Autism Acceptance Month

It’s Autism Acceptance Month! I got diagnosed last year - simultaneously a huge surprise and no surprise at all. It's led to a lot of reflection and re-evaluation of many of my life experiences, including my work life and roles as a leader and team member. Feels like a good time to share my recent diagnosis to add a little bit to the visibility of autistic folks (to let you know that WE ARE AMONG YOU!) and?to share a few thoughts on what you can do to support your neurodivergent pals in the workplace.

Maybe you have a sense that you might be autistic yourself? I’d highly recommend reading Dr Devon Price’s excellent Unmasking Autism for a deep dive on the autistic experience - this was the book that ultimately led me to seek a diagnosis - for me, the sensory, social and hyperfocus traits were the real giveaways. And please do drop me a message if you have any questions at all - it can be a daunting process and I’m very happy to chat any time.

So what can we do to improve the working environment for yourself or your autistic co-workers? I’ve added a few thoughts below, and please note that these observations are solely from my own experience, so don't consider this by ANY means comprehensive. Would love to get some more input on this, so if you have any thoughts on what we can do to improve the workplace for autistic folks, please comment below!

Accommodations - vive la difference! Provide flexibility and accommodations to colleagues that allow them to work in the way that they feel maximises their talents and work-life experience. Trust that they know their own mind and know what’s best for them. I instinctively sought to create many accommodations in the workplace for myself before I had any awareness of my own diagnosis. For example, I have a deep need to thoroughly prepare before giving a talk or presentation to be effective (whether a talk at GDC or a quick talk to my team) whereas I find off-the-cuff presentations without materials challenging. I am much more effective collaborating and connecting in smaller groups or one-to-ones (whereas I find super-size meetings overwhelming and difficult to find a gap to contribute). I need solid blocks of working time with no distractions, and I need time to process information so I can provide well-considered responses. I can get a little overwhelmed by excessive sensory stimulation (sound, light, people), which has a deeply negative impact on my effectiveness. I need some quiet alone time at lunch to recharge or I get burned out. You want your colleagues to thrive. If you are in a leadership position, consider how prescriptive your organisation might be - will accommodations such as these really impact deliverables, or are there some parts of your process or culture that formed based on habit or preference? Opening up and trusting the team could be transformative for them and for your studio.

Communication - Avoid shifting goals and ambiguity in communication. One of the most unhelpful things you can do is to give non-specific guidance or requests or change them mid-activity without discussion. Something that might appear obvious to you may be super unclear to your colleagues. Ask for confirmation, leave space for colleagues to ask questions, and check in along the way. I've experienced some bizarre and mystifying, seemingly open-ended and unsolvable requests from colleagues that constantly shifted in shape and nature. I'm sure I've probably done the same. Collaboration should not be a guessing game. If your colleagues don't understand what you are trying to get across, it's on you to find a better way. Being an effective communicator is a learned skill like anything else and needs constant effort, feedback, and reflection.

Politics and Autonomy?- We all know a heavily political workplace can potentially be ruinous for an organisation, but it’s particularly torturous for your autistic buds. One of my points of self-discovery has been my own blind spots to politics: agendas and managing egos are a little mystifying to me. I've tended to prioritise time with folks that could be great potential collaborators or co-workers that I found interesting, talented, helpful, or just fun to be around, but it never occurred to me to invest time with those with influence. Turns out this can be problematic in a more political environment!? My own experiences aside, a heavily political environment can lead to a multitude of organisational problems — from diminished effectiveness in decision making and a disconnected, uninvested team (if the motivations for decisions don’t feel solid and people don’t feel able to raise concerns or questions, why would they invest in following you?) to most problematically making people feel unsafe (for a team member to really be effective they must feel safe enough to take risks). Any combo of these issues results in at best, a team whose effectiveness is held back or at worst, a toxic environment and a deeply unhappy team. Dialling down politics is a BIG topic, but it frequently comes downstream from a culture that favours a high degree of hierarchical control and micro-management - a belief that you can build a perfect structure, a perfect process and impose that upon a team unilaterally. The less we consult and communicate, and the more we impose and gatekeep (however unintentional), the more political an organisation will become. This can create an environment which is a hotbed for politics and can make it harder and harder for any team member to fit into increasingly narrow moulds. This is a death knell for those amongst us for whom a level of autonomy is not just a? preference, but critical to our ability to contribute. I’ve learned how much I need my own autonomy and how much more effective I am with some freedom to operate a little laterally. Again, this is also something that I've made mistakes with as a leader in the past and continue to work on myself, and letting go can be hard - a desire to control is almost always driven by fear. The best discussion that I’ve seen on the relationship between process, structure and organisational health is Supercell's Ilkka Paananen’s BAFTA Annual Games Lecture? - which talks about their transition from top-down thinking to autonomous teams and the huge benefits that brought.

Socialising and collaboration - It's important to be conscious of the variation in how folks socialise, present, collaborate and communicate, and to avoid a "one-size-fits-all" approach to these activities with your colleagues. Does your organisation’s culture accept and embrace this variation? Some people are more gregarious, some more reflective. Some might love post-work drinks in a buzzy pub and big company parties, some might prefer a chilled afternoon in a board-game cafe, some maybe playing games with colleagues online. All NeuroDivergent folks are different, but one of the most destructive misconceptions is that autistic folks don't like to socialise with other people - it may be that they don’t want to socialise in specific ways or environments. If you are organising social events, take the time to ask what your colleagues would prefer, offer a number of options, and give them the option of opting out without judgement. The same applies to collaboration and communication too - try to find ways to let people flex their own style. For example, some company cultures promote a "dancing bear" school of creativity that believes it is something that should be performed, that you should "look and act creative”, but creativity comes in an infinite number of styles! Let everyone shine in their own way - forcing an ill-fitting style upon your neurodivergent colleagues is like asking a cat to high-five an eagle.

The final thing I wanted to address is one of the most common responses that ND folks get when they raise some of these points or ask for accommodations: "Well, isn't everyone a little bit on the spectrum/neurodivergent/ADHD/OCD?".? If this is your natural response then you probably need to do a bit of reading. This response might come from someone that identifies with many of the attributes of an ND diagnosis (such as social or sensory issues) and hasn't considered their own potential diagnosis so they assume EVERYONE experiences these issues. Most often this comes from a well intentioned place of trying to relate, however there is a difference between having had a shared experience of a challenging moment and living with challenges like these every single day. Be conscious of dismissing the needs or trivialising the experience of NeuroDivergent folk and potentially leaving them feeling not only misunderstood but at worst, an inconvenience to be navigated. Luckily there are plenty of resources out there if you’d like to deepen your understanding, many of them are free or very low-cost. I'd highly recommend investing the time to learn more about the subject in order to better support your ND colleagues.

If you'd like to explore this subject area more, here is some further reading I can personally recommend:

• For an in-depth look at the autistic experience - Unmasking Autism by Dr Devon Price is a great read.
• For a comprehensive guide of how to make your workplace more ND Friendly - check out Workplace NeuroDiversity Rising by Lyric Riviera.
• For a broader dive into Autism and connected topics, Katherine May has a great list of resources - have a browse and dive in wherever you are curious.

Anyways, that’s all from me. A lot of this is not that complicated! It really comes down to creating a culture of openness, flexibility, compassion, trust and a willingness to extend a little autonomy to your colleagues - qualities that any good leader should aspire to. Do you have any suggestions for material that helps shine a line on this topic, or anything that you’ve found can make the working environment a better place for autistic folks? Please share!