Is your professionalism limiting creativity?

I recently went down a fascinating research rabbit hole and found myself reading a 1965 paper by psychologist Donald Mackinnon called Personality and the Realization of Creative Potential.

The study looked at architects and compared groups identified as highly creative with groups considered more conventional in their professional work. Mackinnon drew partly from Otto Rank’s framework of personality development and explored differences between what Rank described as adapted, neurotic, and creative types.

What I found particularly interesting was not simply that the highly creative architects were rated as more creative. That part is, well, obvious. What stood out was the discussion around individuality and conformity!

Mackinnon noted that the highly creative architects appeared less attached to conventional standards and expectations within their profession, while the less creative architects appeared more likely to internalize and align themselves with those conventional standards. The middle group showed overlap with both.

Now, to be clear, this paper was written in 1965, and there are limits to how directly we can apply older personality theories to modern workplaces. But I do think there is an interesting question sitting underneath this research that still feels incredibly relevant today:

How much creative potential gets suppressed when people feel pressure to over-adapt to professional norms?

I think about this a lot in the context of workplace culture and Playful Work Design.

Not because I believe workplaces should abandon structure, expectations, accountability, or professionalism altogether. Let’s not be silly. But I do think many professional environments unintentionally “reward” sameness, emotional restraint, rigid communication styles, and behavioral conformity in ways that can slowly disconnect people from curiosity, experimentation, and individuality.

And when that happens, creativity tends to narrow.

One of the reasons I care so much about playfulness at work is because playfulness creates conditions that make experimentation feel safer. It creates more cognitive flexibility. It helps people stay connected to intrinsic motivation, curiosity, humor, imagination, and possibility thinking. Those qualities matter deeply in creative work, innovative work, leadership, collaboration, and problem-solving.

I also think this conversation feels particularly important right now because modern work often asks people to perform professionalism almost continuously. Many people spend enormous amounts of energy monitoring tone, appearance, body language, communication style, productivity signals, and social expectations all at the same time.

That constant self-monitoring can become cognitively expensive.

Reading Mackinnon’s work made me wonder how many people have unrealized creative potential not because they lack talent or intelligence, but because they learned very early that fitting in was safer than standing out.

And honestly, I do not think this applies only to artists, architects, or traditionally “creative” careers.

Creativity shows up in leadership, relationships, teaching, parenting, strategy, communication, engineering, caregiving, entrepreneurship, conflict resolution, and everyday problem-solving. Most jobs benefit from creativity far more than organizations sometimes acknowledge.

I would love to know your thoughts on this one:
Have you ever felt pressure to minimize parts of yourself in order to appear more professional or more acceptable at work?

And did it affect your creativity, energy, or confidence?