Breakthrough ideas don’t appear out of thin air, they are the result of a culture and an environment that accommodates innovative thinking. When we teach medicine at med schools, we nail facts into students heads... In our age of information overabundance, we still value encyclopaedic knowledge. Information is a commodity. What we know is no longer important, creativity and connecting the dots to generate new knowledge is indeed more important.

I watched last week a fantastic lecture given by Tom Peters (thanks JB for pointing me there). He explained the story of a 5 years old kid who received a grade of “unsatisfactory” in art. His parents were shocked... How could any kid receive a poor grade in art at such a young age??? Well, his teacher said he refused to colour within the lines...

Sometimes I hire people to lead creative projects. I never hire someone who had a grade average of 10/10 in university to do that... A 10/10 has been colouring within the lines since the age of 5. He probably never questioned what he/she was doing... A 10/10 is usually by definition a conformist. Creativity is an act of rebellion. The best creative people are the rebels, the mavericks, the trouble makers... Every creative team should have at least one of those.