What is Neurodiversity ?

15-20% of people in the UK are diagnosed as Neurodivergent but as there is a waiting list of 2 – 10 years for a diagnosis, we can be sure that the numbers are much higher.

This is something that you can’t ignore. The Equality Act 2010 protects people who’s brains work differently and being unaware is no excuse!

Here’s some key points of language that you might find helpful:

Neurodiversity – a term coined in 1998 change to a term popularised in 1998 and in the list of thinking, processing etc  add communicating between thinking and processing.

As with biodiversity, you need all the different plants and animals, insects etc for the garden to function. Neurodiversity is the same, we need ALL types of brains to get all of the tasks done.

Neurodivergent – A person who is neurodivergent is someone who’s brain processes and thinking functions are different to the majority . A neurodivergent person experiences the world and interacts with it differently to someone who is in the majority. Like a left handed person in a world designed for right handed people, not better or worse just different.

The most talked about neurodivergent “conditions” are:

• Dyslexia
• ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Autism Spectrum Condition
• Dyspraxia
• Dyscalculia
• Dysgraphia
• Tourette Syndrome

If we go back to times before the industrial era, when living as nomadic tribes we needed a variety of characteristics to work well and survive. The alert person who made a great night-time lookout, the detail-oriented person who made sure that all of the camp was packed away properly when we moved and kept an eye on food stocks, the orator that told stories and were the keepers of lore. We’d now label those people as ADHD, Autistic and Dyslexic.

Neuromajority and Neurominority – There are more right handed people than left handed people in the world. Right-handed people are the majority, the left handed people are the minority (approx. 12% globally). This is the same with Neurodiversity. The majority think and process in a similar way and the minority (15 % +) of population have brains that work differently.

The world we live in is designed for the majority. Our communication, assumptions, beliefs about what is ok and what is not, are all based on what “most” people might do. Neurodivergent people have to battle with hidden, unwritten rules that the majority seem to instinctively know such as:

• Good eye contact makes you trustworthy but staring is rude
• It’s ok to interrupt during a conversation as long as it’s not too often as that’s rude (but how often is too often)?
• Being honest is a good thing but don’t be too honest.
• You should engage in ‘chit chat’ and build rapport before going into a deeper conversation as that’s perceived as being too direct.

These and many more social assumptions and unwritten rules are not natural to many neurodivergent people. These people are not broken or weird, they simply don’t see the world the way the majority do.

In most cases it is the environment and the expectations of the majority that are the cause of “difficulty” for neurodivergent individuals, not the difference in brain processing.

Every difference has value in some context.

Things to think about:

• If everyone thought the same, who would come up with inventions and ideas? How could you make your workplace one that liberates the strengths of different thinkers?
• If you are an entrepreneur and you are neurotypical, you are in the minority. How can you use your own thinking differences to benefit others?
• What can you do to identify the strengths in your organisation of all types of thinkers?