Neurodiversity and the Future of Work
Neurodiversity Pathways
Helping neurodiverse adults with college degrees find meaningful, rewarding, and sustained employment.
I am often asked at which point "the robots will take our jobs"?
If you're only familiar with my work on neurodiversity in the workplace, you may wonder why it is I'm asked this question. However, for a large portion of my career my work focused on innovation and - specifically - how innovation practice applies to workforce policy.
These two fields may seem dissimilar, but they really aren't. Their similarity is why I often include discussions on the future of work (how work and the workplace will evolve in years ahead) in the classes I teach to neurodivergent students in Neurodiversity Pathways' Online Career Readiness Training for Neurodivergent Job Seekers.
I can't tell you when, or if, robots will take your job. However, I will tell you what I teach my students in order to prepare them for the workforce - that "the only constant in life is change," (Heraclitus). This is the heart of every lesson about automation or artificial intelligence in the workplace. Change is a certain, and it's best that we prepare ourselves for that fact.
Since its introduction by OpenAI in November 2022, a large portion of the discussion around ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) has been around its potential to replace swaths of jobs in sectors like journalism, customer service, and computer programming. While technology at times does replace entire fields (think tollbooth attendants and telephone switchboard operators), it more often changes the responsibilities and functions of existing jobs (think of how a professional photographer working today is more likely to use editing software rather than a physical darkroom to develop their work product).
A point that I emphasize with my students is that work is constantly changing, and also that managers tend to favor employees with an ability to change. Although one may be hired for a role with a set of listed responsibilities, it is rare that the responsibilities laid out at the onset of a job remain the same throughout an employee's tenure there.
The above is true whether the work is manual or white collar. In my days of working inside a warehouse, I became really good at manually labeling boxes. When automation took that responsibility away, I quickly pivoted within that same job to adopt a new skill that impressed my managers - namely, designing and operating a process that ensured the quality of the new automatic labeling process.
Similarly, when I first became a political press secretary, the ability to quickly fax press releases to multiple press rooms was a valued skill. By the time I left that profession, press releases were sent out digitally. Whereas quick communication skills were previously valued by my employers, quality communication skills (such as the ability to maintain relationships with press contacts that would allow one's press release to rise above the clatter of hundreds of others) would replace it as the measure I'd more likely to be evaluated on.
So, what does this have to do with neurodiversity? A lot.
Whether you are autistic, dyslexic, ADHD, or hold a number of other neurodivergent conditions, you've most likely struggled to 'fit in' with how our workplaces currently operate. Some of you may have even enrolled in classes that teach 'workplace skills' or 'social skills' in an effort to help you "fit in". If so, you've most likely found frustration with employing these 'skills' in a successful manner. You've most likely continued to face struggles and misunderstanding. That's not your fault.
At best, I've found most workplace skills trainings focus on helping an individual mirror current workplace practices. "Catching up" to how others currently work is emphasized, with little - if any - attention paid to how the trained individual can develop into a person who can not only meet the challenges of today, but who is empowered to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
领英推荐
A changing workforce needs workers who are able to change with it. If you're worried about the "robots taking your jobs" then that's your solution: be adaptable.
This March, my colleagues and I will begin teaching the Spring 2023 cohort of Neurodiversity Pathways' Online Career Readiness Training for Neurodivergent Job Seekers. Yes, we will teach workplace skills. However, we will teach something much more valuable than time management or how to construct a compelling presentation: we will teach our students how to adapt.
We prepare our neurodivergent students for the future of work through five key areas - Foundations (understanding themselves as neurodivergent), Personal Effectiveness (coping, growing, and succeeding as a neurodivergent person in workplaces largely not designed for them), Job Development (employment strategy, self advocacy, and communication), Workplace Competencies (job performance, team interactions, conflict resolution, assertive and positive communication, effective presentations) and finally a Simulated Workplace (empowering students to exercise their skills through workplace projects).
Over the next few weeks, I'll be breaking down each of these curriculum areas in subsequent articles on LinkedIn. Whether you are neurodivergent or not, I hope you benefit from a discussion of how one can apply these areas to succeed at work.
And if you are a neurodivergent person yourself looking for work or looking to grow in your career - or the parent or family member of a neurodivergent person who might be interested - I invite you to join Neurodiversity Pathways for one of our upcoming information sessions where we discuss our Spring 2023 cohort.
So, when "will the robots take our jobs?" Unclear. Perhaps now, or perhaps never. Perhaps little-by-little, perhaps all-at-once.
What is clear is that nothing stays the same. That includes your work. Change is kind enough to be constant. Use that realization to prepare for it. Your ability to adapt in your current and future roles will largely determine your success.
______________________
John Marble is the founder of?Pivot Neurodiversity. He is a training partner and classroom instructor with Neurodiversity Pathways.?
He is autistic.
Neurodiversity Pathways will hold information sessions on their Spring 2023 throughout the month of February and in the first week of March.
A rare and carefully-curated blend of invaluable expertise at the nexus of AI, corporate communications, external affairs, and public policy.
2 年Fantastic article, full of thoughtful - and helpful - insight, per usual. Bravo and thank you, John!
Always ready to pivot. Building community connection, leadership development and valuing independent growth. Sprinkling behavior science where I can.
2 年This is fantastic. Would love to learn more.