Alright. Hi, everyone. So it gives me great pleasure to announce our next guest, and that is Hiren. Let me just pull you up. Here we go. Oops. Did that work? Goodness me. This is my, first run. Here we go. We've got you. Hi. Hiren, thanks for joining. Oh gosh. We can't hear you.

How how's this now? Any better? That is so much better.

Hello. Welcome.

Thank you. I'm so I'm so excited to be here, and thank you so much for having me on this amazing twenty four hour conference.

Thank you. And I'm conscious we haven't done you justice in regards to your bio and and lead up. I mean, the work that you're doing with globally in developing your neurodiverse centers of excellence, I mean, such a such a wonderful initiative. And I know that when we talked previously, you absolutely blew me away with everything that you've been able to achieve and the, you know, the hundreds of lives that you've been able to impact and affect. And I can't wait to understand how your work can, you know, be absorbed throughout the rest of the countries and specifically Australia and how we could better work together in delivering.

Workplace programs. But over to you. I know you've got some slides to present. I won't, I won't keep you. I'll bring those up for you, but, again, welcome, and thank you.

Alright. Thank you so much. Let me see if, oh, there's my slides. Wonderful. Let me figure out if I'm running these slides, how I can advance them. So let me just check really. Yep. You're running. Am I running them? Okay. Let's see. Are they advancing right now? Yeah. No. Okay. Christie, let's see. Are you seeing a slide? Exponential power of neurodiversity?

Yes. We are.

You're good to go. It's wonderful. Thank you. So first of all, thank you so much for for having me today. Let me do a quick introduction of myself for the amazing audience that you have so far. My name is Shukla. I lead global neurodiverse centers of excellence that we, conceived and launched about eight years ago with an ambition to harness the power of thinking differently. And this eight year journey for us as an organization has been amazing for our colleagues, our clients, and our communities, and we're we're so honored to share this, with the rest of you all. So, I'm gonna quickly go through the slides, and then we're gonna take them down. And if we have any questions or comments at that time.

Christine, maybe with your help or others, we're we're happy to to take them, as well as make sure that we leave some contact information afterwards. So, let me get into the first slide. What you are seeing on the screen right now is a point of view that took us at about two years to come up with. And what you're seeing is actually an organizational point of view on why is neurodiversity cognitive variation and differences. Why is that so important in today's world? And what you're seeing on the screen, particularly on the right, are three themes that we've continuously sought and focused on with regards to how do we better innovate. And I think all of us on today's session know innovation comes from thinking differently.

How do we transform organizational culture, process, create new product? It's really tapping into and not masking or shaving down the differences in how we think. Innovation, we know, comes from the edges. And then lastly, we kept thinking about where does the commitment organizational and societal commitment for diversity and inclusion. Where does that go? And we know that the power of belonging, safety, is where you unlock somebody's real potential because you're helping them to feel safe. And so at the bottom of the slide, you see these four yellow boxes, digital transformation, future of work, results driven diversity, and inclusion. And then the ESG or the environmental, social, and governance agenda, which really is.

How do organizations like and governments and education systems, How do we create sustainable and scalable value, not only for shareholders, but how about stakeholders? Those in our community, supply chains. And so about two years into journey of thinking about creating this scalable and sustainable model is where we started to see all of this coming together. And you'll continuously hear me say this. There's a lot of organizations that will think about diversity and inclusion, but it's really hard to drive a scalable model, one that will make tremendous difference in the world. And this was our ambition when we started thinking about this in 2015. And so let me take you to where is neurodiversity journey today.

What have we done via our centers of excellence, which are now in over 21 cities and 10 countries around the world. These are models where we bring together talent, diversity, equity, inclusion, and our business to all orchestrate a model that allows us to tap into cognitive diversity, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, ADHD, autism. And what we're doing is not tapping into a condition because we know every neurodivergent, every neurodistinct person is different. And so it's really creating the sourcing, the skilling, the support models, a, for those that are really having a hard time getting into organizations like But the really valuable part is what happens once you get the job? You need support.

And this actually touches the second amazing part of journey, which is our neurodiversity community. It's to all of the employees that we have at who have been working here for three, fifteen, twenty years and really need the community and the support and camaraderie. And four, our organization, our management, our leaders to better understand how do we support each other. And so while our centers of excellence model, again, has launched in over 10 countries around the world at 93% retention and individuals who have great ambition and great backgrounds, but couldn't get a job. And today are managers at They're leading teams. We've also seen tremendous value creation. Over 1,000,000,000 US dollars in value creation.

