Neurodiversity in the Workforce: Florence Weber-Zuanigh Of ‘Diversity in the Boardroom’ On Why It’s Important To Include Neurodiverse Employees & How To Make Your Workplace More Neuro-Inclusive
An Interview With Eric Pines
Question how things have been done so far. The fact everyone complied up to this point doesn’t mean it works for everyone.
There has been a slow but vitally important rise in companies embracing neurodiversity. How can companies support neurodiversity in the workplace? What are some benefits of including neurodiverse employees? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experience about “Neurodiversity in the Workforce: Companies Including Neurodiverse Employees”. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Florence.
Florence Weber-Zuanigh is a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultant as well as a certified coach and a facilitator. She is the founder of Diversity in the Boardroom Ltd which aims at making the all-cis-straight-abled-neurotypical-white-male leadership team a thing of the past.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you ended up where you are?
Thank you for having me really. A bit of my backstory… well I am French but I’ve been living in the UK for the past 8 years. Like a lot of people who entered the corporate world, I lost myself there a bit. I kind of forgot who I was and what made my heart sing. When I became a mother for the first time, I couldn’t face carrying on with my career and picking up my child from nursery and saying things like “follow your dreams” or “you can do it”. It felt very disingenuous coming from someone who hated their job.
The part I did love about my job was to help create teams that worked in synergy and support the people to grow in their job and as humans. So I naturally started to train as a coach and a facilitator. This is a very cathartic process as you get to reconnect with your values and who you really are deep down. I remembered the 8 or 9 year old I was who started a petition at school or who did a project on LGBTQIA+ adoption in high school.
It made perfect sense for me to focus my business on diversity especially in leadership positions. After more than 10 years in media and advertising I saw first hand how the diversity of experiences was primarily at entry level and slowly vanishing the further up you looked.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
I think being compassionate and patient are two very underrated traits in a leader. The more you take the time to understand your people, what works and doesn’t work for them, and how they thrive, the more you can build a very solid and complementary team. I don’t think there is another way.
Years ago, the most senior person I had in my team was having a rough few days. Things were falling through the net. I could see they were really starting to question themselves. We took a pause and I told them they were really great at their job. They were just having a rough few days and that’s okay. I could really visibly see the tension on that person’s face dissolve as we spoke.
Lastly, it might not seem like a good leadership trait but I am an open book. There is no need to guess where my head is at. I receive a ludicrous email, I will laugh loudly, I receive a mean email, I will swear at my computer screen. I think it makes it easier for people to feel they can talk to me and open up.
Can you share a story about one of your greatest work-related struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?
Oh wow. That’s a really good question… I guess questioning a career I built over 12 years will probably be the biggest struggle I’ve ever had in that particular area of life.
There is so much strategy and rational thinking that sometimes we simply forget to listen to our gut. Really listen and take the time to understand it. In my particular case, I had been on a loop about what to do about my career for a very long time. But it felt too scary to listen to that gut and really consider leaving the team I had built from scratch, the people I saw more than my own family.
This is what helped me understand what it feels really like to be on the edge of your comfort zone. It is both really scary AND really exciting. So I guess this is how I overcame it. By taking the time to assess and then take a leap of faith.
Spoiler alert I absolutely love what I am doing now and would never consider going back.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Quite a few actually, it’s the privilege and the curse of being a business owner. I am launching a workshop called “you’re not lazy, you’re just stuck” to help people identify exactly what they are going through and somewhat detach from it enough so they can take the time and energy to look at where they really want to go. And then put a plan together to make it happen. I am really excited about this workshop, this is something I would have loved to have access to myself years ago.
With my good friend and collaborator Veronika Hoffman, we’re starting to discuss creating a podcast about allyship, sharing our journey, what has been helpful for us and how to take it further. Another privilege about being a business owner, you get to choose who you work with 99% of the time.
Fantastic. Let’s now shift to our discussion about neurodiversity in the workforce. Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to include neurodiverse employees? Can you share a story with us?
Before creating Diversity in the Boardroom Ltd, I was already unlearning and learning a lot about systems of oppression, including neuronormativity. I remember 2 colleagues in particular. People didn’t really know how to work with them and found they were not really accommodating or not understanding certain unspoken rules. When I was bringing up it might simply be that they were neurodivergent, the conversation was still on a loop. I think this really shows how little understanding there is into what it means or why neurodivergent employees can still be fantastic in client facing roles. But this is really the role of organisations to foster an inclusive environment.
There is this unspoken narrative that neurodivergent employees should just come forward and see what’s available to them in an organisation.
The reality is much more complex. Most neurotypical employees (or who believe they are) don’t have a good understanding of neurodivergence and how to maintain a cohesive neurodiverse team. So for a neurodivergent employee to have to go to their boss or to HR, who are very unlikely unaware and possibly not understanding either, is extremely daunting and distressing.
Initiatives should focus not only on training their employees but also on having a company culture built around universal design. Where what could be seen as accommodations are available to everyone. A quiet room for employees who prefer to keep noise to a minimum when they are working, sharing a very clear agenda and process ahead of a meeting so everyone is given the opportunity to contribute in writing or verbally. Some of those initiatives don’t only benefit neurodivergent employees by the way. As an introvert, I know I would have loved some of these in my corporate days.
