External processing is a cognitive style where people learn and process information by interacting with the world. This can include things like talking to people, doing hands-on activities, or using visual aids. People who use external processing often learn best by “doing” and may find it challenging to learn in traditional settings.

External processing is sometimes associated with neurodiversity, which refers to the natural variations in human cognition.

There are many benefits to external processing. External processors are often creative and innovative thinkers. They can also be good at problem-solving, critical thinking, and effectively communicating and working with others.

However, some challenges are associated with external processing and neurodiversity, as sensory input sometimes overwhelms individuals. They may also need help to focus on tasks that require them to sit still for long periods. More challenges can arise if this is combined with difficulty understanding social cues and nonverbal communication.

If you are a manager or leader, there are a few things you can do to help people who are neurodivergent external processors to succeed in your organisation.

First,

Ensure your workplace is sensory-friendly by providing a quiet space for focused work.

It also means providing access to fidget toys or other tools to help them focus.

Second,

Provide opportunities for people to learn and work hands-on. This could involve projects requiring them to use tools or materials or having them work in teams where they can collaborate.

Third,

Be patient and understanding. Work with the individual and ask what is useful.

By understanding the benefits and challenges of external processing, you can create a workplace where everyone can thrive.

If you’re a manager or leader, you can help people who process information externally by creating a supportive environment. By understanding the needs of these individuals and providing them with the right tools and resources, you can help them reach their full potential.

Leaders and managers, are you looking for ways to create a more inclusive and supportive workplace for your neurodivergent employees? If so, consider contacting me at The Neurodivergent Coach.

We can help you understand the needs of your neurodivergent employees and how to create a welcoming and supportive workplace. We support you in developing strategies for managing employees who process information differently, including externally.

Here are some of the benefits of working with The Neurodivergent Coach:

• Increased understanding of neurodiversity: The Neurodivergent Coach can help you understand how neurodivergent people think, learn, and process information. This understanding can help create a more inclusive and supportive workplace for your employees.
• Improved communication: The Neurodivergent Coach can help you improve your communication with your neurodivergent employees and colleagues. This can help you better understand their needs and how to partner with them to support them to succeed.
• Increased effectiveness: The Neurodivergent Coach can help you partner with your neurodivergent employees to help them increase their effectiveness. This is about providing the right tools and resources and creating a welcoming and supportive workplace.

If you want to learn more about how The Neurodivergent Coach can help you create a more inclusive and supportive workplace, please get in touch with us today.

We’d be happy to discuss what you need and if we are the best partner to help you move forwards.

Contact us here and start the conversation.

My busy brain! (The crazy brain that never stops working and sometimes drives me up the wall!)

One of my favourite cars is the Ford RS200, based very loosely on the Ford Sierra. It is an insane Group B rally version of the Sierra, but I think the only things that were original Ford were the doors and possibly the bonnet. The engine in this car revs incredibly high, and its power-to-weight ratio means it has the type of acceleration you would typically see in a Formula One car. And this is how my brain feels sometimes, overpowered without enough traction to stay in a straight line. It looks like a standard car but nothing like an ordinary one under the bonnet.

Keeping my busy brain on the road

My brain often operates like an ideas machine, firing out many wonderful, interesting, far-out-there ways of thinking about a problem or situation.

It sometimes behaves in a way that feels like my mouth can’t keep up, nor can my memory, meaning that ideas are flowing, and I can’t always capture them. It’s incredibly frustrating. I find I get loads of ideas and get inspired, which can take me off on all sorts of tangents. This can be both useful and incredibly tricky to manage. I’m particularly aware that when I’m communicating with others, if my brain starts to rev up, I can lose them and, as a result, have frustrating communications.

Driving in the suitable environments

When I feel safe and listened to, I can operate far better than when I feel threatened or unsure about what is happening. Also, how well I’m operating for the rest of my life and how well I’ve been looking after myself make a massive difference in how my brain works. For example, this busy brain can go into busy catastrophising if I’m having a tough time! So rather like the RS200, I risk blowing it up if I don’t look after it properly.

Keeping things ticking over

Keeping fit and healthy has become essential to managing my mental health, particularly my brain activity. I’ve noticed that when I exercise regularly, my brain operates far more effectively. This means I don’t tend to get overstressed and can also compartmentalise life more effectively. It’s almost like I need to go and burn some fuel to help support a healthy outlook.

