Scamper IT!

I love helping learners think more critically and creatively — teaching students strategies and techniques to fuel their imaginations, sustain their passionate curiosities, and challenge them to persevere as they problem solve through difficult tasks and content.

This week, I will be taking these Habitude-building conversations to the business world. I will be sharing with small business leaders one of my favorite strategies called SCAMPER. 

SCAMPER was originally created by Bob Earle and popularized by Michael Michalko in his excellent book, Thinkertoys. to strengthen an individual or an organizations ability to question, imagine and adapt. 

See why it is one of my favorites?

SCAMPER requires us to consider what we can:

S – Substitute – components, materials, people

C – Combine – mix, combine with other assemblies or services, integrate

A – Adapt – alter, change function, use part of another element

M – Mix, Modify – increase or reduce in scale, change shape, modify attributes

P – Put to another use

E – Erase/Eliminate – remove elements, simplify, reduce to core functionality

R – RePurpose/ReverseReUse – turn inside out or upside down.

SCAMPERing can add fluency, flexibility, originality ,and “Ummmph” to any idea or project. It is a powerful and easy way to stay motivated, relevant, and excited about what we do! I am excited for the conversations to come.

Consider what SCAMPER can do for you?

• Creative Thinkering (consultkeith.com)
• Stimulate Creativity with the SCAMPER Mnemonic [Brain Hack] (lifehacker.com)
• To Be or Not to Be…Creative (800ceoread.com)
• Get creative ideas in 5 minutes. [John Brooker] (ecademy.com)
• You: Concentrate, Then Stop Thinking to Generate More Creative Insights [Brain Hack] (lifehacker.com)
• Think Visual: A challenge to stretch your imagination (mindmappingsoftwareblog.com)