Drawing inspiration from Frances Maynard’s The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr, Lisa highlights how organizations can create cognitively inclusive cultures. It shows how simple strategies, such as clear communication, structured routines, and focusing on individual strengths, can empower neurodivergent employees. By making small adjustments—like aligning roles with passions and providing constructive feedback—organizations can unlock the full potential of all team members, fostering a culture of innovation, resilience, and inclusion.

Traditional diversity programs often focus on single identities, limiting inclusion. Cognitive inclusion, which embraces diverse thinking styles, offers a universal approach to DEI that benefits everyone without relying on labels or disclosures. Learning from neurodivergence, such as using precise language, fosters positive traits, flexible thinking, and healthier workplaces, unlocking better outcomes for all.

Lisa Colledge appears as a special guest on the podcast, That's Business, and talks about how she helps businesses thrive by harnessing cognitive diversity and transforming organizational cultures.

Cognitive inclusion in DEI emphasizes creating workplaces that embrace diverse thinking styles, benefiting all employees. Inspired by neurodivergent inclusion, this approach enhances productivity, engagement, and innovation by fostering a supportive culture without the need for formal disclosures.

In an insightful interview with Sabine van Ditzhuijzen, part of the What the DEI? film project, the focus is on the strengths neurodivergent individuals—such as those with ADHD, autism, or dyslexia—bring to organizations. Sabine highlights how ADHD fosters innovation, autism enhances pattern recognition, and dyslexia drives visionary thinking. She also shares thought leader Lisa Colledge's belief that neurodivergence may impact up to 30% of the population, much higher than the WHO's 15% estimate. The interview emphasizes the need to reframe conversations about inclusion to unlock the untapped potential of neurodivergent talent.

Lisa Colledge’s presentation at The Neuroverse Virtual Summit 2024 highlighted how embracing a culture of cognitive inclusion can transform organizations. Key takeaways include upskilling to adapt to change, leveraging cognitive diversity (such as skills from dyslexia, autism, and ADHD) for effective problem-solving and innovation, and fostering a culture where all team members feel valued. Prioritizing strategic cultural change enhances employee engagement, wellbeing, and productivity, driving sustained success and competitive advantage.

To maximize institutional impact, it's crucial to go beyond merely increasing diversity and focus on creating a cognitively inclusive culture. While diversity in research, students, and staff is important, the real advantage comes from enabling everyone to contribute their best. This means fostering a culture that values different cognitive styles, such as those found in neurodivergent individuals, and providing support that enhances mental wellbeing and engagement. Research shows that such a culture not only improves individual and team performance but also amplifies the institution's societal impact.

Dyslexics exhibit superior holistic visual-spatial processing and memory for contextual information, which enhances their creativity and ability to generate novel ideas. They excel in original thinking, accuracy in predictions, and problem-solving flexibility, thanks to distinct brain structures and connections. While dyslexics might struggle with precise details, their cognitive strengths complement those of others, highlighting the evolutionary advantage of diverse cognitive styles and the importance of fostering an inclusive organizational culture to leverage these varied abilities.

Cognitive diversity, or the range of different thinking styles within a team, is essential for effective problem-solving, surpassing the importance of visible demographic diversity. While ethnic, gender, or age diversity doesn't impact problem-solving outcomes, a mix of cognitive styles enhances creativity and innovation. Cultivating a culture that supports various thinking approaches and encourages open communication and trust can significantly boost team performance and organizational success.

Large corporations often acquire start-ups to boost innovation and gain employees with a risk-taking mindset, while start-ups seek the scale and resources of corporates. However, integration challenges like power imbalances and culture clashes can hinder success. Lisa argues that a cognitively inclusive culture, which embraces diverse thinking styles and values curiosity, respect, and open communication, can facilitate smoother integrations and accelerate benefits from acquisitions. She suggests that focusing on such a culture during acquisitions can prevent negative outcomes and enhance overall innovation.

