Neurodiversity awareness can help AEC firms build more inclusive workplaces where all minds are empowered to succeed.
Fidget spinners, clickers, magnetic tactile infinity cubes, and stress balls are often hot ticket swag items at conferences. They adorn office desks to help us reduce anxiety, increase focus, or provide a sensory input that keeps us engaged during our meetings. However, it’s not children, or our favorite toy maker Santa Claus, we have to thank for these soothing toys entering our corporate world. The credit is owed to the neurodivergent individuals who live and work among us, and whose unique needs and perspectives are often the driving force for creating positive, inclusive changes in the workplace for minds of all kinds.
Neurodiversity refers to the natural differences in how people experience and interact with the world. The most common neurodivergent conditions include diagnoses like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia.
The neurodiverse community is offering company leaders an opportunity to think deeper about leveraging the talents of all employees by lending greater sensitivity to their needs and creating a more favorable environment that furthers success. Stimming, a form of self-regulatory behavior that can help self-soothe and manage excess energy, is common among neurodivergent individuals. Fidget toys were created to provide stimulation and self-regulation assistance to support an increase in cognitive functioning during meetings or one’s daily grind.
What may seem like a novel idea really isn’t. Many of us find it hard to focus while doing those long, sitting at your computer-based tasks. Through the years people have created their own strategies like standing up at a desk, chewing gum, scrolling on our phones, doodling on a notepad, or clicking a pen. However, with the increase in understanding of the needs of neurodivergent individuals, we have integrated intentional coping strategies and tools, like fidget tools, that positively affect our nervous system and are useful to all of us.
In the article “What Workplaces Misunderstand about Neurodiversity”, S. Mitra Kalita writes, “All of us have different brains that work in different ways, and neurodiversity refers to all of the unique and differing ways in which people can exist, think, process, feel, and act … there are neurotypical people, whose functioning falls within societal standards and norms, and neurodivergent people, whose functioning falls outside of those norms.”
What leaders often misunderstand about neurodiversity at work
Neurodivergence is protected as a disability under The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). However, not every neurodivergent person considers themselves disabled – rather they find environments disabling. For example, in Mary Nowak’s article “The Challenges of Neurodiversity in the Workplace: The Powerful but Overlooked”, a person with dyslexia who has predominately reading comprehension symptoms may severely struggle in an academic setting. On the other hand, this same individual may not be affected the same way in a workplace that prioritizes areas with fewer reading and writing tasks.
Creating accommodation for each of your employees may seem like a daunting task, but non-neurodivergent people do it all the time. We live in a very noisy world. It is rare to find an office environment where employees don’t wear headphones to drown out unwanted distractions and noise. By normalizing headphone wearing in the office to eliminate our environment’s distractions, companies show support toward tools improving employee productivity and focus. Schools and workplaces are realizing that moving toward accommodating sensory inputs and understanding the different types of reasonable adjustments to be made is a powerful strategy. These inclusive environments often encourage higher employee performance.
How inclusive workplaces better support neurodivergent employees
However, for organizations to experience these types of benefits, leaders must first recognize there is a need to create an environment that accommodates various work styles and needs. Many individuals who identify as neurodivergent have gone on record and express concerns with negative backlash after voicing their disabilities at their workplace.
Research done by Gallup, and cited in the article “Neurodiverse Workers: Hidden Challenges, Untapped Potential”, uses the CliftonStrengths assessment to learn more about the desired abilities and strengths that neurodivergent individuals possess like creativity, innovation, and complex problem-solving.
The research also concluded that “37% of employed neurodivergent individuals choose not to share their condition with coworkers, feeling that peers and leaders will stigmatize their natural ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.” Further, “46% of neurodivergent individuals don’t ask for accommodations during the application process, feeling it would be a disadvantage and might cause them to be labeled high maintenance, difficult, or needy.”
So how do we create a bridge between leaders who want to be accommodating and employees who are uncomfortable sharing their needs? The answer is you start with education and awareness. Examples of creating an environment of inclusiveness start with education and spreading positive awareness among teammates about neurodiversity for everyone to feel comfortable being their true self among their peers. Below are more examples of how company leaders could support neurodivergent individuals who are not yet comfortable discussing their disability or difference:
- Offer remote work options
- Provide flexible start times
- Research and request testing accommodations for employees taking license or certification exams
- Offer screen color overlays to reduce visual stress and enhance readability
- Train in different learning and communication styles
- Break down tasks with visual aids (color-coded systems) to support working memory and organization
- Equip managers with the tools to hold meaningful conversations with their employees on how to accommodate differences
In a Harvard Business Review article, “Neurodiversity as a Competitive Advantage,” Silvio Bessa, senior vice president of digital business services at Microsoft, shared that leveraging the talents of all employees through greater sensitivity to individual needs forces them to get to know the person and resulted in feeling like, “it made me a better manager, no doubt.”
Why neurodiversity matters in the AEC talent pipeline
The downside of not educating and spreading awareness around neurodiversity in the workplace is that the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry could be missing out on a pool of qualified employees with desired skillsets who would positively contribute to their organization’s success. The Journal of Autism and Development Disorders found that students with autism choose STEM majors, like architecture and engineering, at a higher rate than the general population. The Gallup research further identified that neurodivergent individuals had higher scores on the CliftonStrengths assessment in ideation and strategic themes which include skills in creativity and exceptional visual spatial abilities.
The beauty of neurodiversity awareness is that by honoring a variety of needs, we can create an environment where every individual is empowered to use their talents and strengths to contribute. I challenge all of us in the AEC industry to learn more about the neurodiverse community, and consider whether your organization fosters an inclusive environment that supports minds of all kinds in contributing toward the success of your organization or firm.
This article is dedicated to my daughter, a person with autism as well as the confident voices of the neurodiverse community, and the advocates determined to create inclusive spaces for all minds.
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Milly Sordo, M.Ed., is Director of Training and Development at H2B Engineering | Design. Connect with her on LinkedIn. |