Garage time matters

Sleep is essential for all of us, but more important for some. I’ve noticed that my mind is a complete mess when I don’t get enough sleep. I find it difficult to concentrate, can become easily distracted and ultimately waste a lot of time, so having a good sleep pattern means that my busy brain tends to cope more effectively and think more concisely about what I’m doing.

Knowing when you’ve hit the red line with the busy brain

Overwhelming is a reality we all experience, but particularly for me, I’m not always conscious when it’s happening. It will sometimes creep up on me and debilitate me to the point where I’m no longer racing; I’m barely crawling and unable to think or move forwards effectively. Simply put, the best solution is to pause and take a significant break. This means typically putting on my running shoes, contacting a friend and going for a long run. Once I’ve done this, I can generally return and effectively continue moving forward.

Capturing the magic

As I mentioned, my brain often throws out many ideas rapidly, and my biggest frustration is that my short-term memory can’t hold on to many ideas. This means that I get very, very frustrated in missing ideas and rethinking them at a later stage. I then recognised that I already had the thought but had forgotten it. I use Evernote to help me manage this effectively, as it allows me to dictate ideas straight into my phone and file them away. There are many tools you can use, and this is only one of them, but I like Evernote for the following reasons:

• It’s platform-independent – it doesn’t matter if I change my phone or use my computer; it works everywhere.
• It allows me to dictate –I can get my ideas out of my head quickly and efficiently.
• It’s organised – Evernote will enable me to collect and reorganise my notes rapidly, meaning I don’t lose ideas, and I can formulate them in the right place quickly.
• I can add images – I often think in pictures and get inspired by things I see, so photographing objects or situations and organising them with my thoughts enables me to capture this effectively.

When I am most busy

I find my brain working most effectively in the morning, in the shower, when I’m out on a run or exercising. I’ve noticed that to get the most out of what I’m doing; I need to remove all other distractions and be somewhere different.

How do I get my brain to tick over

Quietening my brain down can be tricky. As I’ve mentioned, exercise can be helpful, but sometimes not even that does the job. Verbalising my thoughts is effective, as when they are stuck in my head, they often whirl around continuously. I do not understand their importance or priority so I can be completely overwhelmed by something unimportant. I also find it helpful to have a structured routine to go to sleep and have time to wind down.

My wind-down routine looks like the following:

• Screens off (no screens in the bedroom).
• Get a drink of water.
• Shower and go to the toilet.
• Practice crow pose, crane pose, double arm lever and squat (I can give more details on this if you’re interested).
• Turn the lights down.
• Make sure the blackout blind is down.
• Get into bed.
• Read for 15 minutes.
• Lights off.

If you would like to discuss managing your busy brain and some of the challenges and ideas I’ve written in this blog, please get in contact.

Warning: These processes have worked for me, and that doesn’t mean they will work for you. It would be best if you approached how you manage your neurodiverse traits like a project. You must try ideas out, keep the solutions that work and get rid of the ideas that don’t. There’s no harm in testing, but don’t throw away a process until you have something better to replace it with.

Awareness training is essential but falls short because awareness of neurodiversity and neurodivergent traits does not lead to inclusion. Awareness training can help individuals and teams to recognise and understand the existence of different traits and conditions. Still, it infrequently leads to actions that support those individuals to thrive in the workplace.

To create an inclusive environment for neurodivergent people, we need to move beyond awareness. Concrete steps that implement policies and practices that support the strengths and challenges associated with neurodivergent conditions are essential. This may include changes to the physical environment, adjustments to communication and work processes, and training and education for managers and colleagues on supporting and accommodating neurodivergent individuals.

We must move beyond simply accommodating neurodivergent individuals and instead welcoming, embracing and celebrating the unique perspectives and contributions they bring to our workplaces. This often means a culture shift that values and prioritises neurodivergent traits as strengths rather than viewing them as weaknesses or problems to be solved.

Therefore, while awareness training is an essential first step in creating an inclusive workplace, it must be followed by concrete actions and changes to support and embrace neurodiversity in the workplace.

Here are nine ways to move beyond awareness training and stop it from falling short:

• Develop and improve your inclusion policy:

  • Develop an inclusion policy that specifically addresses neurodiversity in the workplace.
  • This policy should outline the organisation’s commitment to inclusion, strategies for recruitment, hiring, and retention of neurodivergent employees, and specific accommodations available to support them.

