A key to success for ICT and technical managers. How to benefit from a neurodiverse workforce.
Many technical and engineering workers have characteristics described as being within the "Autism Spectrum". Many have formal diagnoses, and many more just identify with a number of the AS characteristics. In this light, it makes sense for managers to become familiar with the characteristics and needs of their staff in order to provide the best and most productive working environment.
Excerpt
This book was first published in 2011 with the title “Asperger Awareness”. Since then “Aspergers Syndrome” has been subsumed into the “Autism Spectrum” in the new version of the American diagnostic manual (DSM-5), and most writers have followed suit.
I have therefore changed the title and some of the text to stay current. In most cases, I had already used the abbreviation AS, to stand for Aspergers Syndrome, and now continue with AS for Autism Spectrum in referring to the personality characteristics.
I avoid using the clinical term ASD, because none of the many AS personalities I have personally known would describe themselves as “disordered” or “disabled”, but rather “differently ordered”, or even better “Neurodiverse”.
Professional Reviews
Progressive
Plowright’s book has concisely and expertly highlighted the positive contributions that can be made by people with Asperger’s Syndrome in public institutions. Particularly pertinent is his inclusion of a neutral dimension rather than the stereotyped positive-negative descriptions routinely applied to all persons with AS.
Hopefully, this book will be appreciated by managers for much the same reason as it was written - diversity once understood and valued can only enhance productivity and knowledge - surely progressive.
-Eleanor Gittins, Psychologist specialising in Adult Asperger’s
Lift Performance
Managing ICT technical teams for the last 20 years I have built up management techniques so that I can guide not direct, excite not bore and instil understanding into technical people as to why business requires certain activities. Workplace Neurodiversity gives an insight into the thinking of highly technical people and illustrates why these techniques work with technical teams.
Reading this book has given me so many ‘aha’ moments as to why people have acted in a particular way. If you need to lift the performance and output long-term of your techs, this book will help.
I fully agree. Certain people with AS probably do have numeric skills that are off the chart and may find it very difficult to obtain work even though they could be a great asset to technical organizations with their skills. The key would be to learn how to blend their work and their personalities (often difficult for some to understand) into the organization in a positive way.
I have been fortunate to have purchased a collage from Grant Manier. He was having trouble in school until his mother got him into a special program. He started to develop some social skills and to keep him from being agitated, his mother had him cutting up magazines and calendars and making collages. It is doubtful if anyone would've hired him, even with his artistic ability. But, his mother decided to exploit his talent and went on the warpath (they are Apache). With his own business and only his mother as a boss, Grant has come out of his shell and give seminars, talks freely with his clients, and produces astonishing images and collage form that are winning over art patrons and starting to make him and his mother a very good living.
