SCAMPER your way to creativity

Alex Osborne an advertising executive in the 1940's came up with a technique for helping kick start the creative process. It is a simple approach and has proven effective in those quiet moments during a brainstorm when people begin to dry up with ideas. It isn't only useful in brainstorming it can have many applications in innovating new ideas and improving on existing ideas as well.

The technique has been summarized in the acronym SCAMPER.

S = Substitute
Can something be substituted for something else. Is there the possibility of replacing the rules, or the system.
C = Combine
Better know as synthesis how can related or unrelated items be brought together and mixed to create a new whole or part.
A = Adapt
Adaptation may mean looking out into the World an seeing if there is anything else that exists that already does something similar that can be tweaked or adapted to work for our situation needs. Maybe it can build on the work of something or someone else outside your current domain.
M = Magnify or Modify
simply, what can be made larger or extended. Is there a way to increase frequency. I would also consider the reverse can something be made smaller and reduced. Think scales and proportions. Like Charles and Ray Eames factors of 10. Can something be modified and given a new twist, what can be changed.
P = Put to other uses
Is there the possibility of putting something to a new use. How might you use it in another context. Is there another material that can alter its use.
E = Eliminate
Trim away excess, minimise. What if it were smaller. What if it was divided into many parts. What rules can be eliminated.
R = Rearrange or Reverse
What other arrangements might be better. Different patterns. Swap components. Reverse the context. What is the opposite. What are the negatives. Turn it around, upside down. How might it be unexpected.


The concept is based on the idea that everything is an addition or modification of an existing thing. Under these premise applying these thinking ideas should get things rolling again.

Ringing the Innovation Bell

This article from the NY Times website has an interesting story about the small group of scientists that produced some of Bell labs amazing innovations. Most intriguing to me was the insight to the culture that Mervin Kelly put in place at the lab to make things the most creative they could be amongst the scientists and engineers.

He setup an environment for creativity that allowed the exchange of ideas to flow between people. His focus was on making space one that allowed people to interact with one another easily. This is something that has been written about by Steven Johnson in his book about where creative ideas come from, the ability of people to cross pollinate ideas is a great way to inject others point of views. Like coffee houses in the old world, these types of environments foster conversations and debate that can lead to thinking in new ways about old problems. Being in close physical proximity to others even from other disciplines is a great way to have those chance encounters that can lead to interesting shared knowledge and problem solving.

Kelly also placed the labs inside the manufacturing plant, so that ideas could be transferred into things. This to me, describes the rapid prototyping ability that he wanted to foster. Prototyping gets people talking and conversing around a physical thing and can be a great catalyst as it keeps people focused on the task at hand.

He also believed in freedom for researchers to investigate the things that they most felt compelled and inspired to research. This is inline with the work Daniel Pink has written about, that autonomy is one of the driving factors of motivation for thinkers versus manual workers. It also allowed people to work at their pace and follow their own leads and direction. This I am sure was critical in helping Bell constantly create innovative new ideas and solutions to problems and new products. This kind of thinking is also what I think made Mervin Kelly a good leader of his group, he brought onboard the right people, self motivated and trusted them to work hard and produce great work, without constant monitoring.

Bell labs invented the laser, the transistor and the solar cell. I have no doubt that the insights of Mervin Kelly to the creative process and innovative environment he helped create were instrumental in the amazing work he and his team produced in their time.

Creative Workspaces - Stanford d.School

Continuing to look at creative workspaces. There is no doubting the creative thinking talent coming out of Standford's d.school program. Although, you cannot take an actual degree in design at Standford, this course is a complimentary course you can take to enhance your main degree in say business or law. The purpose is to encourage using creative techniques and design thinking to solve problems and issues that may arise in their chosen professions. These ways of thinking about problems can go along way to producing more rounded graduates that can take on many of today's problems with a more investigative approach to finding solutions.

Time and effort has been put into designing the school program and the space to support creative thinking. The space allows collaboration and design investigations to problem solving. Using the common themes that occur in these creative environments of open spaces, adaptable layouts and collaborative areas for people to mix and share ideas. Not dissimilar to the space we have already seen that Eames maintained in his studio.

