Act Out

We get ideas all the time, sometimes they come out of the blue, but often, they have to be carefully and intentionally captured.

There are many tools for generating ideas, one of my favourites is SCAMPER.

I first came across SCAMPER in Michael Michalko’s, Thinkertoys, a ‘must-have’ book about innovation. You can also google SCAMPER and see for yourself.

SCAMPER was created by Bob Eberle who combined a set of characteristics found in most innovations. SCAMPER assumes that most new ideas are modified versions of old ones. SCAMPER is an acronym, each letter representing a way of rethinking certain aspects of the existing challenge.

We only have to look at some objects from our daily lives to find that one of the following was used in its creation:

S – Substitute – What can be substituted? e.g., a lot of coffee shops have substituted cow’s milk for soy milk and created the soy latte. Do you use travel agents or book and buy flights and hotels direct from the Internet?

C – Combine – What ideas can be combined? e.g., my latest asset is a combination of an IPod, a mobile phone and the Internet, yes! I have recently got an IPhone! Last year I bought a head torch; combination of headband and a torch.

A – Adapt – What is it like? e.g., when was the last time you saw a cyclist stop her bike to unscrew the lid off a water bottle? The squirt top has made drinking on the go easy. And what about the fabulous neck cushions for sleeping on airplanes?

M – Magnify/Minify – What can be made bigger/smaller? e.g., have a look at your camera today and think back to the camera you had in the 80s! Big difference! And what about your television?  

P – Put to other uses – What else can it be used for? e.g. who has not seen a tyre turned into a swing? Or a shoe as a doorstop? Or books for pressing flowers?

 

E – Eliminate – What can be removed? e.g., we have wireless access to Internet and I can’t wait to buy a wireless mouse and a wireless printer.

R – Rearrange (Reverse) – How can it be rearranged? e.g. nowadays we are more likely to pay for photocopies first then make them.

These are just some quick examples that I came up with for this article but if you think about your own life, how many objects or processes can you think of that have undergone one of the SCAMPER modifications to be what they are today?

The way to use it is to clearly state your challenge or area you need ideas in. Then, ask questions relating to each of the SCAMPER characteristics to generate new ideas or solutions. Try this website for more questions relating to each characteristic. http://litemind.com/scamper/

 

 

 

Filed under: Uncategorized by Erika