Neurodivergent communication: Let's make it easier for everyone, shall we?

This topic is one that I've touched on before, but it was buried in one of my event recap articles for Leaders for Accessibility Summit, in an intriguing talk by Ettie Bailey-King. However, it's one that I feel deserves its own article due to its widespread impact in our communications, so here I go (again).

What is neurodivergence?

Neurodivergence is a very broad category, and can cover diagnoses from ADHD to autism to dyslexia. Many disabilities that pertain to neurodivergence go undiagnosed or untreated. In fact, very few types of neurodivergence are classified as a disability at all.

Instead of going down that rabbit hole, instead I urge you to consider what neurodivergence is at its core: a different way of processing information. Regardless of our classification of different types or neurodivergence (or self-classification), it's safe to say that nobody processes information quite the same way. Fortunately, there are communication patterns we can adopt that help us communicate more effectively to a wider range of people. I'll touch on just a few ways we can adjust our communications in the workplace (and everywhere else, too) to make it easier on everyone, regardless of their information-processing style.

Three areas to improve communication

Get your point across

• Put your main point at the beginning of your prose. Don't bury the lead. Long paragraphs of logical reasoning are sometimes necessary, but if the main point of the information is at the end of the paragraph and not the beginning, you'll be much more likely to lose your audience's attention somewhere along the way. This goes for both written and verbal communication, though it's easier to remedy in written form. When writing an email, a comment in a task management system, or something else, review your writing before you send it, and—if need be—cut and paste or rearrange your content in order of priority.
• Call attention to your main points. Format your text to highlight what's important. This helps make sure people who are skimming quickly still get the important information out of your communication. It also helps visually break up the page to make it less likely for readers to lose their place. Kind of like my use of headings and bolded bullet points. See what I did there? (And what I should do more of in my own daily communications?)
• Use simple language. We've heard this one time and again, but it's worth saying again. Don't use jargon, or complex language that's not needed to make your point.

Create routine meeting expectations

There is a variety of ways we can ease the mental load around meetings. Making some simple adjustments gan go a long way to decrease the mental load around meetings, so team members and clients can focus on the topic of the meeting instead of the particulars. Here are some of the ways:

• Send reminders. Make sure everyone has a calendar invitation for a meeting, or task due date. Even better, if meetings need to have a regular occurrence, set them at the same time and same day of the week so they become habitual.
• Create a meeting agenda. This is helpful to make sure all important points are covered within the timeframe of the meeting. It also sets expectations for discussion, especially if it's shared with the attendees in advance. This also helps reduce anxiety around a meeting with unknown content. Some people may not be affected by not knowing what type of meeting they're walking into, but others can easily get anxious or jump to a negative conclusion without more information.
• Share meeting recap notes. Have a note-taker for the meeting if possible, so that the responsibility for providing meeting notes is explicitly assigned (even if that person is you). Make sure notes include both points discussed during the meeting and action items coming out of it. Some people aren't capable of paying attention during a meeting and taking notes at the same time, or have trouble with memory recall, so providing a recap helps keep everyone on the same page.

Be considerate

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it's easier than you'd think to trigger someone's emotions or have them misconstrue your context when communicating. Here are some things we can do to help avoid miscommunication or mistakenly cause anxiety.

• Making request timing clear. For someone with ADHD, requesting a task or information without telling them when you need it can make them drop everything and treat it as an urgent task. Conversely, they might continue to prioritize other tasks in front of it or even forget about it entirely. Use specific dates and/or times when possible to avoid confusion and help people prioritize their work correctly.
• Use a "what, when, why, how" framework. Breaking down a task this way helps with prioritization and clarity to set team members up for success and reduce anxiety or misinterpretation.
  • What: clearly define what the goal of the task is.
  • When: a clear due date/time.
  • Why: why the task is important.
  • How: if applicable, provide an implementation plan.
• Be mindful of emotions. Some people have Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD), which can cause them to read too much into different situations that lack clarity, and take even well-intentioned constructive criticism with extreme embarrassment and negative thoughts. Anxiety is also prevalent in our society, and can be triggered by situations that others don't think about. Here are a couple of things we can do to help avoid triggering people:
  • Provide thorough information. Again, lack of having the bigger picture can be anxiety inducing for people. Whether it's not knowing what a meeting is about, or the due date or importance of a task, the absence of clarity can trigger a person's fear that they'll fall short or disappoint others, or drop the ball on something essential.
  • Give praise where praise is due. Knowing our work is appreciated is motivating, and helps us know we're on the right track.
  • Consider the stage for criticism. Constructive criticism is unavoidable. But it shouldn't be public. Make sure criticism is framed around improvement of the product, not the person, and in an appropriate setting so that any embarrassment doesn't have an unnecessary audience.

Help others and ourselves

You might have noticed while reading that none of these points seem all that specific to people with neurodivergence if you're thinking about it in terms of an official diagnosis, like ADHD or dyslexia. And you'd be right. Most of these have a much wider benefit than for particular diagnoses. But if you're thinking about neurodivergence as different ways of processing information, these tips are ways to improve communication for everyone. I myself struggle with long, rambling prose and not making my point up front. But I'm working on it! And hopefully you can, too.