Neurodivergence at work, leadership and the systems around us.
I speak about neurodivergence, leadership and organisational life, and what changes when we look beyond the individual to the systems and environments in which people are expected to work.
My perspective comes from more than three decades working in and leading complex organisations, together with my own experience of being diagnosed with ADHD later in my career.
I bring those two perspectives together to explore what neurodivergence can tell us about leadership, performance, culture and the way organisations actually work.
WHAT I SPEAK ABOUT
The problem isn’t always the person
What neurodivergence reveals about the way organisations work
When a neurodivergent person is struggling at work, we naturally look at the individual. What do they need? What adjustment might help? What could their manager do differently?
Those questions matter. But sometimes the difficulty is telling us something about the organisation around them.
This talk looks at what becomes visible when we ask not only what does this person need?, but what is happening around them? - in the way work is organised, decisions are made, performance is understood and people are expected to behave.
A different way of working out where a problem actually sits
The hidden cost of success
Neurodivergence, seniority and what achievement can conceal
We often talk about neurodivergence at work as though the neurodivergent person is relatively junior and somebody else is responsible for supporting them.
But what happens when they are the chief executive, director, partner or senior leader?
A successful career doesn’t necessarily mean that the way someone has worked to achieve it has been easy, or sustainable. Drawing on my own experience of late diagnosis and senior leadership, I explore what can sit behind apparently successful careers: the strategies we develop, the effort that can go unseen, what happens when those strategies stop working, and how diagnosis can change the way we understand ourselves as leaders.
A different picture of who we are talking about when we talk about neurodivergence at work
TALKS AND CONVERSATIONS
I speak at conferences, leadership events and organisational programmes, and contribute to panels and facilitated discussions.
I also work with leadership teams and boards in smaller settings, where there is more opportunity to explore what these ideas mean for their own organisation.
Talks and sessions can be shaped around the audience and the questions an organisation wants to explore.
EXPERIENCE
Throughout my career, I've presented to senior audiences across business and government, including ministers, mayors, boards and executive teams.
As Chief Product Officer at Innovate UK and Executive Chair of Innovate UK Business Connect, I regularly represented the organisation publicly at conferences and speaking events.
What I bring to the stage now is the perspective of three decades spent leading and transforming organisations, combined with formal study in psychology and neuroscience and lived experience of ADHD in senior leadership.
I have been in the room where decisions about people, performance and organisational systems are made, and I have led as a neurodivergent person inside the systems those decisions create.
That experience shapes how I approach neurodivergence at work: what happens when good intentions meet the realities of leadership, performance, culture and everyday organisational life.
I want audiences to leave not simply knowing more about neurodivergence, but thinking differently about the organisations they create around people.
SPEAKING ENQUIRIES
If you’re planning an event, let’s talk.
Whether it’s a conference, a leadership event or an internal programme, get in touch and we can discuss what would work for your audience.