Earlier today I decided to give my desk a cleaning.

It wasn’t easy.

I had to pick up stuff, move piles of junk, redistribute some other miscellany and then give it a wipe with a cleaning cloth.

As I toiled away, I realized I may be a creative genius. The research doesn’t lie.

This study concludes that people in neat settings are socially conscious, positive people but that those of us who wallow in untidiness are the creative thinkers of the bunch.

What does that tell us?

That creative people are too busy to clean? Maybe.

That neat people are focused and attentive? Maybe.

That we are influenced by our surroundings? Likely.

But, and there’s always a but, other research says that a messy work area can be a distraction.

What does this mean to you as a business owner?

It means that you can’t shoehorn every worker into the same space. Some workers need leeway to be good at their jobs while others can function perfectly well in a more structured environment. It takes all kinds to make the world go around.

What does it mean to you as a trainer?

It’s just another indication of what types of people there are in the workplace and it behooves you to remember that when training. Not everyone is the same and it’s good practice to vary your delivery styles to embrace as many different learning types as you can.

So instead of badgering some of your employees about their messy desks, you should revel in the potential genius that is lurking just below that layer of debris. Just don’t let it get out of hand

I wish my mother knew that she was stifling my creativity when she got me to clean my room when I was a kid.