Published on Linkedin on 21st March 2022
Sooo, do you know what Albert Einstein, Whoopi Goldberg, Cara Delevingne and Richard Branson have in common? They are all Neurodiverse!
Today marks the start of Neurodiversity celebration week. In the organisation’s own words, it is ‘a worldwide initiative that challenges stereotypes and misconceptions about neurological differences’.
It’s a time to raise awareness on what it means, how we can make the workplace more inclusive of neurodivergent colleagues, but also why we should celebrate it!
What is neurodiversity?
The term was coined in the late 90s by Judy Singer, an Australian sociologist. I like this simple definition from an Harvard Medical School blog post:
“ Neurodiversity describes the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways”
People’s brains aren’t all wired the same way, and we therefore have a variety of approaches when it comes to learning, socialising, working, etc
Worth mentioning also what neurodiversity is not: a deficit of some sort.
Under this concept of neurodiversity we can find (among others):
Autism - As defined by the National Autistic Society ‘Autism is a lifelong developmental disability which affects how people communicate and interact with the world’. It is a spectrum, meaning that it affects people in different ways. 1% of the UK population is on this spectrum, which represents about 700,000 people.
Dyslexia - It is estimated that about 10% of the population is dyslexic. According to the British Dyslexia Association ‘Dyslexia is a learning difficulty which primarily affects reading and writing skills. However, it does not only affect these skills. Dyslexia is actually about information processing.’
Dyspraxia - Also known as developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD), this condition can affect movement and co-ordination skills. This can also have an impact on actions such as writing or using small objects. (NHS). 5% of the world population are believed to be Dyspraxic.
ADHD - Standing for Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, it is one of the most common neurodevelopmental conditions of childhood. About 4% of adults have an ADHD diagnosis. As described by the NHS, it affects people's behaviour in that they can seem restless, might have trouble concentrating and may act on impulse.
Getting an ADHD diagnosis as an adult
I work as a coach for the ed tech startup Multiverse. We support apprentices on our programmes through their professional growth and development.
As they enroll on our programmes, they are invited to take a cognitive assessment, via Cognassist. This is to learn about themselves, how their brain works, how they learn and what their needs could be.
I took the test myself just so I could better understand what it was if I had any questions from apprentices.
What came out of it was that I had an additional learning need with verbal memory. It was a surprise at first but reading through the result and the difficulties I might experience actually connected a lot of dots. Some obvious ones, like the fact I’m an avid notes taker to make sure I retain key information, but more subtle ones also, like the fact I need a bit of time to digest info before coming up with questions or suggestions.
I then started to make some research, and one thing leading to another found articles about women sharing their experience of being diagnosed with ADHD as adults, and what it looks like for them. I took a couple of tests online and decided to get clarity on the matter with professional expertise.
After a first GP consultation, I got referred to a psychiatrist. Upon a couple of sessions and a series of tests, they established the ADHD diagnosis.
Why am I sharing all of this? Because I got to learn more about myself, and get the support I needed thanks to people who shared their experience.
Also, we have amazing leaders at Multiverse who model the power of honesty and openness. I’ve seen and I know that being truthful can really go a long way in helping people as well as creating the culture of inclusivity that organisations are (or should be!) thriving for.
Your own journey: getting a diagnosis or assessment
First, it might be worth looking into why one might want to do it. Speaking from my own experience, there is a sense of wanting to understand oneself better, how to maximise one strengths and act on the challenges.
As reported on this neurodiversity in the workplace toolkit ‘Many people describe a feeling of relief after being told that there is a neurological explanation for challenges they had previously dealt with alone.’
There is also a more practical aspect to diagnosis or assessments, as they can be needed in certain situations. In education for example, they are necessary for you to request reasonable adjustments such as extra time in examinations.
GMB Union toolkit provides tips when it comes to the steps to consider when contemplating getting a diagnostic or assessment:
Liaise with support groups (local or national) for advises and resources
Talk to your GP - I would also add, talk to your medical insurance to get a sense of how the referral would be working
Ensure of the expertise of your assessor
Here is below links to UK charities diagnosis guidance pages:
Suggestions to support neurodiverse people at work
An important disclaimer here. By no means am I pretending to be an expert and I can only speak based on my own experience as neurodivergent as well as what I've observed in the recent years working with people with similar struggles, or other disclosed conditions.
