Neuroinclusive practices allow individual talents to flourish.
They create a thriving environment of creativity and interdependency.
Plus, businesses make more money and employees stay longer.
Modern business is all about productivity, automation, and innovation.
Which is all great… until it’s implemented and/or managed in a way that ruins the work vibe for all involved.
Once the in-fighting starts, actual work stops. At least, the truly productive kind.
Chaos and in-fighting will ensue (without fail) whenever black-and-white business forcibly directs colorful creatives to conform to rigid goals of standardization. Leaders must learn to harness the power of neurodiversity or they’ll end up with no creative thinkers on their teams. Once the workplace feels toxic, creatives will either quit or become so combative they are let go. Neurotypicals, in turn, will also grow frustrated with the constant fighting and mediocre outputs and start looking elsewhere themselves. The company itself will take a hit to reputation and budget (hey, training a whole new team is expensive). Profits generally suffer too. Lose-lose-lose.
If neurodiversity is so much work – why bother?
See, the thing is… companies often find themselves with less dollars in the bank when they decide to stack their teams solely with black-and-white-thinker types. It’s one of those “cutting off your nose to spite your face” kind of things. That’s because…
Companies with inclusive cultures are …
1.7 times more likely to be innovation leaders in their market.
Organizations that embrace neurodiversity have…
around 28% higher revenue than those that don’t.
Neurodiverse teams can be …
30% more productive than their non-diverse counterparts when supported by the right environment and accommodations.
You need a circus of performers and a ringmaster to keep it all in sync.
For neurodiversity to work—and for it to be a real business strategy—someone has to ensure each act shines at the right moment.
In the agency world, they’re usually called the Creative Directors. In the business world, titles like Creative Project Manager, Creative Strategist, or Creative Leadership are starting to dot the landscape. Whatever the title (or lack thereof), creative industries have long understood the need for someone in the middle of it all, that’s experienced in pitching ideas, interacting with the project owner, developing and planning creative strategy, and leading creative professionals.
Successful creativity requires someone who knows how to combine great talent into an actual show.
These people bring their expertise to the table to blend trend, brand, channel and goals with the wants/needs of creative execution and business or marketing ideas. They dance amongst the strong personalities and create high-performing teams that leverage all the best parts of the all the different team members, picking up the slack in between.
Unfortunately, most corporate leaders (and leadership hopefuls) simply don’t understand the nuanced differences between all the types and personalities of creative talent. That kind of leadership was always left to the “creative fields” as it were. In near-direct opposition to the creative industries and fields, interchangeable and conformity have reigned supreme in corporate-style business.
All that has changed with the recent trend of combining the business-side with the creative side business for faster turnarounds, more content, and small-but-mighty (cost-effective) teams. Creative types are finding their positions now fall under a non-creative department and/or leader – with a whole host of non-creative teammates. They become neurodivergent islands in a neurotypical stream with completely different ways of working and opinions on how process works.
It frequently ends in frustration and another round of restructuring.
The better solution?
Harnessing neurodiversity to bolster creativity, productivity, and team dynamics. (What we call Business Neurostrategy.)