And the theme that you continuously hear from me is qualifying and quantifying the value that investment in diversity, equity, inclusion, specifically in the neurodiverse space, all of the value that we can create in the world when we bring ourselves together. And so innovation, purpose, employee pride and belonging, how we take leadership and create more transformative inclusive leaders doing all of this in a sustainable and scalable model. Again, you continue to hear from me the aspiration and the ambition is not to be a one hit wonder, if you've ever heard that term before, but it's to really skill a model that will sustain itself and almost be self sustaining.

So as we continue to move through this, I will tell you one of the areas that we are really proud of at In January 2023, this year, at the World Economic Forum, we received a designation as a global lighthouse. And, really, what this means is that as we've been able to replicate this model, tapping into neurodivergent communities, neurodivergent employee bases, and transforming the neurotypical processes, the neurotypical mindsets, we've been able to now extend this model outside of So we, today, get to work with some of the most amazing companies and in amazing countries around the world. In fact, in Australia, our Australia, practice has done some amazing, amazing investment at work supporting not only our neurodivergent employees.

But working with organizations across Australia. I get to work, with companies in places like Malaysia, for example, where we are literally creating the awareness, education, and the engagement campaigns that allow us to implement this robust strategy in places like Malaysia that, frankly, we're probably starting at a very nascent stage around what do we do around neurodiversity, and how are we supporting our community, and particularly, as I do at focus on sustainable, scalable employment that, frankly, taps into the power of thinking differently? And so this designation and you can Google and look up the, World Economic Forum digital white paper, on the Global Parity Alliance.

And there is a about a five page write up that talks about the model that we've created at not as a secret to be competitive, but really as collaborative value and an opportunity for any organization around the world. K. So there's a lot of words on here. I'm gonna summarize this slide fairly quickly. You've heard me talk about the impact on innovation. I think you are probably hearing from me the impact on personal and organizational purpose at We say we're going to build a better working world. And, frankly, what we're doing around our centers of excellence and our investment in neurodiversity for all of our employees is really impacting and igniting and unlocking our personal purpose. You probably also hear from me the impact on pride.

The work that we're doing around inclusion is not just nice to do. It's not just the right thing to do, but we are proving how much value you can create when you authentically invest. And I say all of this with one caveat. At we are still learning. We are still aspiring to be better because we know that we can and that we should, but this is a journey. And I'm really proud that I get to lead this journey at because, frankly, it's ignited my personal purpose, and this all really helped since I got my ADHD diagnosis a few months ago, which, as I explained to many, it was like the chapter in my user manual for Hiren was missing, and all of a sudden, I now understand myself so much better.

But let me touch on that last impact on leadership for a moment. You know, when as an organization, you may think that you are doing something for an underrepresented community. What we did not realize is that community, the neurodivergent, neurodistinct community of ADHDers, of autistic and dyslexic community, of dyspraxic and dyscalculia people, That was actually helping us at to be better managers and better leaders. Because instead of going to a class on inclusion, we were learning the adjustments, the adaptations, the individualized consideration on how to be inclusive on the job that would drive better results, including employee engagement, including better product, including faster process. And so the impact on leadership.

Has been significant, and, frankly, this is how we are helping to transform the typical neurotypical organization, whereas I think we would all agree, processes have been built for and by neurotypicals. And so this really is creating that level of engagement where managers are becoming more inclusive and thereby becoming transformative managers elevating their leadership. If we keep going and we start thinking about what have been some of the behind the scenes support at that we've been doing within our centers of excellence that are creating the environment for psychological safety? What does this look like? And there's three key pillars that we've put on here. One is from the first point of contact with a person.

A candidate, for example, who's looking for a job, how are we curating trust, confidence, and safety? What does that actually look like? How do we do it? The second pillar is really adjusting and adapting communication avenues and protocol. We all know, each of us, learn, communicate, digest information differently. And so how are we adapting how we communicate, a job requirement, how we are listening to someone's input, and how are we coaching individuals, not just for them to be like everybody else because that would be opposite of what we're trying to do, but how are we coaching individuals to coach us to be more open and adaptive to what their needs are. And this a a lot of this goes back to establishing trust.

