There has been no better time to talk about diversity and more so now on neurodiversity. We are living in times where the context has shifted rapidly from Industrial era to Knowledge era. And we know that communities thrive on diversity of minds, thoughts and ideas. Innovative companies which will survive and thrive in contemporary times will be those who will have a safe space for diverse intelligence and ideas. And thus space to innovate, reinvent and rejuvenate.
We know that intelligence is diverse, we experience world in multiple ways, visually, in movement, sound, smell, taste and with using all our sensory organs. This makes our intelligence diverse and dynamic at a very micro level at an intersection of multiple senses. What it does is that it allows our intelligence to be as interactive as possible with different sensory experiences. Consequently, intelligence is dynamic and it comes through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things and experiencing them.
Below is a passage by Allen Shawn, an American composer, pianist and educator, which I wanted to share highlighting the same premise.
“A species in which everyone was General Patton would not succeed, any more than would a race in which everyone was Vincent van Gogh. I prefer to think that planet needs athletes, philosophers, painters, scientists; it needs the warmhearted, the hardhearted, the coldhearted and the weakhearted. It needs those who can capture the passing impression of cherry blossoms in a fourteen syllable poem or devote twenty five pages to the dissection of a small boy’s feelings as he lies in bed in the dark waiting for his mother to kiss him good night. Indeed the presence of outstanding strengths presupposes that energy needed in other areas has been channeled away from them.”
In our workplaces, we have begun to acknowledge the advantages, organizations can gain from diversity in the thoughts, backgrounds, in gender, culture, and other individual qualities of employees. Benefits from neurodiversity are similar but more direct. Because neurodiverse people are wired differently from “neurotypical” people, they may bring new perspectives to a company’s efforts to create or recognize value. In recent years, the ability to compete on the basis of innovation has become more crucial for many companies. Innovation calls on firms to add variety to the mix—to include people and ideas from multi channels of thoughts and ways.
Designing a truly an inclusive workplace can be messy and daunting but it is also the most competitive edge for the future. Workplaces and organizations which are geared for this, will also be more adept and ready for the challenges of the unknown times.
