Redefining ADHD in the Workplace According to Human Design — Part 2

Photo by Ash Edmonds on Unsplash

ADHD may to some seem like a burden, but as we discussed in part 1 of this series, it’s the opposite. Using Human Design can help demonstrate why it is a good thing to think creatively, see the world differently, and bring a new perspective to situations. So let’s continue to address some of the more important issues in today’s workplace and how we can shift into a more supportive outlook.

Why Conventional Work Environments Don’t Currently Support People With ADHD

People with ADHD feel very misunderstood at work. They are perceived as unable to perform tasks the same as other employees, though everything we’ve discussed this far is in contrast to that perception.

According to ADDitude.com, “On average, studies suggest, college graduates with attention deficit disorder (ADHD or ADD) earn $4,300 less per year than their peers who don’t have ADHD. People with ADHD change jobs frequently — often impulsively — and are more likely to be fired, to miss work, and to have troubled relationships with co-workers. It doesn’t have to be that way: Adults with ADHD frequently excel in the workplace, once they adapt to their disability and develop coping skills.”

When people with ADHD feel misunderstood, they aren’t going to be able to perform as well as they could. Getting paid less, dealing with unaccepting environments, and uncompromising employers is enough to make anyone feel unwelcome and unappreciated at work. Yet this is the environment that people with ADHD have to face every day.

Until we look at the problem, we can’t fix it. So let’s look into the ways people with ADHD aren’t currently supported at work.

The main ways conventional work environments don’t support people with ADHD:

• They limit creativity and expect output within a given structure of timeframe
• They’re unfamiliar and unaccepting of when creativity and productivity aren’t predictable or time bound
• They don’t have a good routine that accommodates for those with ADHD
• They implement hierarchical structures that stifle creativity, especially for those with ADHD
• They’re an environment for unhealthy competition, comparison, and judgement
• They don’t cater to individual preferences such as working alone or working in teams
• They act as a dictatorship with how people do their work and when they do their work
• They refuse to accept creative differences in structures throughout the workplace

When we allow ourselves to see into the ways that aren’t supportive for people with ADHD at work, we can start to figure out what steps to take to actually support them, and everyone, instead.

How to Support People With ADHD at Work

As someone who has discovered the productivity advantages of having this so-called “disorder”, the truth is that people with ADHD are actually the exception rather than the rule. Most people with ADHD are incredibly productive, especially when they’re given the right tools to reach their full potential.

First, the workplace needs to break away from the concept that people with ADHD are lazy and unmotivated. While the stigma of people with ADHD being slackers is unfortunately still widespread, your company can work to reframe employee thinking around it in order to help people overcome the stereotypes about the disorder. Based on this knowledge, focus on educating your employees on the idea that ADHD is not a disorder but rather a variation of normal cognition.

Second, resisting one’s natural inclination may actually be counterproductive. For example, if one prefers to move around or finds that movement is more conducive to their productivity, then that should be supported. So we must find a way to include our natural ways of being and our natural strengths.

“Playing to your strengths,” says Michele Novotni, Ph.D., a psychologist in Wayne, Pennsylvania, “is really about figuring out how to be efficient and effective in your job. There’s usually some creative way to do it.”

Third, workplace’s need to come up with ways to enhance someone’s unique creativity. To empower its employees to be creative and take the steps necessary to allow it to flourish.

Sir Ken Robinson suggests in his TedTalk, Do schools kill creativity?, “What we do know is, if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity [to take a chance, even if they might be wrong]. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this. We stigmatize mistakes. And we’re now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.”

Creativity has been stifled since childhood. And as a society, not just as companies, we need to redirect this way of being. Because when we empower creativity instead of minimizing it, we allow the opportunity for genius to grow.

And finally, tailoring the workplace to provide the best possible environment for each individual is an absolute must. How can we expect the best performance from our employees if they aren’t in the environment that allows this possibility?

Enhance the Work Environment for Increased Performance Through the Human Design System

This doesn’t have to be a hard or difficult task. It’s not about completely changing the office structures or standards. It’s about knowing what gives employees the space to do their best work.

The main way to do this is by understanding each employee and how they work. There are many personality tests and systems that can help make this process more efficient and effective. Specifically, using the Human Design system (a system that’s more detailed than other personality tests such as Myers-Briggs, DiSC, and The Enneagram, that helps explain why what works for one person may not work for another) can help shed some light on how one uniquely operates.

The Human Design system has shown to be more effective and can help much more deeply, as there are many variables that can explain perceived hyper activity or lack of concentration.

Some questions that can be answered using the Human Design system are:

• Are people better working with a strategy or is creativity and productivity flourished without a specific/rigid strategy?
• Is their physical movement more active or passive: do they work better with movement (in motion) or when being more still?
• What kind of setups are conducive to productivity?
• Do people work better with others or alone? If with others, is it better in pairs or groups? Large or small?
• What kind of environments support one’s creativity and productivity?
• Do people prefer to work in open or closed spaces, quiet or with some acoustics?

These are just a few of the questions that can be easily explained and implemented by using the Human Design system.

Let’s take a look at the first question for an example of how Human Design can help.

Are people better working with a strategy or is creativity and productivity flourished without a specific/rigid strategy?

There are a few factors in the Human Design chart that can affect this, but the main one is looking at one of the Variables in the Human Design chart. The Variables are the arrows around the head center. We’re looking specifically at the left side, top arrow. And which direction this arrow is pointing will give us a quick answer to our question.

Left Facing Arrow

If your chart has this arrow pointing to the left (outwards away from the chart centers), you thrive in routines. Routines and structures help you step into what you’re doing each day and keep you on track to complete what you set out to do. Your creativity can flourish in routines because your brain doesn’t have to think of every little thing about when to schedule in the time, or where to be, or however else feels correct for you to structure it.

Right Facing Arrow

If your chart has this arrow pointing to the right (inwards towards the chart centers), you don’t do well with structure and rigidity. Routines kill your creativity and drain your energy. You’re better off allowing yourself to move freely throughout every aspect of your life, feeling where you want to go, when you want to do something, and you find that you will complete the tasks you need to much better by allowing yourself to have the freedom without a routine set.

This is just one small example of the many, many ways Human Design can truly help an individual figure out how they work best. Companies that expect to thrive in the future need to invest in their employees to help them reach their full potential. And entrepreneurs need to invest in understanding their modus operandi to maximize their full potential too.

Conclusion

Some of these tips may not be immediately applicable to your specific situation. But if you take the time to work with your own employees in the organization, you may be able to reframe your thinking in a more useful way.

Whether it is learning some new skills to better manage your ADHD symptoms or simply learning to help your employees work around the negative stereotypes about ADHD in the workplace, the possibilities are endless. Try them all, you might surprise yourself with how much more productive everyone is when they’re working in an environment that allows them to thrive.

If you’re ready to take action and shift your workplace environment into a more supportive one, book a consultation with The Rework Sessions. Along with that, we can help you and your team map your innate personal and professional skills, strengths, and styles in order to live and work more purposefully.

The Rework Sessions offers Professional Transformation Coaching to help you and your team map your innate professional skills and strengths and improve the quality of your working style and culture. To learn more about how The Rework Session can help you or your team, send an email to info@reworksessions.com or book a call here.