Neurodiversity has become an HR expression for extending the workforce to be more inclusive of those who think differently to the rest of us. Creativity and inovation has become so important to an organisations success that HR have been tasked with finding ways of integrating to capitalise on their unique skills and abilities.

When I think of neurodiversity I don’t think of a scientific definition, a re look at autism or a challenge to labelling people as odd, I think Big Bang Theory. I am not talking about an explanation for how the universe was born but the US t.v. comedy in which a group of extremely intelligent friends with poor social skills and limited insight struggle to relate to other people. The clearest example of this is Sheldon a young genius who has never fitted in. Like the others he has no interest in sport, is obsessed like the others with superhero comics and Star Trek and has no idea how to relate to the opposite sex.

Sheldon and his friends have difficulty reading people’s emotions, spotting sarcasm or finding an appropriate topic of conversation in social settings. Other people find them strange, anti social and awkward. ( For an even better understanding of what it’s like to grow up in a world neurodifferent watch Young Sheldon the prequel to TBBT it’s even funnier and full of empathetic insights into the main character.)

But neurodiversity isn’t just about ,”nurds” and borderline autism. The most radical colleague I ever worked with dressed like a geography teacher tweed jacket with elbow patches and brown cords. He would say things like “why not?” He challenged the way things were done. And as a result we began to question our own actions. We had conversation about how we could do things differently. Before long we were doing things differently. People asked us why and we were only to happy to tell them.

So organisations need, like they have never needed before,  people who think differently and so can help us innovate. We need to make such people feel included and valued. So if the Monday morning football conversation is excluding some team members we all need to try harder to find topics of conversations in which to engage our colleague. We need to be more willing to listen to views and ideas which may at first seem hopelessly impractical, counterintuitive or upsetting. Which means HR need to help and support managers to make their team a safe place for people to be different.