• Actively recruit Neurodivergent employees:

  • Partner with organisations specialising in neurodiversity recruitment. Ensure your existing recruitment programme embraces neurodivergent traits.
  • This means looking at everything from your workforce planning to how you attract neurodivergent traits in terms of promoting disclosure and support, using concise language within your job spec so that essential and desirable attributes are clearly defined and that your screening process doesn’t screen out unconventional backgrounds, for example, that the interview process is transparent.
  • It’s clear that adaptions will be made, and the onboarding process provides mentoring. Finally, you have a retention and development plan that allows those individuals to stay and thrive within your organisation.

• Provide flexibility:

  • These need to support neurodivergent employees.
  • This may involve providing assistive technology, creating quiet workspaces, or providing flexible work schedules.
  • Ensure that all employees know the available solutions and how to request them.
  • Better still, make them available on demand and normalise the process of seeking and facilitating accommodations.

• Foster a culture of acceptance:

  • Enable respect for neurodiversity in the workplace.
  • This can involve creating inclusive policies and procedures and actively promoting diversity and inclusion through communication and activities.
  • This can be as simple as engaging in broader neurodiversity celebration activities.
  • I encourage you to look deeper and celebrate your excellent employees often.

• Provide training and education:

  • Managers and employees need to understand how to support and work with neurodivergent individuals and teams effectively.
  • This can involve providing specific training on communication, management, and flexible strategies and how to have great conversations that enable everyone to operate at their most effectively.

• Create mentorship programs:

  • Pair neurodivergent employees with experienced colleagues trained to mentor.
  • This will create a supportive environment and provide opportunities for growth and development, especially in the retention and development phase of the career life-cycle.

• Encourage employee feedback:

  • Ask neurodivergent employees how the organisation can better support them.
  • How we ask for feedback is essential; for example, this may need to be asked one-on-one or in a facilitated action learning set.
  • This could also be supported with broader employee surveys.
  • The key idea is that we take action with the information we gather and that it informs us how we move forwards.

• Provide mental health support:

  • Access resources and information for employees who need additional help.
  • This could be around mental health, first aid, or just facilitating conversations for individuals to work out what they need.
  • There may then be a requirement for counselling services or mental health support.
  • Again, what’s important is to offer the individual the capability to “not be okay” and options regarding how they move forwards.

• Celebrate Neurodiversity:

  • Celebrating neurodiversity is about amplifying strengths and managing difficult things.
  • This isn’t just one week a year.
  • Neurodiversity must be something we consistently do within our organisations. Noticing where people have gone above and beyond, achieved terrific work, and also how they have overcome problems should be noticed and celebrated often.

Pondering about your next move?

Get in contact if a chat would be helpful.

How do I assist someone with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, or any other combination of the above (and sometimes more)? Did I mention PTSD? – well, noticing neurodiversity is key

We have no medical training in general (unless you’re a medical doctor who transitioned to being a manager or HR leader, in which case I’d love to hear from you). There’s something about diagnosing that takes power away from the individual because we give them a label they haven’t asked for.

What we can do is pay attention to what is going on.

What does noticing neurodiversity look like?

Noticing can be defined as being aware of whether or not a person is struggling with a specific task or thriving in a specific area. When we observe, we can approach them and say, “I’ve noticed that this appears to be a bit tricky; is there anything I can do to help, or, better yet, is there anything we could do together to support you?” This is much more effective than stating, “I think you look autistic,” or “Your penmanship appears dyslexic”. Noticing is about reflecting back the data that you see rather than attempting to decipher what the data signifies.

There is significance in the term “we”

Are we drawing their focus to a problem they want to solve by noticing? The authority is in their hands; we must collaborate and ask them what we can do together. This is also essential because it keeps responsibility in the middle of the conversation, implying that power is shared rather than taken by one side. I’ve observed that this positively affects creating joint ownership and working towards a potential solution.

The power to move from noticing neurodiversity to asking

To notice, you must first ask. Nothing will change if we only observe and do nothing. Sometimes simply asking is all that is required for an individual to determine what is going on and what would be most beneficial for them to be successful at work.

Different places matter

Changing the setting or medium can be extremely beneficial when having open and honest conversations. If you need to talk to someone struggling, you might find it helpful to do so in a different way or place than you would usually talk to them. This helps in various ways because it allows individuals to think differently and makes them aware that this is a different type of conversation.