Questions for Innovation

Sarah Krasley along with Bill O'Connor recent put forward 6 questions that can lead to innovation at an article found here.

These six innovation questions are:

• What could I look at in a new way? (Steve Jobs looked at the computer in a new way, leading to the Mac and the personal computer revolution.)
• What could I use in a new way? (Paleolithic humans turned fire from a scourge into a means of cooking, heat, light, and protection.)
• What could I recontextualize in space or time? (The Sumerians moved language from spoken to written form, expanding its power and reach.)
• What could I connect in a new way? (Thomas Edison connected the light bulb to the electrical grid, leading to electrified cities.)
• What could I change, in terms of design or performance? (Nearly 3 million years ago, the world’s first “innovator” transformed a simple rock into a stone hand-axe.)
• What could I create that is truly new? (In 1776, American colonists created the first “intentional” nation, based on specific abstract principles.)

Little bets

Just finished reading Little Bets, by author Peter Sims. A very nice book about the process of innovating through making small investments in time and effort towards large goals. The book is an easy read and I found it quite inspiring with it's examples from companies like Google and Pixar. I liked some of the nuggets of information about entrepreneurial thinking and how these personality types think and take risk. I also liked the stories of how Pixar took risks early on and didn't even start out as a film production company but actually produced hardware. The animated shorts were originally used to sell the hardware and software they produced. If it wasn't for little bets and the ambitions of the Pixar team to keep pushing for full length animated films then who knows what might never have been. Of course equally Steve Jobs' investment in Pixar was a little bet by him in the domain of 3D graphics, and that certainly turned out well. The rest of course is history.

There are some nice references to the work by Carol Dweck on growth mindset versus fixed minds, that was encouraging and insightful about how your mind affects how you perform, I have written a brief post on this already here that I recommend checking out. What is clear from the book is that making little investments towards anything is going to eventually with enough time and focus in the right direction yield results. I think the book is nicely written and makes you want to find ways to apply it to your daily life. I have always liked the quote from Louis Pasteur, that opportunity favors the prepared mind, well this adds an little twist to that concept that good ideas favor little bets.

Zero Gravity Thinking

In my quest to just keep filling mind with great thinking and approaches to design and innovation techniques, I came across an intriguing book that caught my eye in the local Goodwill book section. Titled "The innovation killer" by Cynthia Rabe it raised my curiosity enough to buy it. In this book, which should really be titled "Zero Gravity Thinking", she describes the need for teams, that are working on new and creative projects, that require innovative thinking to introduce certain personality types she refers to as zero gravity thinkers.

A zero gravity thinker is someone whom Edward De Bono would call a lateral thinker, or IDEO would refer to as a T-shaped person that has a deep expertise in one area of knowledge, but also is following a broad interest in different fields of study or knowledge these personality types when mixed with established teams can often reinvigorate the stagnation of ideas with new perspectives and considerations. Rabe, goes on to describe the importance of someone whom would be called an outsider, that can be more open to new ideas, has self confidence to know what they are talking about and a willingness to introduce an existing team to new approaches and consideration, most likely from another field of knowledge. The zero gravity thinker is someone whom the team can collaborate with, that most likely is not an expert in their field, but probably has a basic understanding of their knowledge space, but does have an expertise in a similar or different field that has similarities to the problem space. A good example might be a team of biologists introducing a zero gravity thinker that is a chemist.

The value she describes is very compelling, and considering that companies like P&G and Microsoft hire external agencies like IDEO and Ziba to brainstorm new ideas and improvements to existing products reinforces the idea that external thinkers can work out well in innovating with existing teams. IDEO of course is the most recognized company in the World for innovative team thinking, and the products and services they design are proof it works. Their teams are often described as a mix of great thinkers from different fields of knowledge.

The concepts she introduces are not new, but the book is a great summary of the concepts and definitely describes the zero gravity thinker concisely. It is a good read and nice introduction to the concepts of this new style of problem solving.