Episode 163 – Supporting Neurodiversity on Project Teams

The podcast by project managers for project managers. As a project professional, are you creating an inclusive, high-performing team that builds on each individual’s strengths? Hiren Shukla, the founder of Neuro-Diverse Centers of Excellence at Ernst & Young Global, talks to us about how to support neurodiversity on project team. Hiren shares the remarkable impact of this innovation at EY as they are tapping into the significant skills of the neurodiverse community.

Table of Contents

02:07 … Defining Neurodiversity03:40 … What Inspired Hiren?05:17 … Recruiting Neurodiverse Talent at EY07:30 … Training for All Team Members11:38 … Reconfiguring Hiring Processes13:14 … Creating a Stronger Team14:36 … Masking Neurodiversity17:41 … Awareness in Education20:59 … Psychological Safety24:51 … Disclosing Neurodiversity to an Employer27:58 … Improving Morale30:11 … Kevin and Kyle31:52 … Interview Process Accommodations36:13 … Source, Skill and Support42:04 … Find out More43:51 … Closing

HIREN SHUKLA: And when one of our team members said to us, and we had hired her, and she said, “When I’m at work, I feel comfortable because I can take the mask off.  I can just be myself.”  Well, this was really powerful.  And we know when people feel comfortable; these are when the most innovative, transformative ideas and solutions come to bear.  And so literally this is creating and unlocking innovation capacity that already exists in our organization, in our communities.

WENDY GROUNDS:  You’re listening to Manage This.  My name is Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio is Bill Yates.  This is the podcast about project management.  If you like what you hear, we’d love to hear from you.  You can leave us a comment on our website, Velociteach.com, or on social media, or whichever podcast listening app you use.  That really helps us out.

Today we’re talking with Hiren Shukla.  Hiren’s experience spans more than 20 years across accounting, strategy, automation, innovation, and change management.  He currently leads internal automation and innovation efforts at Ernst & Young and is the founder of the Neuro-Diverse Centers of Excellence at EY Global.  As a project professional, are you creating an inclusive team that builds on each other’s strengths to create the most successful high-performing project teams?  That’s something that we’re looking to answer today.

BILL YATES:  That’s so true.  And Hiren, of course he works with E&Y, and possibly no company in the world is doing a better job at attracting neurodivergent talent to drive innovation than Ernst & Young.  Hiren is an expert in neurodiversity.  And as he describes, he didn’t think this was where he was headed in his career, but that’s where he ended up.

WENDY GROUNDS:  And he’s very passionate, and we think he has some really good advice.  Whether you are neurotypical or neurodiverse, this is definitely a podcast for you.  Hi, Hiren.  Welcome to Manage This.  Thank you so much for joining us.

HIREN SHUKLA:  I’m so excited to be here today, Wendy.

Defining Neurodiversity

WENDY GROUNDS:  We’re looking forward to digging in to talking about neurodiversity, but I just want to ask if you could start out by explaining what the term means, neurodiversity, and what that encompasses.

HIREN SHUKLA:  Thank you for asking that.  I know definitions are really important.  And let me describe it this way.  Neurodiversity is like biodiversity.  It represents, though, the realm of cognitive differences in the world.  So neurodiversity effectively is all of us, and under that umbrella there’s really two main portions of society.  Probably 80-85% of the world are neurotypicals, individuals like myself.  We converge in our social thinking and communication style.

About 15-20% of the world’s population would be considered neurodivergent or neurodistinct.  These terms are interchangeable.  These are individuals that, as you can hear, do not converge necessarily in social thinking ...