This is the ability of observation

Please make this a daily practice and plan how to use your observations to help your team and organisation be their most effective and innovative selves.

If you need a conversation, please get in contact.

John Chambers, former CEO of Cisco Systems says “25% of CEOs are dyslexic, but many don’t want to talk about it”. There is an argument that if leaders self-identify as neurodivergent the rest of the workforce will feel more comfortable coming forward and having a conversation about neurodiversity.

Organisations can thrive instead of survive if they embrace neurodiversity. The current situation looks like there is a lot of noise, good ideas and goodwill in helping individuals become more effective in the workplace. The reality is that many of these initiatives are disjointed, not bespoke, and fragmented, so organisations are running many different special projects at the same time. This creates a substantial operational overhead that can detrimentally impact the organisation’s effectiveness.

This is a big problem that is not going to go away unless we start to think more holistically and in a project-orientated way across our organisations to help support neurodiversity. We have to think about the constraints we have to operate in. What is the scope of what we are trying to do? How long is it going to take? Do we have the resources to deliver it? And most importantly, how will we know what success looks like?

The project management approach is just as relevant to individuals. In my experience, many individuals have had a very fragmented and disjointed approach to support. To help them manage more effectively I would argue we need to treat neurodivergent support far more like a project.

Project Mindset

It is often easy to get baffled and confused by the potential solutions and lose sight of the problem we are trying to solve. Are we taking a project mindset to neurodiversity in the workplace? Are we focusing on what the problem is?

As an example, John needed support with task management. His company provided him with a robust task management app. The app allowed him to connect tasks across applications and distribute them throughout the organisation. John required a simple solution to help him understand what he needed to do and the priority that should be assigned to each task. As a result of the solution, John became obsessed with making sure he was fully utilising the app rather than focusing on solving the problem. He became stressed, anxious, and guilty about not using the app completely, which distracted him from the problem at hand, which was effectively prioritising his workload.

John’s situation is true for many individuals, as often incorrect solutions are provided that often create additional problems instead of solving the original issue.

Adjustments and support fall into two models which are, The Medical Model, which is about fixing the individual and The Social Model which looks at the social/organisational factors that disable the individual from working effectively.

Often the easy answer is to try and fix the individual by providing an off-the-shelf solution, but there needs to be experimentation, open dialogue and possible coaching.  Then a solid process can be written down and used going forward.  This needs to be led by the individual with support from the organisation. When we look at this in a project way, it means taking a step back and thinking about the impacts of what’s going on within the organisation.

The broom cupboard

Another example: I worked with Toni, who had recently been diagnosed with ADHD and was dealing with work overload and unhelpful organisational behaviours. Toni enjoyed teaching and was successful in the classroom, but her administrative abilities let her down. Furthermore, there was bureaucracy within the organisation, which meant that basic administrative tasks were assigned to senior staff.

We began with small wins to gain momentum, such as examining how Toni could better complete her administration. We set up a distraction-free environment in a broom cupboard for her to complete her administrative tasks. Toni’s mood improved dramatically as a result of a simple change that was inexpensive and quick to implement. Then we altered the way classes were assigned, allowing Toni to have breaks and time for administration between teaching. This was a more difficult organisational issue that required leadership support. The changes were made one at a time and were evaluated based on their impact and usefulness to the individual and the organisation.

In this particular case, it was helpful to get quick wins before working on more challenging adjustments. This allowed Toni to build trust and gain confidence in what was being implemented to make sure the solutions met her needs.

Action is key on Project Neurodiversity

“Often movement is the most important thing.”

Claire Pedrick

We are often afraid to begin, but to determine what is useful, it is critical to ask the individual and the teams involved what the problem is and how we can begin to solve it together.

Toni was overwhelmed in the previous example because she couldn’t see a way to begin solving the problem. What worked was solving one problem, reviewing the solution to ensure that it resolved the issue in the short and long term, and then moving on to the next. Action will frequently involve challenging the status quo, but I would argue that well-thought-out systematic changes will often benefit not only the individual but also the larger organisation.

Creating workplace adjustments should be viewed as a project that should be implemented, but be prepared to roll it back if it doesn’t work. The process should be structured, and documented and any changes made need to be communicated, recorded and approved by all stakeholders who use the process.

I hope the information above has helped you think about neurodiversity and how to use the concept of a project to make changes more effectively. I’d love to hear more about your experiences in making your work environment become more neuroinclusive.