With each other and creating that environment of self advocacy where when we ask for what we want, it becomes very clear on maybe how we can work with each other to drive a higher performing and a higher belonging team. And last but not least, we started thinking about the skilling process. We know that the neurodivergent or neurodistinct community learns differently. So how can we take what could traditionally be seen as a linear path in learning, and how do we create some flexibility in that so that individuals who are very hands on can learn on the job and those that need more preparation so as not to ignite anxiety, create undue stress. How do we adapt to them so that each person is taking a bit of an individualized path.

On how they are learning and then how they apply their knowledge on the job? So all of this, as I mentioned to you, what we've been doing in our centers of excellence, has been mirrored and, frankly, been taken to another level with the opening and the acknowledgment and the build of neurodiversity community. And you see the three themes that our community, this here are the employees at who identify as neurodivergent or our allies or advocates or parents and carers, how are we engaging, educating, and encouraging? And I could not be more proud of our neurodiversity community because they have helped galvan frankly, the collective voice of employees at who may not have been seen or heard.

And I think we all know how important it is to be seen and heard. But I think taking it to another level is when we learn together. And so not just awareness training, but how do we have a champions arena? How do we create other panels and toolkits? And how are we, again, helping the rest of our organization be more neuro inclusive? And that's really the goal at the end of the day is that one day, we would never have to have sessions like this anymore. And so we are really aspiring to be that truly neuro inclusive organization. But along the way, we're gonna make mistakes. We're gonna learn. And I think as long as we do this in a high trust environment where we all feel safe and we all have that vulnerability.

I think this is how we transform organizations to be more agile and to be more resilient, which in today's day and age is probably needed more than ever. So I mentioned to you all earlier when I was talking about the World Economic Forum's Global Lighthouse designation that as we were building this model for many of our largest clients around the world who are very purpose driven, very committed to inclusion, not just because it's the nice and right thing to do, but because we know diverse, inclusive teams will always outperform any other team. And so how are we now creating the methodology and the model that enables other organizations to drive competitive advantage, to start rethinking how their traditional diversity, equity, inclusion.

Modules can actually be activated? And lastly, how are we creating a sustainable model that will impact community, that will change lives, that'll provide economic prosperity for every person, frankly, who deserves in that opportunity, which is all of us. And so we really started to think about neurodiversity and all the individuals around the world that are underemployed, that are unemployed, that are having to mask in the workplace, and to think, wow. If you could actually harness that power that's there, you would create tremendous value in the world. And so part of what is doing these days is we are literally helping our clients to launch these models by sharing our journey, by sharing our knowledge, and, frankly, providing the tactical.

Operational assistance that is often needed to say, this is a great idea. How do I bring it to life, and how do I measure it, and how do I create a business case behind it, and all the things that we know, large organizations like are needed for anything that is truly strategic in nature, which we know neurodiversity is absolutely strategic in nature. So as we've been working in 21 cities and 10 countries around the world, We noticed every single city, every single country we would go to, we were bringing together the same four to five different stakeholders. They were academic institutions or the education sector. They were nonprofits and NGOs. They were individuals on the government side, ministry of education, vocational rehab, workforce.

Training and development, and then we were bringing together other businesses, the private sector. And it was a blueprint that allowed us to create what we call the neurodiversity community accelerator. This community that gets launched in every single city or state that we're in actually is the orchestration model around how do we go from talking about neurodiversity to actually doing something about it? Now albeit at we are focused on the adult workforce play, whether they are individuals trying to enter the workforce or there's individuals already in the workforce, and maybe their organizations are not yet neuro inclusive. They don't have the processes, and they don't have the language or the wherewithal. And so.

This has been an amazing way that we get to partner with key universities and with nonprofits and NGOs and, frankly, other great businesses in the world because we are not competing against each other. We're actually collaborating, and we are growing the inclusive economy, which is where you create value through the lens of inclusion. And so we know part of the sustainability agenda that large organizations have, their focus, their commitment, and their obligation to create sustainable value for their communities, for their customers, for their employees, for their supply chains, that part of that sustainability model is this inclusive economy angle.

Which is we are not trying to fight for the same slice of pie. We've actually just baked another pie that is amazing for all of us, and we can keep baking more of this that will create value, again, for colleagues, for clients, and for communities. And so we're really, really focused on orchestrating this accelerator model, the community accelerator model, and bringing all of these organizations together so that we can act in some sort of synchronization. Okay. We get close to the end. I wanted to spend a couple of moments with you showing you the lens by which we think about value creation. And there is an acronym in the circle, in the bull's eye on the right hand side that is return on investment, ROI. There's a flip term to this called.

