THP Webinar - Supporting Neurodiversity

• All organisations have neurodiverse employees – up to 15% of people in the UK are neurodivergent
• There is no clear-cut information/legislation applying to people with protected characteristics about how organisations might work with neurodivergent people, making it tricky for organisations to know what to do
• If organisations understand what is meant by neurodiversity, they can better understand their duty of care and the additional benefits that this can bring
• This understanding can help inform people how to approach making suitable adjustments for neurodivergent individuals, and to help them to perform at their very best

Historically, language describing individual differences between people has used terms that focus predominantly on what individuals are unable to do (dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention deficit disorder). This language of disability creates a culture which divides a superior typical population from those that do not meet the typical criteria in one skill or more.

More recently, however, language has been changing to focus on the continuum of abilities demonstrated by each individual based on their neurodiversity. This shifts the focus from disability to recognising that everyone sits along a continuum of ability in any skill and that, therefore, there is no ‘typical’ developmental profile but many different ways in which an individual might develop, leading to a diversity of skills across the population.

The term “neurodiversity” recognises that everyone sits along a continuum of ability in any skill, rather than describing the things that people are unable to do as a disability, e.g. attention deficit disorder. By including everyone on the same continuum, we no longer imply that some people (the neurotypical) are better than others (the disabled). Additional benefits of this way of thinking will be outlined.

During this webinar, we will consider what changes when we change our focus to neurodiversity with respect to:

• why this language is a better description of individual differences with respect to our knowledge of the neuroscience of human development
• the experience of neurodiverse individuals in organisations and how changes to language and understanding can impact this
• how changing our language and understanding can help us to improve our inclusion of neurodiverse individuals in organisations, and thereby add to team performance

Examples from specific neurodiverse skill sets (e.g. social, reading and attention) will be used to facilitate the discussion. The webinar will be highly interactive with time set aside for discussion and questions.

This webinar is open to all employees of Henley Partnership members and is aimed at anyone who wants to understand more about this fascinating spectrum – leaders, coaches and HR practitioners, and especially neurodivergent individuals who are directly affected by workplace challenges.

Professor Patricia Riddell is a chartered psychologist who teaches and researches neuroscience at the University of Reading. She teaches on the MSc in Coaching and Behavioural Change, where she brings her knowledge of Applied Neuroscience to the course.

Patricia was awarded her BSc from the University of Glasgow, and an MSc from Imperial College, before receiving a doctorate in Physiological Sciences from Oxford University. She researches areas including learning and memory, motivation and leadership.

Patricia co-authored “The Neuroscience of Leadership Coaching”, published this year. This book uses case studies to demonstrate how a knowledge of neuroscience can increase both understanding of coaching and flexibility in the tools that coaches use.