Episode 56: Trust over control: autism and universal design at Schiphol airport
Published on 28 October 2025 • Hosted by Dr Lisa Colledge
The future of inclusion isn’t about offering more accommodations.
It’s about designing systems that anticipate difference.
When I flew with my autistic son for the first time in seven years, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport showed me what that looks like in practice, and what it can teach leaders designing for cognitive diversity.
The story
Our trip could easily have been impossible.
Noise. Queues. Unpredictability. The perfect ingredients for overwhelm.
But Schiphol’s support system was quietly exceptional.
No forms.
No interrogation.
No diagnosis requested.
Just staff who understood invisible differences, who asked what we needed, and who treated us with calm professionalism and trust.
From separate transfers to a cockpit visit and a Pikachu cuddly toy that became an anchor, the experience proved something powerful:
Inclusion isn’t about control.
It’s about belief and trust — in people’s needs and in their good intent.
The leadership lesson
The same principle should apply in organizations.
When inclusion depends on individual disclosure and exception-based accommodations, teams fragment. The burden falls unevenly. Trust erodes.
As Jakub Rajski once put it to me: “Inconsistency opens the door to discrimination issues. The most effective organisations embed inclusive practices in their culture, not as exceptions.”
That’s what my FIT cultural model captures:
Fair: everyone has the same opportunity to succeed.
Intentional: inclusion is designed in, not added later.
Team-minded: responsibility is shared, not carried by one person.
When systems anticipate difference, they remove friction before it escalates.
The takeaway
When trust becomes the default, performance follows.
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s progress.
Even being 40% there is far better than waiting for perfect.
The real question for leaders isn’t whether difference exists. It’s whether your systems are designed to support it.
A reflection
Ask yourself:
How would your team describe the culture they operate in?
Chaotic or organized?
Pressured or trusted?
Blame-driven or respectful?
The working culture you offer your team is a design choice.
And designing for difference doesn’t just support a minority.
It makes work better — and more sustainable — for everyone.
If this perspective resonates, you may want to explore how trust and universal design show up across the Future-Ready Team Pathway™ — from early sense-making to long-term sustainability.
➡️ You can explore this idea further in my Insight Notes, where I unpack common patterns I see across research and corporate environments — and how they link to the Future-Ready Team Pathway™.
Insight Note for research-focused organizations: Is your research leadership system optimized for mission-led outcomes?
Insight Note for knowledge-intensive corporate environments: When high-capability talent doesn’t see itself in leadership.
➡️ Or, if you’d prefer to think it through together, we can start with a conversation about where your team currently sits on that pathway — and what a proportionate next step might look like.
Because inclusion built on trust isn’t a soft ideal.
It’s performance infrastructure.
