Season 7, Episode 3: Neurodiversity in the workplace with Samantha de Mattos

We’ve got a really special episode for you this week with some absolute pearls of wisdom about how we manage neurodiversity, particularly ADHD, in the workplace.

Our awesome guest, Samantha de Mattos, really knows her stuff and she makes some excellent connections between how we neurospicy folk function and how the world has developed in a way that means we’ve struggled to work like everyone else for so long. It really is a mind-bender of a conversation with some typically ADHD-squirrel-like moments along the way!

Meet Sam

Sam makes work better. She’s an evolution informed speaker & coach helping with career transitions, and supporting ADHD-ers and others with how to be human. She is herself recently diagnosed with ADHD and has some of our favourite views & ideas around the subject.

Sam’s work has always been around encouraging you to be who you are, but her own experience with ADHD has led her to shift into a more ND focus – for happier humans!

Making work better can look like lots of different things, including making work (and life) more human-friendly. Approaching it from an animal perspective – how do you enable as many natural behaviours as possible?

The world needs you to be you.
Samantha de Mattos

What we talk about

The joys, struggles and challenges of late-diagnosed ADHD women (because hey, all three of us!). Embracing your brain no matter how it’s wired, and being yourself. Sam’s book on self-coaching which is very ND-friendly. Working together to make society better.

Perspectives, valuing ND input in problem solving, workplaces and how to make them more human-friendly. Reasonable adjustments and accommodations and how these can actually help everyone.

Positive aspects of ADHD – hyperfocus, creativity, problem solving, resilience, and an ability to make some dull tasks interesting.

Criticism & shame around ADHD and other ND conditions, the importance of diversity and kindness, questioning the set social norms, and different perspectives and how they benefit businesses and workplaces too.

The evolution of work environments over time, and historical societal & community norms (I’m not going to even attempt to summarise this part, go and listen to it in Sam’s much more evocative words!)

Of course, there was mention of multipods – multiple interests and skills in people, and the impact of embracing & using this.

Parallels between animal & human behaviour, and the impact of work environments on people’s ability to behave naturally – drawing from Sam’s zoology background.

ADHD-specific tendencies around planning, accessibility & cost of coaching & development to help with this. Tackling and dismantling the stigma of ADHD and other neurodivergencies.

And even that list doesn’t cover everything, it was a glorious episode!