This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have an inclusive work culture?
There is a few different ways of answering that question. Diversity in general and diversity of lived experiences and perspectives is a reality. Now, if your organisation’s culture is not openly inclusive and welcoming, it means you are alienating people. Not just your employees, but also your partners, your clients…
It might be a bit trickier to understand when it comes to neurodiversity so let’s take the example of ethnic diversity. If you come in to interview for a company or get a company to pitch to handle some of your business, but every single person in the company is white. On their website, everyone is white. They don’t talk about diversity, equity or inclusion anywhere. This would feel like a hostile environment.
This goes even further when it comes to neurodivergence, as many many organisations who do have a diversity, equity and inclusion agenda won’t mention it. There are no guidelines on flexible working or how to run an inclusive meeting for example.
By excluding people, you exclude very unique perspectives and ways of thinking. I won’t go into business cases, but if you have only neurotypical people around the table, whatever service or product you offer is likely not going to cater for a big chunk of the population.
Can you share a few examples of ideas that were implemented at your workplace to help include neurodiverse employees? Can you share with us how the work culture was affected as a result?
I can tell you how some organisations do it, yes. It is mind blowingly simple solutions.
Having a “library” room for people who like to work undisturbed, noise-cancelling headsets, fixed working stations rather than hot desks for people who prefer it, flexible working hours, having available voice to text apps and encouraging people to use it (which google doc now offers too), always have the 3 Ps in any meeting invites going out (purpose, process, pay off) and many MANY more. Sounds simple enough right?
It makes a really big difference for a neurodivergent employee and also increases the understanding of neurotypical employees. None of these things sound like special accommodations if they are available to all.
What are some of the challenges or obstacles to including neurodivergent employees? What needs to be done to address those obstacles?
I guess if we start at the very beginning: hiring neurodiverse employees. Many neurodiverse advocates will have said it more eloquently than I will, but the way most job descriptions are written leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Be factual. Same for the typical interview questions. Also, there is no harm in sending questions ahead of time.
When people join a company, forcing them in a loud openspace where everyone is taking calls isn’t the most productive and stress free either. It doesn’t mean each person needs an office, far from it, but actually being curious about how someone works and feels at their best rather than pushing them to acclimate to exactly how things have been done so far. It’s probably not the best way for neurotypical employees either. We all work very differently.
How do you and your organization educate yourselves and your teams on the concept of neurodiversity and the needs of neurodivergent employees? Are there any resources, training, or workshops that you have found particularly helpful?
It’s important to know what works well for you to learn and unlearn. For me, social media works well.
I follow some fantastic neurodivergent advocates such as Liesje Dusauzay, Pete Wharmby, Ellie Middleton, Leanne Maskell. Very often they would recommend books or other resources too.
As an organisation, as a leader, I think it’s important to share what you are doing to educate yourself with your people.
Workshops can work wonders as well. Especially when taking the time to tune in to an organisation and where they are at before building or adapting the workshop. This is something I often do and offer myself.
This is the main question of our interview. Can you please share five best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people who are neurodivergent? If you can, please share a few examples.
1 . Educate, educate, educate. Yourself, your HR, L&D teams and anyone who is a line manager or has to work with others.
2 . Question how things have been done so far. The fact everyone complied up to this point doesn’t mean it works for everyone.
3 . Think with your senses: are there any desks or meeting spaces next to a kitchen or the smoking area for example?
4 . Never hesitate to ask your employees, all of them. You might have neurotypical employees (who really are neurotypical or who just aren’t aware they aren’t) who would benefit too.
5 . Report back and stick to it. You won’t be able to create a fully inclusive company culture in a day, report back so everyone knows what is happening and what is expected of them. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work is never done.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
It’s not a quote but regularly the poet and activist Alok (@alokvmenon on instagram) shares how they responded to a hateful comment. It is always with kindness and compassion.
While out and about with one of my children, I came across a lovely misogynist the other day, who was talking down to me, being disrespectful, you name it. I was obviously triggered and didn’t react the way I would have wanted to, which probably left us both with more anger than we needed.
This got me thinking about the Alok approach and how we could all benefit from diffusing certain situations with kindness and compassion. This is the ultimate show of strength and self love. Being the bigger person.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
When I worked with a business mentor, we talked a lot about what was my vision for Diversity in the Boardroom Ltd. Like what would be the moment that I could say “we’ve achieved what we had set out to do, the world doesn’t need us anymore”. For me that vision is that every single child can see someone who looks like them in any sector of activity, someone they could easily relate to. Wouldn’t that be a beautiful world to live in ?
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can find me on www.diversityintheboardroom.com or on instagram @diversityintheboardoom and lastly on LinkedIn under my name Florence Weber-Zuanigh.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!
Neurodiversity in the Workforce: Florence Weber-Zuanigh Of ‘Diversity in the Boardroom’ On Why It’s… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.