Nearly a year after discovering her corporate role was redundant, Lisa reflects on her first six months as a full-time entrepreneur. Transitioning from a corporate environment to her own business focused on enhancing organizational innovation and talent management through a diverse cognitive approach, she shares five key insights: entrepreneurialism can be collaborative, different mindsets serve different goals, authenticity and self-trust are crucial, and past experiences now make sense in her new venture. She emphasizes the importance of continuously finding and nurturing one's Ikigai—purpose and fulfillment.

Introducing neurodiversity-inclusion through employee resource groups often burdens neurodivergent individuals with repeated accommodation requests, leading to fatigue and burnout. A top-down, leadership-driven cultural change is essential for true inclusion. By fostering a supportive and adaptive culture, organizations can reduce the need for individual accommodations, ensuring all employees thrive and enhancing overall performance and innovation.

Launching a neurodiversity-inclusive website with Creative Consultant Merina Burda received positive feedback. Burda emphasizes simplicity, clean design, and continuous iteration to enhance usability for all users. This approach not only improves accessibility for neurodivergent and neurotypical visitors but also boosts user experience and conversion rates. Neurodiversity-inclusive practices benefit everyone.

Inspired by Steve Silberman's "The Geek Syndrome," this article emphasizes the benefits of neurodiversity for organizational success. Silicon Valley’s tech-centric culture attracted autistic individuals, highlighting the value of cognitive diversity. By fostering diverse thinking styles and supportive cultures, organizations can enhance innovation and performance. Key points include leveraging diverse cognitive strengths and creating inclusive environments to unlock collective genius.

Promoting cultural fit can stifle innovation by encouraging conformity. Effective problem-solving relies on cognitive diversity—different thinking styles—not just demographic diversity. Research shows cognitive diversity enhances team performance. To harness this, organizations must foster a supportive culture of curiosity and psychological safety, alongside demographic inclusion, ensuring diverse cognitive styles can thrive and drive business success.

People often make poor decisions due to inherent biases, but autistic individuals are exceptional at objective decision-making, as they focus solely on relevant data without distractions. To benefit from this cognitive strength, organizations should cultivate a culture that attracts and supports autistic team members, ensuring an environment that maximizes their unique abilities. This proactive approach not only enhances decision-making but also creates a more inclusive and effective workplace for everyone.

Advocating for enhancing innovation culture by embracing diverse cognitive styles crucial for thriving in dynamic environments. It highlights traits associated with ADHD that align with effective exploration behaviors, crucial for innovation. By fostering an inclusive environment that accommodates neurodiverse individuals alongside neurotypicals, organizations can tap into a spectrum of specialized skills, ensuring adaptability and competitiveness.

Employee disengagement is a pressing issue impacting organizations, with 77% of employees being disengaged. This results in substantial financial losses due to decreased productivity, absenteeism, and high replacement costs. For roles like technical specialists and C-suite executives, replacement expenses can reach 100-200% of their annual salary. To address disengagement effectively, proactive cultural design and targeted engagement strategies are essential to optimize organizational performance and minimize financial impacts.

In crafting my new website, my top priority was ensuring it's accessible and engaging for both neurodivergent and neurotypical users, drawing from neuro-inclusion principles. With a calming color palette, easy-to-read fonts, and static content, the design minimizes distractions while enhancing usability and visual appeal. Striking a balance between diversity and consistency, the site aims to offer an inclusive experience that welcomes all visitors.

Measuring neuro-inclusion in organizations by focusing solely on the proportion of neurodivergent employees overlooks the essence of true inclusion. Rather than fixating on headcounts, organizations should define outcomes driven by neuro-inclusive practices, such as enhancing innovation culture. By identifying metrics that measure improvements in innovation and collaboration, organizations can effectively gauge the impact of their neuro-inclusive initiatives. These metrics, complemented by qualitative insights, provide a holistic view of organizational change, ensuring that neuro-inclusion leads to meaningful transformation rather than mere tokenism.