This doesn't surprise me. In a "job" setting, taking "risks" isn't something that is largely celebrated. People use terms like "calculated risks," which is really just a way of saying, not that risky. Creativity is essentially creating something; an idea or something tangible, that otherwise wouldn't exist. There's a risk in that and most companies don't reward that.

I have pitched two large, very creative ideas to my organization in the last 3 years. The first one was stalled in the early stages and never saw the light of day because I wasn't even remotely involved in it's production and launch. -I don't have a degree in "production and launch" apparently.

The second idea is a FANTASTIC idea that could literally make the world a better place. No joke. It could change individual peoples lives. I pitched the idea and it got all the way to the President of New Product Development at my company. Right now you're probably thinking "big deal," but I work for a fortune 50 company and getting to a C-level person with an "idea" is not easy.

Still, they said that they've tried philanthropic ideas in the past and that unfortunately, people say they want such things but their behaviors show otherwise. Blah, blah, blah.

My overall point is that I now have very little incentive to share my "creative" ideas with the company that employs me. In fact, I almost feel encouraged to go out there, use my creativity to start projects of my own just so that one day they say, "wow, we shoulda listened to that guy."

But overall, I will say that the higher you go up the chain towards the C-Level people the more likely they are to listen. The midlevel management guys/gals don't care about new ideas, they care about grinding out a living. I have found that creativity can be seen as an asset at the higher levels. I mentioned this before, but at a recent national meeting our VP happened to sit next to me at dinner. (kind of a big deal, there's hundreds of us in this room) and he started telling me about his vision for the future of the organization and finished with, "your an 'ideas' guy, what do you think?" -Creativity can be appreciated, it just takes the right people and it is to be expected that risk aversion will impact what it is your trying to pitch. Unfortunately. I've got a really great Robitusin/wine buzz going, hope this makes sense.