Why do employees sometimes pretend to be someone they’re not?

When is bending norms the key to a healthy culture?

How do we avoid inadvertently projecting disrespect?

These and other highly relevant questions are addressed when neurodiversity expert Susan Fitzell joins The Rabbi and the Shrink.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanfitzell/

https://susanfitzell.com/

1:30 The origins of neurodiversity

Autism initiatives at Stanford

Executives and administrators were unprepared for working with the neurodiverse and neurodivergent

Asking questions and listening to answers opens doors and possibilities

5:30 Brains are wired differently from birth

We don’t always understand each other

Awareness and initiatives creates a vibrancy and multiplicity of perspective that sameness does not

Dyslexics as codebreakers

10:00 We hire for diversity but train for sameness

Efficiency often filters out talent and encourages a monolithic culture

We make mistaken judgments because we don’t respect differences

You will lose people because of harassment or mis-measuring

16:30 We may unconsciously project messages we don’t intend

Create a user’s manual or bio-deck for each employee

Morning check-ins

How accepting is our company culture

Are we providing options?

“Masking” increases stress

How kung-fu changed Susan’s life

26:00 The importance of asking for help

What do you do when you empty the transmission fluid instead of the oil?

Managers need to ask for help and ask the right person for help

We live in a world framed by a deficit mindset rather than a gift mindset

36:00 How do we promote diversity?

Address the issue to create the culture

Flexibility leads to success according to every metric

Concrete strategies -- Slack, chat, phone, email, etc.

Dress code flexibility

Brainstorm solutions

The perception of unfairness or arbitrariness promotes an unethical culture

48:00 The word of the day: Palimpsest

a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.

something that has a new layer, aspect, or appearance that builds on its past and allows us to see or perceive parts of this past

The Mona Lisa and many layers

Ogres are like onions

The importance of taking advantage of youth and remaining child-like in our learning