A neuro-inclusive work environment is an ideal work environment because everyone’s different ways of thinking and working are valued and supported. This diversity of approaches brings a range of strengths to the team (for example, deep focus, curiosity and pattern recognition) but only if people don’t feel the need to hide their true selves and blend in with everyone else in order to be accepted within the team.
This is known as masking. Some neurodivergent people, consciously or unconsciously, change things about themselves to appear ‘typical’ because they don’t feel safe being themselves. To try to fit into workplace norms, they hide difficulties, copy behaviour and suppress their natural instincts. It takes a lot of energy and often means sacrificing their strengths.
While leaders do set the tone of a team, every individual contributes to the work environment and therefore can support neuro-inclusion. Small changes can make a significant difference to performance and wellbeing. Teams can come together to work towards being inclusive of all differences for the benefit of everyone.
So what can you do to be a neurodivergent ally and make everyone feel included, supported and valued?
How to be a supportive neurodivergent ally
Every meeting, every email, every collaboration is an opportunity to nurture the kind of environment we want to work in and help our team thrive. Here are a few things to think about as you go through your workday.
Building awareness of unintentional exclusion
We all have unconscious bias. We can all make an effort to be more conscious of it. Just because someone isn’t responding in the way we would doesn’t mean they are doing anything wrong. We can work together with our differences.
Keep in mind the assumption model. We start by observing a behaviour. Then we make an assumption about that person which we believe to be true, even though there isn’t any evidence. From there, we create a judgment which is a story about who they are and what they are like, even though we don’t know anything for sure. This impacts the outcome of the interaction as it changes how we respond to them, often in a way that isn’t supportive or productive.
It’s so easy to run through this model and jump from observing a behaviour to it impacting our workplace interactions. We can reroute our response by thinking about what we have evidence for and separating judgment from reality.
Being curious & non-judgmental
To replace unintentional exclusion, we can practice intentional curiosity. We don’t know people’s intentions. We don’t know what people are struggling with. We don’t necessarily know what they are good at. So ask. Use curious questions to establish what is really going on instead of jumping to conclusions.
Follow my curiosity equation. Pause + Questions + Open = Curiosity. Pause before having an immediate response to make sure you aren’t acting on unconscious bias. Then ask yourself what information you are missing so you can see where your assumptions are filling the gaps. Finally, be open to possibilities beyond the one your mind first jumped to. Ask open questions in a light and curious tone.
Valuing and leveraging strengths
Many of us find it easier to identify our weaknesses than our strengths. This is something to be particularly aware of with neurodivergent people because there is a lot of negative messaging about neurodiversity and the associated behaviours. They may have been shamed for their differences before.
You can be part of rewriting the narrative by recognising their strengths. Behind the challenges we so easily identify is a hidden strength. For example, if you are distractible, you are often seeing the connections others aren’t and coming up with ideas spontaneously. If you are quiet in meetings, it could be because you are being reflective and thoughtful and really considering your response before you share it. Pointing out the strengths you see in others prompts them to appreciate their own strengths.
Helping people feel safe to be themselves
I’m sure we all want other people to feel safe to be themselves around us. However, good intentions don’t always lead to the outcome we were hoping for. We need to be proactive about how we make people feel to really create the sense of safety.
Demonstrate that you are listening, reflect back that you understand what they are telling you and show that you care about their perspective. It sounds simple but it’s so easily forgotten in the rush of the workplace. Next time someone speaks up, be conscious of how you show that their contribution is valued.
Adapting to meet people where they are
We all have our own working style, how we process information, come up with ideas and communicate with others. Not everyone is going to work in the way we do but that doesn’t mean we can’t work well together.
Think about people who have quite different working styles from you. How can you help them to succeed? Even small adaptations like changing an email update to a meeting can be helpful for someone who finds it easier to express themselves verbally rather than in written form. Consider how you can meet people halfway so everyone feels like their needs are being met.
I hope this has shown you that neuroinclusion isn’t created by a few people for a few people. It’s created by everyone for everyone. We all have our differences and that’s something to not just accept but also celebrate.
To find out more about how you can be an active ally in your team, download the recording of the webinar I led on this very topic HERE. The webinar ends with a 30-day challenge on how you can start implementing what you have learned about neurodivergent allyship. On this page, you’ll also find information about the other webinars in this series.
To get your whole team involved in neuro-inclusion, run a series of webinars in-house. We start with a 30-minute taster session that introduces the topic of neurodiversity in the workplace and the roadmap to thriving through inclusion. Then we follow up with a 2-hour booster session that goes into more detail. We cover case studies and skills people can apply to daily workplace interactions. Find out more about in-house webinars HERE.
What’s the next step you will take to support your neurodivergent colleagues?