What works for some might not work for all as there are as many challenges, and possible solutions, as there are individuals.
Having said that, I also feel like the below could be good practices to support people beyond neurodivergents (For example, non-native English, introverts, people less digitally literate etc)
Give time to process information
Thinking on the spot can sometimes be difficult for some people, for a variety of reasons, the least being that they don’t have anything to say.
My background is in marketing, where the famous brainstorming sessions are common practice. I remember finding it quite hard to contribute meaningfully on the moment and always attributed it to the fact that I’m not native English and therefore that my thoughts were a split second behind.
I now know that this is because some of us need this short time to compute the information at hand before sharing what could be deemed a relevant point, or ask a relevant question.
Allow for opportunities to speak
Chiming in animated conversations with multiple stakeholders are reportedly challenging for some people, may it be for the reason above or the overly sensory stimulating nature of the setting.
This can be easily mitigated when running online meetings via platforms like zoom, where one can just use the handraise function to signal they wish to speak.
This is a great practice to normalise as part of the online meetings etiquette, and although it might not be so common ‘IRL’, possibly one to consider adapting there too.
Have visual support in presentations
As the adage goes ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’... Information can be easily missed, forgotten, or harder to retain, if only shared verbally. Getting to accompany one’s presentation with key text/visuals can go a long way in making sure it is more easily understood by all.
This also goes well beyond supporting neurodivergent only, and taps into the concepts of learning styles and accounting for visual learners.
Worth noting that the common rule of presentation minimalism applies here, and one would want to aim for keywords as opposed to lengthy paragraphs on slides.
Highlight key information in emails (and documents)
Arguably, nobody likes a lengthy email anyway, but they are sometimes necessary! Should it be the case, try to give it a good structure, rather than having one big block of text. Have short sentences, break your text down in paragraphs and use bullet points as relevant/necessary.
You might also want to bolden key information/actions within your text for greater clarity on messaging.
Challenge your norms and processes
I see how this first line could be an eye roller… ‘Cheers captain obvious’.
The reason I think it’s an important one to keep in mind is because, as we’ve seen above, a lot of the small supportive actions come from tweaks on what most can perceive as mundane points.
For example, while having no allocated desks in an office might be ok to many, it can be a very distressing prospect for autistic people (hence great adjustments like this one at sky)
Another example could be how the traditional interview experience could be overwhelming, as brilliant demonstrated in this video from the National Autistic Society.
Celebrating Neurodiversity
To conclude, let’s wrap up with an important pillar of Neurodiversity Celebration Week (it’s in the name!): the celebration of Neurodiversity. Why should we celebrate Neurodiversity?
Firstly, because Neurodiversity is Diversity. It’s an enabler for innovation, for better problem solving and decision making by enabling different perspectives from different individuals.
A Deloitte study from 2018 has revealed that a team with cognitive diversity can have its innovation increased by 20%.
Then, although there is a general increase in awareness about Neurodiversity, there is still a lot to debunk on the topic and across the various concepts it encompasses.
One of the most harmful myths that can still prevail in some people’s mind is that neurodivergent employees can’t strive in the workplace.
There has historically been a lot of focus on the challenges faced by neurodivergent. It is important to acknowledge that there could be flip slides of the coins, and individuals can have great skills and strengths to bring in the workplace, such as out of the box thinking, creativity or analysis.
This video offers an interesting point of view on the matter:
Useful resources to learn more
Employing autistic people – a guide for employers by the National Autistic Society
Creating a dyslexia friendly workplace - a Dyslexia friendly style guide from the British
Employer guide to dyspraxia - by the Dyspraxia Foundation
An Employer’s guide to ADHD in the workplace - by the Scottish ADHD coalition
Business resources from the Neurodiversity Celebration Week website
How employers can support neurodivergent staff - From people management
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