We’ve all heard the quote, indeed probably uttered it: “You don’t have to be mad to work here but it helps!”

The accepted wisdom is organisations are places in which sanity is the norm and, though they may sometimes make us feel annoyed, the intention is not normally to drive us insane.

Indeed, certainly in contemporary Western society, we are usually expected to think and behave rationally.

Not to do so is to potentially be labelled as ‘different’. After all, in all aspects of what we do there are conventions and rules that apply, most especially in organisations in which procedures should be adhered to.

In some apparently successful organisations, particularly those that are sales-driven, you may be instructed in what to say to customers.

A great deal of research in recent years emphasises the importance of culture and the need to get people to believe in the vision.

This is accompanied by the need to act consistently with values are often ‘invented’ by a group of senior managers following advice and guidance from external consultants.

Perhaps the greatest irony is many organisations now exhort their employees to ‘think outside the box’ and to be creative in everything they do, so long as they still comply with the expected policies whether codified or tacit.

There would appear to be a contradiction in expecting people to be radical while at the same time being radical. It’s no wonder people feel stressed.

However, what is really interesting from both an academic perspective as well from a very practical point of view is that if you truly want your organisation to be creative you should consider hiring people who, certainly in a clinical sense, may be considered mad.

Heretical as this may seem, there is plenty of very respectable research to show that the brightest and most inventive people tend also to be, in everyday parlance, weird or whacky.

There is, it seems, a definite link between forms of what we call madness and genius.

Anybody who has worked with truly creative people will attest to witnessing behaviour that can seem strange.

If you haven’t, try visiting a research department in any university, the sciences such as mathematics, physics or chemistry usually being good, and simply observe. Those with very bright minds may seem when judged by ‘average behaviour’ somewhat peculiar.

History is replete with individual who though remembered for their original thinking have been characterised by strangeness.

As would probably be expected, creative artists and painters are often seen as being the weirdest of all.

The inspirations which created Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali’s masterpieces were no doubt inspired by his unconventional lifestyle.

Many of those with creative minds suffer from depression. The 19th century author Edgar Allen Poe who was afflicted wrote that “men have called me mad, but the question is not yet settled whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence...”

Many of the great composers also lived lives that we would currently believe to be not normal.

Our military leaders are not immune. General Picton is remembered for riding into battle at Waterloo in a top hat.

One of Picton’s generals, Hill, carried an umbrella when going into battle. When asked why, he replied “in case it rains.”

Such strangeness is often explained as their genius being manifested as eccentricity; a construct notoriously difficult to define and all-too-frequently changes in accordance with the mores of the prevailing society.

Sometimes it is obsessive behaviour that makes someone seem driven and through which they succeed where others would give up.

Aristotle once claimed that “there is no great genius without a mixture of madness”.

The 16th century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote that “obsession is the wellspring of genius and madness.”

For some, the struggle is the balance between understanding and controlling their thoughts to good effect and avoiding letting their thoughts and obsessions create forces with that cause them to slip into insanity.

The inventor and aviator Howard Hughes was so obsessed by germs that he could no longer interact with the world and locked himself away in a hotel room surrounded by bottles of his own urine.

Many studies have shown there appears to be a very strong link between what we would consider aspects of mental disorder and intelligence.

In 2010 researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London and Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, carried out a study of 700,000 adults which showed that those who performed highest in intelligence tests at school were four times more likely to develop bipolar disorder in later life.

Another study carried out by psychiatrist Szabolcs of Semmelweis University in Hungary examined the link between psychosis and creativity. Kéri’s results indicated there was a definite link between the gene known as neuregulin 1 and creativity.

If we want a creative organisation then we should consider how eccentricity may assist.

The seminal psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud thought eccentricity was a “looseness of repression.”

They may seem obsessive but their compulsion may be the spark that creates something truly original and innovative. As such, these people, though eccentric, appear to be gifted and according to clinical psychologist Dr Deidre Lovecky they possess entelechy which gives them a particular motivation and need to achieve. Importantly, she contends: “Gifted people with entelechy are often attractive to others who feel drawn to their openness and to their dreams and visions.

“Being near someone with this trait gives others hope and determination to achieve their own self-actualisation.”

As Dr Lovecky believes, whatever difficulties we may encounter when working with gifted eccentrics, their dedication and obsession make them, mostly, “engaging and endearing”. 

Based on research carried out involving thousands of eccentrics, clinical neurophysiologist Dr David Weeks has written a book with Jamie James, Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness (Kodansha America, 1996). Weeks and James assert that eccentrics possess up to 15 qualities.

These are: nonconforming, creative, strongly motivated by curiosity, idealistic, happily obsessed, aware of being different from childhood, intelligent, opinionated and outspoken, convinced that they are right and the rest of the world is wrong, non-competitive in that they don’t need reassurance or reinforcement from society, unusual eating habits or living arrangements, not particularly interested in the opinions or company of other people except to convert them to your point of view, possessing a mischievous sense of humour, single, the eldest or only child, and are a bad speller. 

Weeks’ research strongly suggests that employing eccentrics is important in that they provide creativity that is “far more enduring and permanent” than others considered normal.

As Weeks explains, eccentrics “have the most vivid dreams who turn out to be the most original thinkers, and they’re the only people in the world that I know of who have both vivid dreams at night, when they’re asleep, and also a vivid visual imagination by day.”

Clearly an organisation employing only eccentrics would be strange and potentially extremely difficult to manage.

However, having some truly weird people might provide the basis of competitive advantage that is the difference between success and failure. Back in the early 1990s the hugely influential management consultant Tom Peters suggested that crazy times call for crazy organisations.

Given the very strange times we live in it might be a really good time to revisit Peters’ philosophy.

* Dr Steven McCabe is director of research degrees at Birmingham City University