Creativity Resources

SCAMPER

Substitute – To have a person or thing act or serve in place of another. By looking for something to substitute you can often come up with new ideas and better ways of living.

Examples:

1. applesauce for oil, margarine for butter,
2. ambassador for a government,
3. Weird Al Yankavich or Albert Ellis songs

Family: “Nanny Goat” for “Nag” substitute any word for another, bring down inflammatory speech

 Personal: I use the word “crunch” for other four or five letter words

 Illustration/Activity: substitute words in for “Mary Had a Little Lamb” or sing Ellis’s rational songs

 Typical questions: What can I substitute to make an improvement? What if I swap this for that and see what happens? How can I substitute the place, time, materials or people?

Drawback: substitution may not be as good as original – cut glass for diamonds, a rental car

Combine – To bring together, to unite, achieve a different product/process or to enhance synergy.

Examples:

1. McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants,
2. Walkman – headphones and cassette/DVD player,
3. artistic or athletic movements/jazz
4. group work/faculty meetings – input into a task such as writing a report or achieving an objective – Finding Neno – the escape different from Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone
5. conversation is like a tennis game – serve, volley, point, -- take turns

Family: put movements together in regard to children, distract, restrain, time-out, pool resources, e.g., spouse, extended family, friends

Example: Film clip from Governor’s School showing Ben talking, walking, and looking people in the eye

Illustration/Activity: hum/clap/stomp

Typical questions: What materials, features, processes, people, products or components can I combine? Where can I build synergy?

Drawback: multitasking – doing nothing well

Adapt/Alter – To adjust for the purpose of suiting a condition or purpose

Examples:

1. adjust or alter a role, such as child care provider, chief, spouse/partner, Judith Viorst – Necessary Losses
2. adapt an attitude such as “I’m okay” or “One day at a time,” or “I am not perfect but I am responsible.”
3. Blake’s lyrics from the “Poison Tree” as a way of resolving anger
4. Wilson Phillips’s song “Hold on” as a way of making it day to day for a depressed woman

Illustration/Activity: enact “Autobiography in Five Short Chapters” as a drama

Typical questions: What part of the product could I change? And in exchange for what?

Drawback: Some people do not adapt well or alter their behavior and thinking

Modify/Magnify/Minify – To alter, to change the form or quality; to enlarge, to make greater in form or quality; to make smaller, lighter, slower, less frequent

Examples:

1. clothing (Miss Scarlet and the drapes);
2. Johnny Mercer song – “You’ve got to accentuate the positive”
3. polar bear in Peoria dyed to look like a brown bear

Family: magnify strengths/minify weaknesses

Illustration/Activity: sun/cloud/tree modification of one impacts the other two

Typical questions: What happens if I warp or exaggerate a feature or component? What will happen if I modify the process in some way?

Drawback: Some people refuse to change or modify their behaviors

Put to Other Uses – To be used for purposes other than originally intended. Think of what you could reuse from somewhere.

Examples:

1. paperclips
2. Apollo 13 – put separate parts into a whole
3. adverbs  

Family: member who used anger in building or gardening

Illustration/Activity: Lines of feeling or mailbox activity

Typical questions: What other place could I use what I know? Who or what else might be able to use it?

Drawback: Some individuals are too concrete to see how something can be used in a different way

Eliminate – To remove, omit, or get rid of a quality, part or whole

Examples:

1. diet,
2. thought stopping
3. keyboard of the computer to encourage other activities
4. use of drugs in treating mental illness
5. harsh or critical words, rolling around, flapping one’s arms
6. labels – story of schizophrenic I treated as normal; West Side Story lyric
7. poem – Different

Family: Eliminate distractions at family meetings, unhealthy behavior such as hitting, or unhealthy roles

Typical questions: What would happen if I removed a component or part of it? How else would I achieve the solution without the normal way of doing it?

Drawback: People who follow routines or rituals may be reluctant to give up traditions or make changes

Reverse/Rearrange – To place opposite or contrary to, turn around; to change order or adjust, different plan, layout or scheme

Examples:

1. addicts have to reverse and rearrange their lives
2. rearrange chairs in counseling session
3. narrative therapy – rearrange what is highlighted in one’s life
4. letters in the alphabet – make words, like musical notes in “The Sound of Music.”

Family:
1. rearrange pattern of communication, i.e., who speaks first;
2. reverse turns such as who uses the bathroom first or switch seating or who picks up the kids.

Typical questions: What if I did it the other way round? What if I reverse the order it is done or the way it is used? How would I achieve the opposite effect?

Drawbacks: Sometimes you can not reverse, such as when you say something that you would like to take back. Rearranging takes time and effort too and sometimes people are not willing to put forth needed effort.