When I first signed up for the Wired Differently: Creating a Team Culture Where All Minds Can Thrive workshop, I approached it with optimism and a sense of purpose. The training, hosted outside the International Permaculture CoLab, was also attended by a fellow member, Vida, and aimed to create inclusive team cultures. As a neurodivergent person who has often worked within neurotypical-led environments, I felt compelled to participate, envisioning an opportunity to refine my strengths, learn new collaborative techniques, and perhaps even recalibrate my understanding of inclusion. With excitement and a touch of anticipation, I joined my first Zoom call on October 16, 2024.

Session 1: Learning to Embrace More Than Strengths

Our first session introduced a concept of defining and embracing our strengths, with the intent to help neurodivergent individuals recognize and feel empowered by what they bring to the table. But as I listened, I felt my enthusiasm wane. The focus on strengths alone seemed to slice away parts of our fuller identities. Are we not more than just our strengths? I wondered. The constant emphasis on strengths felt reductive, especially for those of us who, as neurodivergent individuals, have spent so long being “redefined” to fit societal molds.

I found myself paired with a partner who spoke from a neurotypical perspective. Their insights—while valuable in their own way—revealed a limited curiosity about how neurodivergence truly manifests within team dynamics. I could feel the session edging toward a framework that seemed like yet another box for neurodivergents to fit into. By the end, I felt raw, unexpectedly triggered. However, sharing my reflections with Vida afterwards offered a safe space to unpack this experience. Her presence was a balm, reinforcing the significance of supportive networks in learning environments.

Session 2: Reclaiming Neurodivergence as Ability, Not Disability

With the second session, I braced myself for a different perspective and walked in prepared to share openly. Early on, I voiced my insight: “Neurodivergence is not a disability; it’s a different ability!” To my relief, this declaration was warmly received by the group, marking a shift in tone and direction that I hoped would continue. The session delved into nervous system regulation, offering scientific insights and tools for self-assessment that were both validating and practical.

This session brought a certain ease, highlighting ways to self-regulate and recognize how our nervous systems respond differently in varied situations. I felt more aligned with the content and appreciated the focus on actionable, science-backed techniques for self-support.

Session 3: Creating Positive Experiences for Healthier Outcomes

In the third session, we explored how nurturing our environments can lead to healthier outcomes and foster positive self-concepts. This material felt fresh and insightful, though the fast pace and influx of data left little time for real engagement. I sensed an opportunity here for more storytelling and creative expression—areas I know many neurodivergent individuals like myself benefit from. The theoretical knowledge was sound, but my brain craved a space to actively integrate and apply what we were learning. A faster-paced workshop style seemed to prioritize information over reflection, leaving me with mixed feelings.

Session 4: Toward Growth and Integration

The final session, extended to make up for the previous ones’ rapid pace, focused on post-traumatic growth and the power of empowered self-definition. Here, the concept of building environments that foster growth resonated deeply. Reflecting on my journey through this workshop, I saw how much we all, neurodivergent and neurotypical alike, need spaces to grow in ways that transcend predefined roles or skill sets. This, to me, became the true essence of the workshop’s mission.

By the end, I realized I had embarked on an unexpected self-discovery journey rather than simply learning to enhance team collaboration. While I had hoped to explore team dynamics more directly, what I gained was a renewed appreciation for nurturing creative, inclusive spaces—ones that welcome all humans, fully and authentically, into collaborative environments.

To my fellow facilitators, community members, and all who believe in the value of diverse minds, I invite you to consider how we can co-create inclusive spaces. Let’s build environments that welcome creative expression, personal growth, and collaboration beyond labels and limitations. Let’s create spaces where we all, wired differently or not, can truly belong.

A Path Forward: Building Spaces for Creative Expression and True Inclusion

Reflecting on this experience, I see how the session structure, heavy on data and assessments, lacked moments for genuine connection and self-expression. I’ve learned that, as a neurodivergent facilitator, creating harmonious spaces for diverse minds will require a balance of structure with ample room for creativity and presence. I am motivated now, more than ever, to foster these spaces with the tools I’ve acquired, with plans to continue this journey into 2025 through my work with the Minimum Viable Academy and within the CoLab.

To close, I offer my gratitude. This training experience was made possible by a diversity stipend from our CoLab, for which I am sincerely thankful. And a special thank you to Vida, who was not only a colleague but a steadfast companion throughout this journey. Here’s to more learning, collaboration, and the work of creating a world where all minds can genuinely thrive.

For more references on this work, written by Vida please read on at “A Strength-Centered Approach to Designing Workplaces that Work (For All of Us)“.

Jyotsna (Jyo) Maan is a dynamic leadership & community facilitator, a culture-builder with a passion for creating environments where people and ideas flourish. With expertise in regenerative transformation, leadership, and human-centered design, Jyo helps individuals and organizations navigate complexity, foster meaningful collaboration, and drive sustainable growth. Her approach blends deep professional insight with a commitment to wellbeing and creativity, ensuring her work resonates both personally and organizationally.

Outside her professional endeavors, Jyo embraces life as a seeker and creator. A neurodivergent thinker with an insatiable curiosity, she finds joy in sketching—especially drawing eyes—playing the flute, creating healing soundscapes with gongs, and singing Indian and American songs. She also has a passion for cooking and sharing meals, seeing food as a way to connect deeply with others.

