"It's green Dad, honestly it is!!"

"Nope, its blue."

"Dad, everybody knows that grass is green."

"No they don't. Some people think it is green. But really its blue."

"IT IS GREEN!!"

"Look out of the window. What do you see?"

"Yes but of course it looks blue now, its night time!!"

"So, its blue then."

I remember the conversation like it was yesterday. I know that I was younger than 10 years old because of the house we lived in at the time. We moved from there when I was just a little older than 10. I even seem to remember that I had Paisley patterned pyjamas on.

Strange what sticks in your mind.

That was 30 years ago and it is one of the most vivid conversations I can recall from my childhood. It is also one that had the most profound effect on me.

I think my Dad was just teasing me at the time - being deliberately contrary to make me frustrated. But the accidental byproduct of this bedtime conversation was that I now had a model for challenging every assumption that would ever be presented to me.

If something as obviously green as grass could be assumed to be blue - just because it was dark and there was no sunlight to bring out the greenery - what else was I taking for granted?

I use this story every time I meet somebody who says "I'm not creative" or "I struggle to have ideas". The basic foundation of creativity and innovation is finding out what you take for granted and then ripping it apart.

Take assumptions and remove them, flip them, exaggerate them, distort them, tweak them, swap them - do whatever you can with them.

Then see what pops out.

Next time you're struggling for ideas and thinking "I'm not creative" - take a look out of your window at night time and ask yourself what colour the grass is.