Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A Creative-Thinking Toolbox

Looking for a unique invention, an untapped market for an existing product, or a new solution? Stretch and flex your mental muscles with Thinkpak, a creative-thinking tool designed by Michael Michalko, author of the groundbreaking book Thinkertoys. This deck of illustrated idea-stimulating cards distills Michalko's proven methods, allowing you to view challenges in a new light. Shuffle, mix, and match the cards to spark fresh insights, then use the critical evaluation techniques to test, shape, and refine your original ideas into realistic creations. Filled with thought-provoking questions and examples of the techniques put to use, Thinkpak provides endless creative fuel to fire up the imagination.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• What Is Thinkpak? (p. 1)
• The Thinkpak Cards (p. 9)
• Thinking about Your Subject (p. 13)
• Group Brainstorming (p. 21)
• More Inspiration (p. 23)
• Summary (p. 56)
• About the Author (p. 57)

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

What Is Thinkpak ?   Thinkpak is a brainstorming tool. It is designed to break you out of your habitual way of thinking and produce a wide variety of fresh thoughts that will lead to new insights, original ideas, and creative solutions to problems. It will change the way you think.   SCAMPER Everything new is really just an addition to or modification of something that already exists. Whenever you want to create a new idea, product, service, process, breakthrough, or whatever you need, Thinkpak will help you take your subject and change it into something else. Alex Osborn, a pioneer teacher of creativity, first identified the nine principle ways of manipulating a subject. They were later arranged by Bob Eberle into the mnemonic SCAMPER:   S ubstitute something. C ombine it with something else. A dapt something to it. M odify or M agnify it. P ut it to some other use. E liminate something. R everse or R earrange it.   Suppose you wanted to improve the ordinary metal paper clip. You could substitute plastic for metal and add color, creating plastic clips that would allow clipped papers to be color-coded, thereby putting the clips to another use.   Thinkpak contains idea-triggering questions based on these nine principles. The questions are designed to focus your attention on your subject in different ways and give you different means of interpreting what you are focusing on. These different ways of focusing will break your habitual thought patterns and let you look at your subject in fresh ways. You'll generate a quantity of ideas quickly, including ideas that you wouldn't have otherwise considered. Once you apply the Thinkpak questions to your subject or situation, ideas begin to appear almost involuntarily.     Applying SCAMPER to a Hamburger Ray Kroc was a middle-class high-school dropout, a former piano player, and a real-estate salesman who sold paper cups for seventeen years. In his fifties, Ray Kroc left the paper cup business and hit the road selling a little machine called the Multimixer, which could make six milkshakes at a time.   One day in 1954, a hamburger stand in California ordered eight Multimixers. Curious, Kroc drove his dusty little car out to investigate. He was stunned by the volume of business that Dick and Maurice McDonald were doing. They had unwittingly hit on the concept of fast food--homogenized, predictable items that are quick and easy to prepare. The McDonalds had simplified, economized, and minimized the hamburger stand.   Kroc and the McDonalds formed a partnership that allowed Kroc to find new sites, and open and run them. What followed was not instant success but obstacles and challenges. Ray Kroc became a billionaire because he identified the right challenges and manipulated existing information into new ideas to solve them.   Following are some of the challenges he faced and how the SCAMPER principles helped to shape his ideas.   Substitute Problem: The McDonalds proved to be lethargic business partners. Kroc was worried that they might sell out to someone who didn't want him around.   SCAMPER Solution: Substitute a different partner. Kroc was cash poor, but he was determined to buy out the McDonalds. Kroc raised the $2.7 million asking price from John Bristol, a venture capitalist whose clients (college endowment funds) realized a $14-million return on their investment. The next substitution was to go public, which he did in 1963, making many investors rich.   Combine Problem: Ray Kroc's first hamburger stand was planned for Des Plaines, Illinois, but he couldn't afford to finance construction.   SCAMPER Solution: Combine purposes with someone else. He sold the construction compan Excerpted from Thinkpak: A Brainstorming Card Deck by Michael Michalko All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Michael Michalko is one of the most highly acclaimed creativity experts in the world and the author of the best-selling creativity book Thinkertoys. As an officer in the U.S. Army, he organized a team of NATO intelligence specialists and international academics in Frankfurt, Germany, to research, collect, and categorize all known inventive-thinking methods. His team applied these methods to various NATO military, political, and economic problems and produced a variety of breakthrough ideas and creative solutions to new and old problems. After leaving military service, he was contracted by the CIA to facilitate think tanks using his creative-thinking techniques. He specializes in providing creativity workshops, seminars, and think tanks for clients who range from individuals to Fortune 500 companies.