Creativity in The Workplace

A while ago, someone asked me whether there an optimal level of creativity for a person to have? And is it possible to be 'too creative'? Is it true that creative people can be difficult to manage?

I tend to think that it depends on the industry, workplace and organizational setup in determination of the limits of creativity. In most of the organizations creativity is to bring positive, viable, feasible and progressive results/outcomes but these are not the only results that creativity can bring.

Creativity also can lead to negative, bad experimental results and therefore each organization and its business should guide such processes and have fairly structured framework for creative solution analysis, testing and application.

I believe that if it is the expectation of the organization from some individuals/departments/units to come up with creative ideas and convert them into viable solutions, there should be no limit to creativity and it should not be considered 'too much'. 'Too' is a comparative term and unless you qualify and quantify creativity in a particular sector of an industry, I do not think it is would be applicable.  'Too creative' also may not be applicable to use for specific positions/jobs/departments in organizations that require creative minds to come with creative solutions to achieve better results.

In my opinion creative individuals should have the following characteristics: independent, expressive passionate and perhaps operating beyond organizational norms. There is also the possibility of wide dialog and debates, especially when a leader rejects some ideas from creative individuals and it can be difficult for some leaders to say 'No'. Some leaders might not like question 'What if…' that creative individuals should often ask.  Good leaders should know how to manage creative individuals without discouragement and coming in the way of generating new ideas. The leaders should be able to support and create right environment for creative individuals to come up with feasible solutions, monitor the process and make rewarding.

Nonetheless, to say difficult to manage sounds somewhat subjective and would depend on experience and personality of the leader and the creative individual.