Discover how Q Branch embraces neurodiversity
Neurodiversity is nonsense!
If you had asked me 4 years ago about neurodiversity, I wouldn’t have had a clue where to start. I knew about some aspects of autism, I hadn’t really heard or understood anything about ADHD at all, and I thought the kids that were in this spectrum were badly parented. It didn’t even occur to me that those children grow into adults who have jobs and families. I probably just thought they grew out of it! And dyslexia just meant that some people couldn’t read well.
I remember one magical day when a friend told me her daughters had started talking back to her, “mine wouldn’t dare!” was my immediate and assured response. I was the hard parent, the strict one with hard boundaries. Until they dared and I wasn't.
I know as a business owner you may be wondering how this is even relevant to you, you don’t have neurodiversity and your kids are just “typical teenagers”.
But this might not be the case for your staff, or even your clients. You may have a member of your team who is constantly late, another who has to leave early several times a week to collect their child who has been suspended, you may have one who has left the company to start home-schooling (and aren’t those parents and kids a bit weird! I used to think so until I seriously considered home-schooling my own and found a different level of empathy).
This, like it was for me, may all seem overkill, foreign, a bit ridiculous really. How on earth can you run a business under these parameters?
Or perhaps, if you struggle with the day to day running of your business, find making a phone call impossible, building relationships a nightmare, people often thinking you are a bit off with them, but you don’t know why, concentration all over the place, or only able to focus on work and do 12+ hour days, being side-tracked by the smallest thing, you may be thinking, “hmmm, this sounds familiar”.
This is the reality of a lot of people. And before I discovered it for myself, I had no idea. I knew of the odd extreme case of children screaming on the way into school and a few with social difficulties who spent long hours on iPad (who would let a child do that?). But I was completely ill informed. My own inner voice would tear me down constantly, thinking of myself as just a messy person, unable to concentrate, and bad at picking people for my inner circle.
Until my life turned upside down and I had to learn about a whole world that’s out there. For me, it was the world of ADHD and Autism.
Autism, ADHD and other spectrums
The reason I discovered this was thanks to Matt. He had only been dating me for 6 months when he pointed out certain behaviours that were unusual. We were having a lot of struggles at home seemingly all of a sudden, it could have been passed off as a response to the pandemic or extreme teenage angst, but he felt it was deeper than that. And thanks to Matt doing some research, we discovered it was. And when we started to work together, he would often wonder why I would go off on tangents and the words “Jenny, concentrate” would come from him throughout the day. This could have caused massive conflict, but it didn’t because I knew he was right and he wasn’t being unkind. Concentrating was almost painful for me, yet for him, he could spend hours in hyperfocus, hardly moving from his desk.
Over the last 3 years I have discovered how autism and ADHD affects different people in different ways. I have embraced my own, almost certain but undiagnosed, ADHD. It made so much sense of my past and why I had found life so difficult until I had a whole suitcase of tools to help me, and even then, I had to remember to use them.
It’s also through this learning that I realised the world is not geared up for different ways of thinking. The school system was built for the industrial revolution to supply carbon copies ready for the factories, or if you were in the grammar schools, a desk job in Management where everyone was expected to do the same thing. The traditional work system is also difficult for those who do not fit the mould. I know people who have had dozens of jobs and have been called unreliable, disruptive, incapable, but years later it turns out they had ADHD and being those things was almost impossible without accommodations; yet businesses are not keen to make allowances for individuals. If they start that malarkey, everyone will want accommodations! It's best just to avoid employing people with any neurodiverse labels.
The explosion of neurodiversity.
So many news stories now talk about the explosion of neurodiversity, but I do not believe this is the case. The asylums were full of people who dared to veer from “normal”, as were (and still are) the prisons full of ADHD unmedicated inmates. And we all remember the “naughty boys” at school. You may even be one of them, but now you got out of the system you found running a business was exactly where you needed to be.
My passion for embracing neurodiversity comes from the desire to make the future better for my children, so they know that remembering all the information to answer an exam paper is not the benchmark we need in life. Who knew? I certainly didn't! I was fully invested in the GCSE and A Level pathway until I realised how exclusive it is. For some it's just not possible.
We think differently too.
At Q Branch we embrace neurodiversity because we think differently too. We understand the struggles and know our own strengths to help you through your weaknesses and enhance the strengths you do have. We have had clients who either identify with the neurodiverse pathway, or display signs and we are flexible enough to be able to work in different ways to accommodate them.
It may seem bonkers to have a whole week dedicated to neurodiversity, but to me, it’s completely bonkers that every day is not dedicated to neurodiversity and supporting those who think differently to be able to add to society without a massive fight on their hands every day. It’s no wonder so many neurodiverse individuals are exhausted!
If you can relate to any of this, or especially if you can't, but you want to learn how embracing neurodiversity into your business can help it grow, download our free guide, "How to embrace neurodiversity in your business", or book a first date, it's on us!
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Jenny Jarvis
Founding Partner of Q Branch, Jenny is a highly trained and experienced Human Transformation Specialist, Coach and NLP Practitioner who is passionate about positive relationships and giving founders and leaders the BOLD Confidence and tools it takes to build BOLD Brands and Cultures. She is also an inspiring keynote speaker and lover of french wine and cheese.
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