SCAMPER

How to find Ideas for Divergent and Creative Thinking: SCAMPER



There are many questions that can help you to "think laterally" (de Bono) or "get out of the box." This ability to extend beyond the obvious and the time-worn is an essential ingredient in effective problem-solving because it helps to generate the unusual and imaginative solutions we associate with the skill of synthesis: the rearranging, modifying and combining of elements in novel ways to achieve desired and often startling results.


SCAMPER is one set of questioning strategies that works well. You can change an existing product, item or idea by asking how to Substitute, Combine, Add, (Modify, Magnify, Minify), Put to other uses, Eliminate, and Reverse (Eberle, 1972). SCAMPER tools are used on answers that we already have to questions, when we need a detour in our thinking to see something in a new way. It requires the suspension of judgment and a playful attitude. Many of the ideas will not lead anywhere, but they may add up to be more than the sum of their parts.


To use SCAMPER tools, take the answer to a question such as, "Cornelio Saavedra presided the Primera Junta" and ask the questions:


S -Substitute "Who else could have presided it?'


C -Combine - “If Cornelio Saavedra had had a co- president, who could it have been?"


A -Add, "What would Cornelio Saavedra have presided in the 21st century?"


M -Modify, What could we modify in his work?"


P -Put "How does his work apply to the lives of suburbanites?'


E -Eliminate "What would be the effect of eliminating his work?"


R -Reverse "What would be the antithesis of Saavedra’s view?"