Tom Smith on LinkedIn: #neurodiversity #neurodivergent #neurodivergent (2024)

Seems a fair assessment. But in our world, although we haven't seen much in the way of big tranches of recruitment from our clients at Time Sourcing there are quite a few busy areas across ERP and HCM in the UK at the moment.#Workday Financials, #Oracle HCM and #Microsoft F&O - all in demand.With some huge public sector transformation programmes incoming we're pretty optimistic heading into the Summer. 😎

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This is quite heartening. Sometimes recently I have worried that the return to office narrative and economic lethargy have given employers an opportunity to put #DEI on the backburner.Big ERP and HCM players like #Workday showing themselves to be a key driver and enabler of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategy is fairly marvellous.At Time Sourcing Workday is a core market for us - amongst other successes we've built two of the most high profile Consulting teams in the UK in recent times. Happily I can also say they haven't lost any sight of their DEI goals!

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Wrapping up Neurodiversity Awareness/Celebration week, I’ve seen some great posts and recognition across Linkedin. Alongside a fair bit of generic rubbish.Telling people to make to-do lists seems a common one. Seems a little patronising? So I thought I’d make a list that isn’t a to-do list. Afew things that the autistic people in my world do to help themselves. This isn’t advice, or guidance, or a secret hackto “unlock the neurotypical” or “release the savant within”. Just thingsI’ve seen that help organise and calm the specific people I know. But definitely not a to-do list. 🔷 Get under a weighted blanket and watch repeats ofseries with characters or presenters that made you feel safe🔷 Plan a weighted blanket day to follow a day of fierce social interaction🔷 Pace up and down hallway and jump in the air several times 🔷 Rearrange fridge in order of colours vs weights🔷 Find something pleasingly spherical and smooth to stroke🔷 Search autotrader for every black Jaguar I-pace currently available in the UK despite having no desire to ever buy one 🔷 Bake bread buns that are pleasingly spherical🔷 Drive up and down the same bit of road with the same music on🔷 Read an entire encyclopedia 🔷 Paint your thoughts🔷 Delete social media and do not respond to any messages🔷 Read Google Earth, or any map you can find. Yes - read 🔷 Invent different ending for Roald Dahl books🔷 Speak only in Father Ted quotes. Even if the person you’re speaking to has never seen Father Ted.🔷 Research things online. Patterns and quick fire facts are good – movie trivia, the history of jelly etc etc. Obviously these could all apply to neurotypical people too. Although I’m yet to meet a neurotypical person who truly enjoys a weighted blanket, they are pretty far from my idea of relaxation. Also some of these would probably work better than others in the workplace. I’d like to put a vote in for the Father Ted quotes and bread baking in the office 🍞 #neurodiversityawarenessweek #autism #work #notatodolist

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My first #oraclecloudworld since Feb 2020...Can't really think of anything significant that has happened since then?I enjoyed that - great to see everyone!

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Every journey does have to start somewhere. Mine just happens to be on a branch line they forgot to close in the 1960s.See you at #oraclecloudworld 😃Joe Holmes Time Sourcing

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I'll let you into a secret.... Come a bit closer...Workday is a busy market right now.You're not surprised are you? #Workday is one of our core markets at Time Sourcing - we should talk.

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I should share this on #internationalwomensday2024 really.My Grandmother died 3 years ago today at the grand old age of 98, an incredibly appropriate day for her to bow out. She lived quite the life...📍 She studied Maths at the University of Cambridge in the 1930s as war broke out, but as women weren't able to graduate at the time she didn't get full recognition until she was invited back in the 1970s.📍 She and my Irish Grandfather became "Ten pound poms" and relocated to Australia in 1951 where she ended up teaching Indigenous children in the Northern Territory, and where my mother was born. In her 90s she wrote and published a book about it!📍 After returning to England in the 1960s she taught in numerous schools, eventually becoming a headmistress. My mother still receives correspondence from people now in their 40s, 50s and 60s about the positive impact she had on their lives as children and adolescents. 📍 On retirement they moved back to Ireland in the 1980s, bought an old cottage in the middle of a peat field in Co. Sligo and spent 20 years turning it into acres of incredible gardens. I spent loads of my childhood there.She'd be the first to say that her experience and even the fact my grandfather "allowed her" to work after they got married was rare at the time and she'd want to point out the incredible progress in equality for women in her living memory. She celebrated where society is today whilst definitely not shying away from pointing out areas for improvement...I'm always a little wary about getting too personal on Linkedin, but I think these kind of stories are magnificent - and today is definitely the day to tell them.And of course huge recognition to the wonderful women I've worked with throughout my career and currently at Time Sourcing!#celebrate #internationalwomensday

