In the book Thinkertoys, author Michael Michalko says:
"To get original ideas, you need to be able to look at the same
information everyone else does and organize it into a new and different
pattern. This is active thinking."
What can a project manager do when he or she needs to
generate new problem-solving--or any really--ideas? Try SCAMPER, which Mr.
Michalko calls "a checklist of idea-spurring questions":
• Substitute some
part, activity, or operation.
• Combine the
product/process/service with something else.
• Adapt something
to it.
• Modify or Magnify
it.
• Put in to some
other use.
• Eliminate
something.
• Reverse or
Rearrange it.
Consider a meeting I had with customers who posed the
challenge: "How can we improve the existing document release
process?" First, we went through and identified all of the sub-processes
(request change, review request, create/modify document, verify/validate
document, upload document to asset library and publish document.)
Using the "create/modify document" sub-process as
an example, let's use SCAMPER to ask the following:
• What activities
can we substitute within the existing sub-process?
• How can we
combine "create/modify document" with some other sub-process to
improve efficiency and accuracy?
• What can we adapt
or reuse from another "create/modify document" sub-process used by
other business units?
• How can we modify
the way "create/modify document" sub-process is conducted?
• What can we
magnify or add to the "create/modify document" sub-process?
• How can we put
"create/modify document" process to other uses?
• What can we
eliminate from the way we "create/modify document?"
• What is the
reverse of "create/modify document" sub-process?
With more ideas generated, a project manager has more
options to explore. That is why I am always looking for tools. How do you
generate your ideas?
Source: The Voices on Project Management
