Surviving vs. Thriving

By now most of us are quite aware that we live in diverse societies with different types of people. This diversity includes neurodivergent individuals and we have been exposed more than enough to different means of awareness about their symptoms, how to deal with different types of neurodiversity and how to be more accepting -whether it was about ADHD, autism, dyslexia, etc... - but now we are stuck as whole society in the same loop with no moving forward.

So, now were trying to move past diagnosis and acceptance and move forward to helping neurodiverse individuals flourish in our society as it will be a win-win situation.

 

Importance of Neurodiverse Individuals in Thriving Societies

Many people with neurological conditions such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia have extraordinary skills, including in pattern recognition, memory, and mathematics. Yet they often struggle to fit the employers’ criteria.

A growing number of companies, including SAP, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, and Microsoft, have reformed their HR processes in order to make it more welcoming for neurodiverse talents; and are seeing productivity gains, quality improvement, boosts in innovative capabilities, therefore, employee engagement has increased as a result. Their programs vary but they all have major elements in common.

 

How Can Neurodivergent Individuals Thrive in Our Society?

Companies play an important role when it comes to helping neurodiverse people thrive. In order to make such companies more inclusive here is a simple guide for how to make it happen.

First of all, they should team up with governments or nonprofit entities experienced in working with neurodivergent individuals. Also, using non interview assessments in application processes and tailoring different methods for managing careers would help making such process a reality. Another important aspect, is that they should train other workers and managers in what to expect when dealing with neurodiverse individuals. Finally, they should scale the program in order to make it mainstream.

 

Benefits Of Helping Neurodivergent Individuals Thrive

The work for managers will be harder, but the payoff to companies will be considerable; as they will have access to more of their employees’ talents, along with diverse perspectives that will help them compete with a competitive advantage. In addition to the fact that it also creates a great public relations image.

 

Its time for neurodivergent individuals to start thriving instead of surviving. Being accepting societies is the bare minimum for such minorities. We should all learn and educate ourselves about how to help each other flourish.

 

By: Malak Alaa El-Zanaty