I give workshops on creative leadership for major organizations around the world. I always ask delegates, “What is impeding innovation in your business?” The answers often involve cultural issues such as aversion to risk, complacency, or lack of motivation to experiment.

When I gave a workshop in Taiwan, one of the cultural issues raised was, “We have too much respect.” In other words, midlevel managers felt too much reverence for the executives in the company to challenge their views and to question the way that things were done. They were used to accepting and implementing decisions that were handed down to them rather than pushing back with better suggestions and radical ideas of their own.

Taiwan, like many Asian societies, is well-ordered with good self-discipline. The people are polite, and you never see graffiti on walls as you do in the West. It started me thinking that the bad attitudes that we see manifested in so many ways in our society might have an upside.

Do we benefit from rebellious employees who challenge assumptions and rudely assert a different point of view? Should we seek to employ more people who are unruly and disrespectful?

 …