Normalizing neurodiversity in the workplace: a call to leaders

Denis Boudreau
8 min readApr 26, 2023
Female hand with finger pointing towards a virtual representation of icons working together to represent different aspects of cognitive processing, with the words inclusive workplaces in the middle.
Photo credit — Shutterstock.

I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention lately, but there’s been a growing shift in recent years towards recognizing the importance of accommodating and welcoming neurodiversity in the workplace.

If you’ve been wondering, “neurodiversity” is a now agreed upon umbrella term that refers to a set of different brain wirings or natural variations in the human brain, that include conditions such as autism, ADHD, learning disabilities and dyslexia, as well as Tourette’s syndrome and a few others.

Despite the prevalence and growing recognition of these conditions in society lately, people who are so wired are still often stigmatized, especially in the workplace. As a result, they end up regularly facing more than their fair share of challenges and stigma, especially when it comes to finding their place and getting to contribute to the full extent of their potential.

I strongly feel like this is something that needs to change. We, as leaders in organizations, need to start having more open, direct, and respectful conversations meant to normalize neurodiversity, especially when it comes to the people that are part of our workforce, and those who choose to do business with us.

And so, in this week’s post, I’d like to explore some of the reasons why it matters for…

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Denis Boudreau

Helping leaders connect with the missing piece in their DEI efforts. Amazon BestSelling Author “The Inclusive Speaker". Speaker/Trainer/Coach. #neurodivergent