Managing with a Neurodiverse Lens

Remember how Covid made the impossible, working from home, possible? #WFH We knew #RemoteWork could change the lives of millions of people with disabilities and, by extension, the rest of the world's working population, and it has.

A new?study ?by the Economic Innovation Group think tank has found that the employment rate for people with disabilities did not simply reach the pre-pandemic level by mid-2022, but rose far past it to the highest rate in over a decade.

The?Rosie Report Research study, ?found that 71% of workers would pass on upward mobility at work to receive flexibility over when and where they work.

Companies facing massive redundancies from Spotify 's 6% to Twitter 's 50% talent redundancies, require those remaining behind to "Do 'extremely hardcore' work or get out" --The 2023 way of saying work harder with less.

ONLY 50% of employees know what is expected of them at work. Again, businesses have an opportunity.

According to Gallup, only about half of employees strongly agree they know what is expected of them at work. When managers help set work performance, 38% are engaged vs. those who disagree: 4%. When managers hold employees accountable for their own performance, 29% are engaged vs. 6%. When employees can approach their manager with a question, 31% are engaged, vs. 2%.

What can companies do to ensure their employees know what is expected from them?

Manage with a neurodiverse lens. Here's a cheat sheet.

Run Effective Meetings

• Agree best communication method for team meetings.
• Send out an agenda 24 hours in advance.
• Send out accompanying materials 1 hour in advance.
• Rotating note taker.
• Allow room for people who need to process the information.
• Agree best communication and timeframe for continued input.
• Ensure all participants have access to new ideas.

Skills-based Project Management

• Explain how this project meets the team’s and company’s strategy.
• Explain, what, where, and when.
• Have the team decide who does what based on their skills and strengths.
• Ensure all roles are covered. May require ‘stretching’.
• Added benefit to understanding what skills the team requires for the next FTE.
• Ensure everyone on the team can relay how the work will be done and by when.
• Manager sends out a quick bulleted email with the agreed work plan.
• Manager checks on team ? hour later to ensure no questions.
• Team can collaborate if/when a problem is found in real-time.

Feedback

• Put the individual in the center.
• Timing is everything.
• If it’s not specific, and job-centric, it’s not feedback.
• Feedback should be a regular occurrence.
• Negative followed by positives. Positives are extremely useful. Negatives work best before a project is recommenced.
• Set goals, and create a measurable action plan.
• The entire team should be willing and able to give and receive constructive feedback.

To understand these techniques further, contact [email protected] or book in a 30 minute Q&A session by clicking here .