by Lydia Suffling

Introduction

Today, organisational success is driven by competitive people strategy more than any other time in history. Despite this, very few organisations truly leverage the full capacity of the workforce available to them. This requires openness to diversity in the way we think, function and live, and individual support to bring about performance.

At 4OC, we’re passionate about inclusive change through co-design. That means engaging stakeholders in every layer of the organisation, from all walks of life, and with different needs. For Neurodiversity Celebration Week, we wanted to tell you about the power of engaging neurodiverse individuals in your change initiatives, and how you can support them to do their best work.

The Power of Neurodiversity

Put simply, neurodiversity is the idea that we each process and interact with information in different ways. There are many virtues of this that often go unspoken – personally, I have had the pleasure of working with incredibly talented and diverse individuals, many of whom are neurodiverse. When thinking about change specifically, the benefits of consulting these brilliant individuals include:

• Unique perspectives – which often lead to innovative areas for improvement, and strong understanding of the need for inclusivity in approach
• Creativity in responding to problems – often resulting in innovative solutions, and a strong action-results connection
• High productivity – which for some comes from an ability to focus for extensive periods of time, a strong attention to detail, and capability to power through repetitive or patterned tasks. This is a powerful resource in change delivery
• Critical thinking – also a benefit of strong attention to detail and unique perspectives. Through this, neurodiversity can support us to challenge the status quo
• Inclusivity – built on an understanding of the importance of celebrating and utilising diversity

Optimising Skills 

How can you take advantage of these benefits? Beyond staff education on neurodiversity and inclusion, the main way to operationalise this is flexibility in support offered to all.

For example, neurodiverse employees often benefit from very clear direction, and may appreciate more frequent check-ins. Giving flexibility in working hours and locations can also enable neurodiverse individuals to best look after themselves, and offering reasonable adjustments, such as mentors, supportive software and physical adjustments, as required, will support them to perform their best.

The most important thing to remember is that we’re all different. Reframing your discussions with everyone, not just those with neurodiversity, treating everyone as an individual, taking the time to listen to what they need, and asking for feedback will allow you to harness high-performing, diverse and creative teams.

This may require some effort, but the payoff, in the form of access to new talents, perspectives and competitive advantage, will be worth it.

Looking to learn more? 

Explore these recommendations:

Neurodiversity: The Untapped Competitive Advantage – Andrew Pfeiffer (12 minute video)
Enna: Suggestions for Reasonable Adjustments (5 minute read)
An Acas Podcast: Thinking Differently About Neurodiversity (25 minute listen)