Cognitive diversity brings enormous benefits to teams. How can we proactively recruit and support people who are neurodivergent?

In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, speaker and trainer Reena Anand speaks to Gemma and Ross about neurodiversity, barriers to inclusion and what we can do to topple those barriers.

· what neurodiversity is

· the intersection of neurodivergence and race

· how managers and L&D can create neuroinclusive environments.

During the podcast, Reena referenced a couple of research papers.

Birkbeck University of London's 'Neurodiversity at Work 2023' report can be downloaded here: neurodiversityinbusiness.org/research/

Research by Cambridge University, Maastrict and Newcastle Universities titled 'Association of Race/Ethnicity and Social Disadvantage With Autism Prevalence in 7 Million School Children in England' looking at interrelation of autism and race/ethnicity can be accessed here: https://docs.autismresearchcentre.com/papers/2021_Roman-Urrestarazu_Association-of-race-ethnicity-and-social-disadvantage.pdf

Reena has also provided a link to a case study on the Wells Fargo Neurodiversity Program that we didn't have time to discuss on the podcast. Read it here www.wellsfargojobs.com/en/diversity/neurodiversity/

You can find out more about Reena's work by visiting her website www.reenaanand.com or LinkedIn page www.linkedin.com/in/reenaanand/

In 'What I Learnt This Week', Ross told us about the phenomenon of "Car brain". Read The Atlantic's article 'Everyone has 'Car brain'' here https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/07/car-devotion-motor-vehicle-deaths-danger/674613/

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtoolsbusiness.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.

Connect with our speakers

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on LinkedIn.

• Reena Anand
• Ross Garner
• Gemma Towersey