Cost of inaction or COI. So what happens with organizations if they invest in neurodiversity? They will see a return on that investment. What happens with organizations that don't invest in neurodiversity? They will have a cost of inaction. In fact, this is costing these organizations employee engagement. It's costing them retention, and, frankly, it's costing them innovation value. And so we're really looking to get the attention, the advocacy, the support, the commitment from organizations at the highest levels where we think about how do you create value in the world. And on the right hand side, you see there's four quadrants where we think about what does this value creation look like.

And what we've been measuring at and what we've been measuring with our clients have been increased business performance, the commitment to ESG or environmental, social, and governance. This is the tactical strategy for social impact. This is how you create social impact. Three, how do you begin to retain, attract, and further engage your talent base? And I'm specifically talking about the 22 of the world that's estimated to be neurodivergent. How are organizations filling unique roles and in further engaging their employees that are already there and really focusing on talent value. And the last, but definitely not least, quadrant here is the transformative leadership. This is the topic that I talked about earlier.

It is not enough to focus on the neurodivergent or neurodistinct community. It is not enough just to talk about this and to help individuals, ADHDers, dyslexic individual, autistic individuals. It's not enough just to say, I see you and I hear you. Because unless you're going to educate, train your organization and neurotypicals to be more adaptive, to learn and understand how individuals who may, on the surface, look differently in terms of how they respond or how they're digesting information or what types of environments are conducive or not, but how those leaders can elevate the outputs of employee engagement, higher performing teams, and the beautiful term that, one of my partners at recently.

Taught me, how do you create higher belonging teams? Because we all know when you feel like you belong, that is a place that you wanna stay. That is a place where you want to perform, and that is a place where you know that your team members have your back. And so that transformative leadership aspect has been key for this transformation journey, frankly, that we see neurodiversity as. We see this as an organizational transformation accelerator, and this is how we see organizations not only surviving in this new world of generative AI and all of the things that are going to impact our workforce, but neurodiversity is one of the ways that we see organizations thriving in the future and really tapping into the unique power.

Of thinking differently. So I think this is my last slide. It is, and I'm gonna stop sharing right now. And I'm gonna come back here. And, hopefully, as I do this, we will see if there's any comments or questions that are coming in so far because I hope this has been helpful to you all. But, Christy, I see you're back up on the screen. I have not been following the chat either, so maybe if you can let me know if there's anything else. No problem. Yeah. I thought I would jump back in and help you with this q and a time. I mean, Hiren, honestly, thank you so very much for sharing such detail and such great work.

$1,000,000,000 of value creation. What an achievement. I think, you know, when we talk about when we talk about what it is in terms of acceptance of, you know, those that do, and are neurodiverse, it's not necessarily around treating them as commodities. It's in and around making sure that they have the best opportunities to excel and then also to to realize their own self worth. And I think what, what you've provided there and also to you touched on your recent diagnosis was just so heartening. And I my question for you before we launch into a couple of the questions from the channels is just in regards to you only touched on it briefly and knowing that you hold a rather large position with and.

You're traveling about the country I mean, from your perspective, what have you learned? What's the what's the single insight that you've learned you've been able to apply for your own user manual as you describe it for your ADHD?

You know, Christy, my learning, the biggest one has probably been I would dismiss the areas where I had real challenges, which were time blindness, for example. I was really bad with this. And I realized that I needed better strategies in how to communicate what I can commit to and what I can't commit to. And while I'm still learning about this, the time blindness, I think, combined with a bit of the inattentiveness where, long conversations, my mind and my brain are thinking about 10 other things going on at the same time and realizing this could look like I'm not paying attention, to somebody. But that's just the way I was work I was multitasking in my head, and I realized without me talking about this, Christy, without me.

Telling somebody this is how I learn and think best, that I was putting them in a difficult position and allowing there to be assumptions about me. And so while I was adapting to how I use calendars a bit better Yeah. How I could commit better, I thought it was a important piece for me to to communicate this. And, frankly, it also explained, Christy, why did eight years ago why did I think this was such a great idea? It's really because the way that my mind thinks is I was jumping ahead years in in the journey, while not knowing all the individual steps. And, you know, that's something, Chris, that I'm very comfortable with, but realizing that is not something that everyone else is.