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I wrote a bit about diagnosis the other day - this is a good illustration of the complexities when it comes to #autism. The lack of consistency is potentially quite concerning, partly because I expect people continue to suffer unnecessarily, and partly because I think it lends credibility to those who want to downplay or fob off.My overall sense is that we have something here that people are, that broadly affects cognitive processing and sensory perception. It makes a selection of "normal" things in everyday life somewhat challenging, or even completely debilitating. Lets call it a condition, and lets call it autism. If it is misdiagnosed and treated like a different condition (commonly mental health issues like BPD, bipolar, depression, anxiety, OCD) the results are generally somewhat sub-optimal.When a weighted blanket does more for someone's anxiety and mood than a lithium prescription you can see the impact and the reality behind this.The majority of people are not autistic, and I don't think its helpful to say that everyone is on this huge spectrum. What is helpful is to think of those who are autistic displaying a wide range of behaviours and traits that we can think of in terms of:⭐ Severity⭐ Support needs⭐ Emotional regulation Its not actually in this particular article but Prof William Mandy sums it up pretty well - "Why not say, ‘Somebody has these traits. How might that be affecting their life and what can we do to help?’”#neurodiversity #diversityandinclusionhttps://lnkd.in/eGA5nde3

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“Everyone’s a bit autistic”This has been said to me numerous times about the (several!) autistic people in my life - with good intentions. Despite being a millennial I’m not offended, but I’m pretty sure its wrong and not very helpful.I do appreciate that it can feel a bit too abstract to grasp. There’s no quick blood test or scan. Autistic traits in different people are wildly different. Diagnosis is difficult – and its not even really the goal. Self-diagnosis is usually just as powerful and significant.But we’re missing something as a society and as employers if we don’t even attempt to understand autism – and all #neurodivergence. We’re in a bit of a strange period now autism is a little more understood, but arguably still not particularly well – either by the pros or society at large. I can only really speak from my experience.The “label” (diagnosed or not) isn’t there for the fun of it. Or to excuse behaviours deemed socially unacceptable. If we minimise the concept by deciding that everyone is a bit autistic and its all just a spectrum anyway - nothing needs to change.I’d say a key word we’re looking at here is “optimise”. I’ve personally seen that an autism diagnosis (including self-diagnosis) can:📍 Help people understand themselves a lot better and focus on how their brains prefer to learn.📍 Identify causes of meltdowns.📍 Appreciate what I refer to as “parameters of discomfort” – when to push in pursuit of personal development and when to pull back.📍 Accept that actually they don’t need to be particularly sociable to be a valid human being📍 Embrace things like hyper focus and creative skills that can help them do pretty cool stuff that I definitely can’t.📍 Reduce feelings of shame and failure.You’ll hear plenty of talk from employers on productivity, personal development, strengths and weaknesses, self awareness etc. If 15-20% of people are neurodivergent you’d probably better have a strategy for supporting those that are in the workplace (although only 3/10 autistic adults are in employment…a conversation for another time). You’d probably better understand how their drivers might well differ from a neurotypical person. You’d certainly better think about what kind of reasonable adjustments your business can make.Or you could fob it all off, believe that everyone is a bit autistic anyway and be incredibly sub-optimal as a business whilst ensuring people suffer along the way.For the curious amongst us these podcasts are really good for info/discussions on autism:Meet My Autistic Brain – The Autistic Woman (Loads of info and different topics) The Blindboy Podcast – Blindboy Boatclub (Following his diagnosis in 2022 he discusses and references autism and his experiences regularly)#autism #optimise #neurodivergence

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