How to build a neurodiversity-inclusive organization
Published on 20 June 2024 • Written by Dr Lisa Colledge
Most organizations introduce neurodiversity inclusion from the bottom up, often via an an employee resource group (ERG).
ERGs raise awareness and strive to bring about change. Their measure of success tends to be ensuring that neurodivergent individuals can declare their differences and request that their needs are accommodated — a burdensome process for members of this vulnerable Group.
In reality, neurodivergent employees struggle to contribute their best even if their accommodation has formally been granted. The effectiveness of the accommodation depends primarily on their manager’s attitude, and the process needs to be repeated with every change of position or manager. The result is often fatigue, disillusion and burnout.
This bottom-up-led approach fails to create a fair, inclusive workplace where everyone can contribute their best and be accepted with their differences, not in spite of them. This is a pattern I see repeatedly: organizations try to solve a system problem through individual effort.
A neurodiversity-inclusive organization can be achieved, but demands a top-down, leadership-led cultural change which is reinforced, safeguarded and adapted by every employee’s actions. This culture is curious, supportive, and team-focused. It empowers all individuals while improving organizational innovation, talent management, and overall performance.
Three key takeaways
Bottom-up-led initiatives for cultural change are unsustainable: employee resource groups and networks are powerful mechanisms to create supportive communities and provide initial momentum for neurodiversity inclusion by building awareness, they fail to drive long-term, sustainable organizational change. Over time, employees may experience disillusionment and burnout as systemic issues are not resolved.
Individual accommodation requests are inadequate and unfair as the primary way to address neurodiversity-inclusion: relying solely on formal accommodation requests is problematic because it places an unfair burden on neurodivergent individuals to disclose their condition, which many are uncomfortable doing. Additionally, this approach does not address the broader need for an inclusive work environment that supports diverse working styles for all employees, potentially leading to division and stigmatization.
Top-down cultural change powered by ‘freedom within a framework’ is the solution: sustainable cultural change requires a top-down approach where leadership defines and exemplifies a non-negotiable framework that outlines the desired cultural attributes and goals. Within this framework, employees at all levels are empowered and held accountable for implementing and maintaining inclusive practices. This approach offers a supportive and adaptive environment where all employees, including neurodivergent employees, can thrive with a vastly reduced need for individual accommodation requests.
Why bottom-up change doesn’t stick
In my corporate life, I co-chaired an employee resource group for disability inclusion, and spun-out a neurodiversity inclusion group. I was astounded by the number of people who quickly associated themselves with the new group, whether neurodivergent themselves, a carer of a neurodivergent family member, or an ally for another reason.
From its earliest days, that network brought a sense of connectedness and community, which was unchanging. I was constantly warmed by the immense generosity and bravery of members who shared their experiences, good and bad, with vulnerability, humor and compassion. It was a motivated, energetic, knowledgeable group of people who wanted to change the organization for the better, and make sure that their negative work experiences could be avoided by others.
But after a short while, additional feelings started to emerge. I was privileged to be trusted by many who shared their thoughts with me, which I illustrate by these typical questions:
“I need X workplace accommodation, but my manager is not supportive. How do I resolve this?”
“As a recent joiner / having recently been diagnosed with Y, how can I find out what workplace adjustments are available?”
“I am pretty sure I have Z but haven’t been diagnosed yet because the process can take so long. What support can I get in the meantime?”
“Should I declare my neurodivergence to my manager / team?”
“I have an employee that has disclosed having ZZ. It is affecting their ability to speak with customers and attend in-person events. Can someone speak with me about support options?”
“I am being bullied. The process put in place is not resolving the situation, and I am still being targeted. What can I do?”
Despite some successes in teams who change their working styles to be more inclusive, these questions never went away. The bottom-up-led efforts did not change the culture overall, and people became wearied, disillusioned and burnt-out. I have heard versions of this story for many different types of organizations, which have in common leaving neurodivergence inclusion to a bottom-up, employee-led approach.
Employee resource groups and networks provide wonderful, valuable communities, but they are being asked to carry a level of change that the system itself has not been designed to support.
Why accommodation alone isn’t enough
The goal of many employee resource groups and networks is to embed a formalized process of accommodation requests. This mirrors the legal requirements in place in some countries, where diagnosed neurodivergent employees must be able to request their manager for an accommodation that the organization must consider.
But relying solely on this option is unfair.
It is unfair to neurodivergent individuals because:
They must declare their neurodivergence, but many do not feel safe doing that especially if they have had earlier negative experiences. It is a heavy burden to expect these employees to carry.
Some are unaware that they are neurodivergent.
People don’t usually work only in the team led by their manager. They participate in multiple project teams, and true accommodation also needs peers to make adjustments.
It is unfair to other team members because:
Some don’t quite meet the diagnostic threshold, or are self-diagnosed, but they are not legally eligible for accommodations.
Everyone has working preferences, although they are not all caused by neurodivergence. It is unfair that not everyone has the chance to work in the style which enables them to do their best work. This can lead to division within teams, and isolation and stigmatization of neurodivergent team members.
It is unfair to managers because:
An approval-seeking approach focuses attention on neurodivergent direct reports being accommodated by their managers. But managers and leaders can also be neurodivergent and would benefit from the support of their team and organization.
The way the accommodation process is implemented often assumes that managers have a high level of specialized knowledge about neurodivergences. In my opinion, this is too high an expectation to set for all managers and represents a barrier to them fully engaging.
Of course there will always be a need for an accommodations process, such as for those with physical and sensory disabilities. But for neurodivergence inclusion, this process should not be leading.
The shift: Freedom within a Framework
The solution is to design the environment so most accommodations are no longer needed. This culture is one that welcomes and enables different styles of working. It is curious, supportive, and team-focused, striving more to release the collective genius than celebrating individual achievements.
This culture must be demonstrated from the top, with clear accountability for each employee to reinforce and safeguard it. Bottom-up accountability to create and maintain the culture, perhaps championed by employee resource groups and networks, but contributed to by all employees, is a critical component of the success, but the change is led top-down.
I have come to call this style of leadership Freedom within a Framework’.
The framework, defined by leadership, is constant and non-negotiable. It defines what must be true — not how people must work. The trick is that the framework must describe how the culture feels, and what it seeks to achieve, not how it is implemented.
The freedom describes the accountability of each employee to make that framework live in the teams that they are a part of. The implementation of the framework is determined by the teams, who have been empowered to do this. The implementation will differ between teams, and change over time within any given team as people leave and others join. Everyone, regardless of seniority, function, location, neurodivergence or any other diversity, contributes to translate the framework to make sense in the teams they are a member of, and works in a way that enables each of their team members to shine.
Why this works for everyone
Everyone has preferences in how they use information: this is a kind of diversity that you can’t see, called cognitive diversity. Neurodivergence is the extreme of cognitive diversity, and so designing our organizational culture to be neurodiversity-inclusive automatically means that every employee will be able to thrive and contribute their best.
Most individual accommodation requests will not be needed any more.
Every employee will benefit.
Your organization becomes more innovative, attractive to talent, and successful overall.
And the solution is truly inclusive and fair.
➡️ If this is something you’re working on
Where is your organization still relying on individuals to compensate for system gaps?
Many organizations recognise this challenge — but struggle to move from awareness to practical change.
If you’re exploring how to build a more cognitively inclusive, high-performing team environment, you can find more about how I approach this on the Services page.
