A rebellious workplace may not always be such a bad thing: It might not seem that way at first, but employees who challenge the status quo can actually prove to be a massive asset to a company. Individuals who could be branded as contrarian within an organization are often driven by the desire to create something new, rather than conform to the established order; a quality which if correctly nurtured can lead to improvement and innovation at the workplace, writes the BBC.

Even NASA once failed to see the benefits of employees who refuse to conform: It was only through fighting management that a group of young engineers — later known as ‘the pirates’ — managed to overhaul the space agency’s mission control and revolutionize the organization, writes MIT’s Sloan Review. After realizing the current system in place was ill equipped to handle the complexity of flying the space shuttle, the pirates tried to persuade the upper echelons of NASA mission control that things needed to change. It was only after they pushed back on management’s refusal to change the status quo that a new software was built; one that proved superior to the incumbent and saved NASA USD 74 mn in development and mns of USD every year. The rebel engineers were then asked to design the mission control system for the International Space Station.

Rebelliousness = creativity? Harvard psychiatrist Albert Rothenberg spent over 50 years studying whether there is a correlation between rebelliousness and creativity in individuals who managed to make ground-breaking contributions to science, literature and the arts. After talking to 22 Nobel laureates, he concluded that they employed what he termed the Janusian process of creative thinking, a technique that involves “actively conceiving multiple opposites or antitheses simultaneously.” A key part of this creative process is “deviation or separation” from the established order, Rothenberg found. In other words, these individuals ventured off into new territory to do things differently, instead of blindly following established wisdom.

Not all organizations are receptive to rebellious modes of thought: Business owners often opt to stifle ideas that could disrupt the established order of things. “History and culture conspire to keep things being done the same way as they’ve ‘always’ been done,” writes the BBC, potentially setting the company back due to management’s fear of change. Instead of stamping rebellious employees as troublemakers, organizations should create an environment that allows space, funding, and time to pursue new ideas that have potential for innovation or increased efficiency — even if they seem crazy at the time.

Being receptive to change also means promoting a culture of positive failures: What are seen as mistakes today, could lead to significant triumphs tomorrow — and to growing the bottom line more importantly. While an adage like this might warrant a big eye roll, many of the products you use on a day-to-day basis were once considered mistakes, from lightbulbs to Post-It Notes. Organizations tend to penalize employees who make mistakes and end up creating a risk-averse culture, but there are ways to monitor mistake making to ensure that results will soon follow, according to Forbes. Leaders should encourage transparency about mistakes in order to collectively find solutions, organize simulations, and be open to new products, but set a timeframe for attempting them.

But rebelliousness alone is not enough to unlock creativity: A Netherlands based study last year that surveyed 156 employees found that there was no direct correlation between rebelliousness and creativity in a general sense, but that there was a linear correlation between the two when rebelliousness was paired with what the study called “promotion focus.” So the real creative benefits of rebelliousness only come to light when an individual is goal oriented, motivated, and keen to advance themselves and the organization. That having been said, “a little bit of a socially undesirable personality may actually facilitate employees to attain valued outcomes,” the authors of the study concluded.

Our take? Let’s cut the troublemakers some slack, they could be doing us all a favor.