The Technical SCREAM can help guide your organization to come up with innovative solutions that work efficiently and productively. While in a leadership position, you will need SCREAM to quickly get to the root of the problem and find ways and means to solve it.
To be innovative and creative, the first thing you need to do is find areas in your work environment that provide opportunities to innovate. This can be anything from your customer relationship management, new processes and new services, improving your workflow, developing new products, or improving the quality of your current product. The list is not exhaustive.
Once you find an area to innovate, the next step is to identify and frame the opportunity. In doing this, you need to come up with an action plan for how you are going to innovate. You will have to study your current situation and think ahead to see in which direction you want to go. You will have to collect relevant data that will eventually allow you to find a viable solution. Once you’ve done this, you need to implement the solution to see if it works and, if necessary, rework the concept.
To help you in this process, SCREAM is an ideal tool. This is what you can do:
Replace your current situation with something else.
Through substitution, you can find opportunities to generate new ideas and see what works and if there is a more efficient system. In the past, some babies were born with a rare condition of lactose intolerance. This means that they cannot drink milk as these babies do not produce the enzyme lactase that helps break down the protein in milk, which is their only source of nutrients in their formative year. Through a medical breakthrough, a nutritionist was able to develop a soy milk substitute for babies with fortified vitamins and other ingredients that give these babies a chance to survive.
Combine your ideas with other ideas
On paper it may look perfect, but when put to the test it can be unworkable and unreliable. This is where you need to see the need to combine your idea with someone else’s to see if you can find something unique and viable. Think of shampoo and conditioner. Two separate products and by combination there is now a conditioning shampoo. An additional combination of adding a certain type of essential oil to these shampoos and now there are shampoos for various hair types.
Reverse the situation and rearrange the facts
Sometimes innovative solutions can emerge by reversing the existing situation and rearranging the facts. Henry Ford asked a simple question of what would happen if instead of the worker having to go to work, the work came to him. With a little strategic thinking, Ford came up with the concept of a production line in which each worker stands next to the conveyor belt and the work comes to him.
Eliminate the unnecessary and elaborate the characteristics.
Ermal Fraze wondered if there is a better method to open the can than using the can opener. What will happen if the can opener is removed? With a little creative knowledge, the pop-up can was born. Ask yourself if there are any unnecessary protocols, features, and other things you are doing that, if removed, will make you more productive, efficient, and effective without compromising quality, safety, health, legal and ethical issues.
Adapt and modify
The art of innovation is the ability to adapt to the existing situation and find an effective and viable solution. By modifying the key components of a product, it is possible to generate new ideas in different industries. Guglielmo Marconi’s intention was to promote the use of radio for ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communications. Reginald Fessenden in 1906 unknowingly gave the idea that a radio is not necessarily used to communicate with ships only, but could be used to transmit music. This was the beginning of the radio broadcast that is still a part of our lives.
So go ahead, SHOUT and innovate.
