historical figure related to the event, and tell the story "in person".
- A Dinner with "a Secret Mission": As the guests arrive, each draws an envelope with a mission they must complete by the end of the meal, without telling any of the other guests what the mission was. If they succeed in doing so, they win a special treat (a desert or a gift of sorts). If they fail - they get a symbolic "punishment".
- Adults, Teens and Kids - Special Service: It is quite common to find special dishes for children in restaurants. Many fast food places also add special gifts to the kids' meals, and have seats and tables that are of smaller size for them. However, consider taking this a few steps further - how about having children serve children, teens serve teens, and adults serve adults? Although it is probably not possible to employ children as regular workers, you may be able to arrange this in a family-owned restaurant, and certainly in a dinner you are hosting at your own home. The children may see this as a kind of game, and may even be allowed to incorporate play into the event - for instance by dressing up as waiters, by preparing a simple dish on their own (chocolate balls, for instance).
- A Dinner for those who Don't Like to go out for dinner: One of the interesting and challenging suggestions made by Kim and Mauborgne in their revolutionary Blue Ocean Strategy book
is that one may find a very fruitful new market by serving those who are "non-customers". Along this line of thought, can you come up with ideas that would make people who usually refrain from coming to restaurants? Can you think of ways for making friends who usually shy away from visiting friends change their habits and accept your invitation for dinner and enjoy the evening?
Bon appetite!
(c) Creative Tool: Spreading Synonyms
This technique is especially good when you need to work on catchy names or slogans, impressive speeches, or other occasions in which your creativity has to be expressed through words. Here are the steps you should take:
- Write down the first version you can come up with: Usually the first version of a name or slogan is not the best one you can come up with. However, writing it down is your first step towards working on it and coming up with many more creative options.
Example - the first slogan I think of for the invitation for a "historically flavored" dinner (see idea 1 on section (b) above): "We eat to make history".
- Find all the synonyms you can for the words in your sentence: Make a list of all the words that have the same or similar meaning to those that are in your original sentence. You may use a thesaurus or a software tool for finding the more special and less common phrases.
Example: Eat - consume, munch, devour, gulp down, swallow, taste, chew, feed/food; Make - create, craft, build, prepare, assemble; History - the past, old times, yesteryear, once upon a time ...etc.
- Build new sentences with the synonyms : You can use the words on your list to come up with many variations of the original sentence. Remember to change the order of the words in order to come up with various patterns. You may keep some of the original words in your new phrases.
Example:
• Swallow the crafts of olden times.
• Building a taste of the past.
• How people made food...once upon a time.
• Devouring the creations of history.
- Choose one (or more) of the new sentences : Now you may choose the best of the new slogans, or use several variations on different places in order to keep things interesting (one on the front door, another on the menu, a third in the newspaper ad you make).
Quite a lot has changed on Best100Ideas.com. The site has been recently redesigned and now offers a cleaner and more professional navigation and reading of content. Moreover, the following sections have been added over the past month:
• Book and software recommendations
• Your chance to vote and determine the subject of my next e-book
• Coming up soon - an RSS feed with new creative ideas every few days
This book is not about creativity, but rather offers a powerful approach for personal and organizational growth. Cognitive Coaching: A Foundation for Renaissance Schools
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