The idea that we are each having significantly different experiences of the world around us due to differences in our brains, experiences, upbringings, cultures, and world-views can go a long way in our mission to create spaces which are truly diverse and inclusive. Neurodiversity is defined by The Hum as “the diversity within the range of all possible brain types, where none can be deemed ‘normal’ and each is simply distinct. I attended “From the Golden Rule to the Platinum Rule: The Importance of Neurodiversity in the Workplace”, hosted by Lana Jelenjev, co-founder of the Neurodiversity Foundation and Neurodiversity Education Academy . In this article I highlight some of the key learnings from the workshop and tools that we might apply here at the CoLab.

During the session Lana clearly outlined the scope of the issue, why we should build neurodiverse teams and laid out clear strategies teams could experiment with in creating more inclusive workspaces. We kicked off our session by sharing in breakout rooms what we felt our unique ‘brain strengths’ were – and used this to spur discussion on how using a strength-centred approach helps inclusion in diverse teams. By focusing on what we do well, rather than what’s ‘wrong with us’ or what accommodations we need – we create truly equal footing for all members of the team to find their unique role.

We then dove into the message of the 1940s children’s book ‘The Animal School’ which narrates the experiences of a community of animals trying to meet the challenges of the new world through standardised education in which every animal must attend swimming, flying, running, and climbing school. The duck is an excellent swimmer but struggles through running and climbing; the rabbit excels at running but fails swimming, and the gophers feel so excluded from the school because digging isn’t on the curriculum that they boycott the whole idea. The moral of the story is: let the fish swim, let the rabbits run. Or put another way, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. This echoes the experiences of many neurodiverse people – excelling in certain skills which seem difficult to others but being judged by a set of skills less intuitive to them. It also underscores why The Neurodiversity Education Academy emphasises a strength-based approach to building inclusive workplace cultures.

The neurodiverse community is estimated to be up to 20% of the general population and includes all forms of neurodiversity including people on the Autism spectrum, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, as well as forms of neurodivergence which may be acquired as the result of injury or disease. This portion of the population is marginalised in many ways, but is especially excluded from the workplace and education, with only 22% of autistic adults in the UK having employment; and ADHD children having heard up to 20, 000 more negative comments in their lifetime up to age 9. Designing for different neurotypes through universal design; helps all of us, as many of the changes may help neurotypical individuals as well.

It’s important to note that there is no ‘one size fits all approach’ to designing an inclusive workplace culture. A few of the tools and strategies explored were: niche construction, learning about interest vs. importance based neurosystems, understanding zones of development, glimmers vs. triggers, and learning to understand who is on your team. Leadership can take an active role in listening effectively, learning about neurodiversity, becoming more trauma-informed, and using strength-based feedback to help neurodiverse team members unmask and more effectively communicate their needs.

At the core of Lana’s message was the theme of moving from the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you’ to the Platinum Rule: ‘Do unto others as they would want you to do unto them’. This simple shift of perspective works for not only neurodiversity, but for incorporating cultural, gender or background differences of all types. It invites team leaders to not assume that they know best for each member of the team, but rather to come from a place of curiosity and encourage team members to explore, experiment, and communicate what works best for them. I felt like this rule was one which could be adapted and applied as a modifier to the permaculture ethic of people care – too often we assume we already know the needs of those we want to design for, and we instead need to approach design from a ‘begginers’ mind’ and ask questions in order to discover the true needs of our communities and workplaces.

Reflection on the Experience:
I found the workshop highly engaging and value-packed, but the content almost moved too quickly and I realised it was similar to my own presentation style. Watching Lana gave me some insight into how participants in my own workshops might feel overwhelmed. I also tend to present a lot of information wanting to really over-deliver on value, and forget that it might take the audience time to absorb and really engage new concepts. Far from being a criticism of Lana – who I found very interesting and informative as a speaker – it was a reminder that neurodiverse people hanging out together can often have insights into their own ways of thinking and communicating which are otherwise unclear to them.

Similarly the exercise of identifying our own brain-strengths gave my breakout room and I a great opportunity to identify commonalities and speak about the ways in which our strengths are not always perceived as such in the workplace. For instance we all identified with being candid – a great strength for teams as we were likely to give honest feedback, report on errors, mistakes or issues. However in a world designed around neurotypical forms of expression our candour had been misinterpreted as being overly harsh, out of line with cultural expectations or simply not politically savvy. How team leaders react and interpret diverse perspectives often shapes the way the team as a whole responds; and it offers an opportunity for the entire team to learn to be more open and honest with one another.

One attendee put it best – neurodiversity is biodiversity. By engaging in the process of understanding our own limitations in perception, including more voices and actively designing for universal access; we enrich and enliven our workplaces in ways we cannot predict.

Questions to reflect on:
– How can you begin practising the platinum rule?
– What are your unique brain strengths? Have you asked your team about what they think their brain strengths are?
– How can you create a space which welcomes all neurotypes?

The Hum is Hosting a live course called Wired Differently – Creating a Team Culture Where All Minds Can Thrive. If you are interested in attending and learning more about how to support neurodiverse teams- you can find a 50% discount code in #education-and-training on Slack for CoLab members. You can also find further free resources for neurodiverse education at the Neurodiversity Education Academy 

Siobhan Vida Ashmole is a neurodiverse permaculturist and entrepreneur based in rural South Africa. Her focus is on creating resilient organisations capable of rising to the challenges of the transition to a regenerative future.

Vida has worked in ecosocial entrepreneur education, regenerative agriculture and indigenous knowledge commercialisation and conservation.