The Top Three Reasons To Have Someone In The Autistic Spectrum On Your Innovation Team

Consider getting team members in the Autism spectrum on your
collaborative team. They can add value
others cannot.

Don't judge the person, judge the work.

That's the word from Temple Grandin, expert on Autism and
author of The
Autistic Brain. My wife (a pre-school
Montessori teacher) and I had the pleasure of hearing a lecture
led by Grandin as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival this past
weekend. She had some things to say
about creativity and the way some of those in the Autistic Spectrum look at the
world.

Her advocacy made me think those with autistic brains
can play very well in the Innovation Space.

It seems those in the autistic spectrum are perfect as
players in an on line collaborative environment focused on innovation.

Autistics In The Workplace Are Innovative

They walk among us.
As you can see in the video, Grandin is convinced those with autism are
already working with us. Frequently our
leaders are somewhere in the spectrum.
The genetics that produce those with autism also produce those who are
creative. Many are in the technical
fields. She believes large numbers are
filling up the cubes in Silicon Valley.

Grandin believes those in the Autistic Spectrum can add
value to the workplace. She pointed out
that many of those in the spectrum see the world visually. They tend to look at the details. They frequently have skill sets that others
do not.

Workers in the autistic spectrum bring these important strengths:

1. They are detail oriented. In fact they judge things on the facts and only on the facts.

2. They are typically better at visualization than others.

3. They routinely assign items into categories enabling them to be able to identify synergies.

Excellent Collaborators

And if they're going to be on the team, the collaborative on
line technology portals focused on innovation may be a great medium to
interact. Temple Grandin points out some of the challenges those in the spectrum experience in social situations.

They frequently struggle with social environments. They may have trouble looking others in the
eye or clearly hearing hard consonants.
Grandin and others like her can find themselves struggling to verbalize and may
produce disorganized speech patterns. It
takes longer for those with autistic brains to shift from one subject to
another.

But what they're really good at, being able to focus on
details, looking at objects with a critical visual eye, or considering the
spatial attributes of a new product' has real value in the collaborative
process. They can spot important issues
others might miss. Their critical way of
thinking; their bottom up approach spawns ideas from the available facts and
from the facts only.

Those in the autistic spectrum also organize their thoughts
by thinking of the items they encounter in the world by placing things in
categories. This tends to enable them to
notice synergies and the cross-arena usefulness of ideas.

Conclusion

Those in the autistic spectrum have real talents to add value
to the workplace. Temple Grandin for
instance has written a number of books and her designs for livestock stockyards
set the standard in the field. She and
others like her in the autistic spectrum see the world in a different way:
paying attention to details, assigning objects into categories, seeing synergies
where others might miss them. Their
strengths lend themselves perfectly as members of on line collaborative
innovation communities. In fact famous
leaders in science and technology are likely in the spectrum. Think about who is on your team and who
should be on your team.

Don't judge the person, judge the work.

Ron Shulkin
blogs, researches and writes about enterprise technology focused on social
media, innovation, voice of the customer, marketing automation and enterprise
feedback management. You can learn more about Ron at his biography web
site:www.shulkin.net. You can follow him Twitter. You can follow his blogs at this Facebook group.
You can connect with Ron on LinkedIn.

Ron Shulkin
is Vice President of the Americas for CogniStreamer', an innovation ecosystem.
CogniStreamer serves as a Knowledge Management System, Idea Management System
and Social Network for Innovation. CogniStreamer has been rated as a 'Leader'
in Forrester's recent Wave report on Innovation Management Tools. You can learn
more about CogniStreamer here http://bit.ly/ac3x60
. Ron also manages The Idea Management Group on LinkedIn (JoinHere).