Wednesday’s Workplace Knowledge
Understand the Strengths Already Within Your Organisation
Practical insight for more inclusive workplaces.
Last week, we started our Wednesday’s Workplace Knowledge series by exploring what neuro inclusion actually means in practice. This week, we are taking that conversation one step further by looking at the strengths, skills and potential that may already exist within your organisation.
If we want to build genuinely neuro-inclusive workplaces, we need to understand the people who are already working within them. That means recognising challenges and support needs, but it also means understanding skills, experience, interests and strengths. An often-cited estimate suggests that around 15–20% of the population is neurodivergent, which means neurodiversity is likely to already be present within most organisations.
The question therefore should not simply be whether you employ neurodivergent people. A much more useful question is: do you really understand the strengths that already exist within your workforce?
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Wednesday’s Workplace Knowledge. Practical insight for more inclusive workplaces.
Understanding Neurodiversity
Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that recognises differences in how people think, learn, communicate and process information. Neurodivergent individuals can include people who are dyslexic, autistic, have ADHD, DCD/dyspraxia, dyscalculia and other neurological differences.
It is important to remember that people with the same diagnosis are not all the same. Every individual can have a different combination of strengths, difficulties, experiences and support needs. This is why neuro inclusion should never become a checklist based simply on somebody’s diagnosis.
When somebody goes through an assessment or diagnosis, there will understandably be discussion about the areas where they experience difficulty. That information is important because it helps identify barriers and appropriate support. However, if the conversation stops there, we risk looking at the individual only through a deficit model.
Neuro inclusion gives us an opportunity to create a more balanced understanding. We can recognise the areas where somebody may need support while also asking what they do particularly well, what motivates them and where their way of thinking could add value.
Start With a Strengths and Skills Audit
One practical starting point can be a strengths and skills audit across your organisation. This does not need to become another complicated HR process. It is simply about developing a better understanding of your workforce and the capabilities that might already be sitting within it.
Think about what people are particularly good at, which types of work engage them, where they naturally solve problems and what knowledge or experience they have that may not currently be used. It is also worth considering where individuals want to develop and what environments or ways of working help them perform at their best.
For some neurodivergent individuals, strengths might include problem solving, creativity, analytical thinking, attention to detail, lateral thinking or seeing the bigger picture. These should never be treated as universal neurodivergent characteristics, though. Not every dyslexic person is creative, not every autistic person has exceptional attention to detail and not every person with ADHD thrives in fast-paced environments.
The goal is not to replace one set of stereotypes with another. It is to understand the individual.
A strengths audit allows you to start identifying the actual skills within your organisation rather than assuming somebody’s capabilities based on their job title, diagnosis or current responsibilities.
Look at the Roles Within Your Organisation
Once you begin to understand the strengths within your workforce, you can start looking at how those strengths connect with the work your organisation needs to do.
You might discover that somebody with excellent problem-solving skills rarely has an opportunity to solve problems. Another employee may have strong communication skills but spend most of their time completing administrative tasks, while somebody with excellent analytical abilities may have little opportunity to contribute to projects where those skills would be valuable.
This does not necessarily mean rewriting job descriptions or moving everybody into different roles. Sometimes relatively small changes can make a significant difference. Giving somebody the opportunity to participate in a project, contribute ideas, mentor another employee or take greater responsibility in an area where they demonstrate strength can help both the individual and the organisation.
This is about getting better at matching people, strengths and opportunities.
Think Differently About Talent
This also changes the way we think about talent management.
Organisations spend considerable time, energy and money looking externally for new talent. Sometimes, however, there is untapped talent already sitting within existing teams.
Neuro inclusion should therefore connect not only with talent acquisition, but also with talent development, progression and retention. Understanding the strengths already within your workforce can help identify people who may be capable of taking on new responsibilities, contributing to different projects or progressing within the organisation.
It is also important to look at the processes used to identify talent. If somebody’s potential is judged almost entirely on how confidently they perform in a traditional interview, how quickly they can respond to unexpected questions or how well they complete a written application, organisations may unintentionally overlook excellent candidates.
The same can happen internally. Someone who struggles with written communication could still be an outstanding leader, strategist or problem solver. An employee who works differently from the rest of the team may bring an idea or perspective that nobody else has considered.
A neuro-inclusive approach encourages organisations to become more curious about those differences rather than viewing them automatically as difficulties.
Strengths Still Need Support
Taking a strengths-based approach does not mean ignoring the areas people find difficult.
Someone can be an excellent problem solver while also experiencing difficulties with working memory. Someone can be highly creative and still need support with organisation or planning. An employee can have exceptional technical knowledge while finding certain communication environments challenging.
Strengths and support can exist together, and understanding this is an important part of neuro inclusion. We are not trying to replace a deficit model with an unrealistic strengths-only model. We are trying to develop a balanced understanding of the whole person.
Support may include reasonable adjustments, assistive technology, workplace coaching, clearer communication, changes to the environment or simply more open conversations about how somebody works best. The right support can help remove unnecessary barriers, giving individuals more opportunity to use the skills and strengths they already have.
From Awareness to Action
This brings us back to where we started our neuro inclusion conversation last week.
Awareness and understanding are important, but they should be the beginning rather than the end of the process. Once we recognise that people think, communicate and work differently, we need to decide what we are going to do with that understanding.
A strengths and skills audit can be one practical starting point. Understand who is already within your organisation, what they can do, where they may need support and how their strengths could contribute to the organisation’s future.
That is where neuro inclusion starts becoming connected with workplace culture, talent development and business strategy rather than sitting separately as another inclusion initiative.
What Can You Do Next?
Take some time to look at your organisation and ask whether you really know what your people are good at. Not simply what their job descriptions say they should be doing, but the skills, interests and strengths they actually bring.
Starting those conversations can uncover talent, ideas and potential that might otherwise remain hidden. It can also help individuals better understand where they can contribute, how they might develop and what support could help them move forward.
If you want to explore neuro inclusion within your organisation, Toucan Workplace can support you through workplace services, training, coaching and Workplace Needs Assessments.
Find out more about Understanding Neuro Inclusion:
https://www.toucanworkplace.com/project/understanding-neuro-inclusion/
Or book a free 15-minute Workplace Consultation with Arran Smith to start a conversation about neurodiversity and support within your organisation:
Next Wednesday, we will continue our Wednesday’s Workplace Knowledge series and explore another practical part of neuro inclusion, helping organisations move from awareness towards meaningful workplace change.
Sign up to Wednesday’s Workplace Knowledge and receive our latest workplace article directly to your inbox every Wednesday. Each month, we take one important workplace topic and explore it in more detail, helping you understand what it means, why it matters and what your organisation can do next.
Wednesday’s Workplace Knowledge. Practical insight for more inclusive workplaces.