Oh, absolutely. And I think, you know, each, there is that saying you meet one person with ADHD. You've only met one person with ADHD. It resonates different for for everyone. So thank you for sharing that insight. So just, oh gosh, my screen is freezing. Connection issues galore. There's going to be some really great, really great facials for me today. I can just I can just feel it. Okay. So getting into questions. So these are the questions here and that have come through our online website via Global Conference. Now for those of you who are streaming, you can head along to the Global Conference q and a page to submit any questions, and we can gather them from there.

And so that's what we'll be looking at throughout the day. So, Hiren, a couple of questions for you are, where and how do you think could get even better for people with ADHD? Easy one to start with.

I think as we think about, one, educating a massive workforce. We have close to 400,000 employees at in over a 140 countries around the world. We have quite a bit of work to do to drive this level of awareness, education, and engagement. We see those those three as stepping stones in the change management process. And one, it's a challenge to get everyone trained and and to do this, but that is definitely a journey where we are working, to get better. And I think secondly, one is building a bigger, stronger neurodiversity community. While we must have today, if I were to estimate from what I heard last time, close to 3,000, 2,500 individuals, We think there's another 30,000 to go at And so.

As our amazing neurodiversity community leadership continues to drive our campaign, we are getting ready for neurodiversity November, which we will have a, plethora of events going on around the world. I think it's reaching more and more people and bringing them into the community so that they feel camaraderie, they can learn together, and, frankly, their voice and input can help make an even better place than it is today.

And so just on that, obviously, you've got you've got the road map. You've got your agenda in and around how you're tackling and growing, I think, this this methodology through the e y community. In terms of your horizon in the next ten to twelve years, what's your big blue sky thinking around this? Where I where would you love this to be?

Yeah. That is a wonderful question. We have every aspiration to drive towards full neuro inclusion. And what full neuro inclusion looks like for us is we don't have to talk about this anymore. Our processes, our education, our learning, our performance management, everything is business as usual baked in to be neuro inclusive. Christy, this is because we know that neuro inclusion is in fact the gateway to universal design and application. So when we are adapting processes for the neurodivergent community, we're actually creating fundamental flexibility and fungibility for every person regardless of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, cognitive diversity.

And so we're really focused on the neuro inclusion journey, and the goal would be in ten years, as sad as I would be to say this is that I do not have this job anymore because it's not needed.

Yep. And that's and that's a a great aspiration. And I think, you know, once we normalize this and we have this as just stock standard, within our communities, not just locally, but abroad as well, conscious of our global counterparts on this call. And I know that preceding us, there has been many conversations in and around moving that needle, within The UK, within Hong Kong, and we'll later hear around, from unlocking ADHD from Singapore just in and around their with the way that they're approaching the conversation to normalize and so that it becomes part of the societal verbatim. This is this doesn't necessarily need airtime in the way that we have it today because, you know, it is just so wildly accepted.

So just in terms of I know we've got a couple more minutes. I think one of the big things and, you know, I understand why is a conglomerate of businesses globally. Yes. But, you know, there are many small businesses on the line. There are many small business owners. Potentially, there are ways in which, you know, people are gathering. What are some of the small things that any organization can make to create a more neuro inclusive work environment?

You know, I think as we've worked with some small businesses, and I've had the pleasure of seeing, for example, a car wash in The US, and their entire staff is neurodivergent individuals, but it probably has the one of the best cultures and the highest production of any of any auto or car parts that we've seen. What we've learned, what we see, what have they done? One, they're creating community connections. So they're reaching out, whether it's NGOs or local societies or charities. That's definitely two. They've reached out to, government agency because we often think about how do we work more closely where individuals may be receiving, public assistance today, and maybe those individuals are looking for a job.

They're just looking for a job in a safe place. The last one that I can think of, Christy, is they're talking about this topic of neurodiversity. And I think that is one of the single biggest ways to make an impact because every single workforce, large organization, small organization like a car and auto wash, you probably have neurodivergent employees, and you just don't know it. And I think talking about it begins to create the psychological safety and willingness of individuals to say, I feel safe because you want to learn about this.

So just on that, and I know that, when we were talking earlier, so say for instance, those that don't disclose that they're, that they have ADHD within the workplace. And, Hong Kong shared a story earlier in our stream where that wasn't necessarily, you know, it it's still not very accepted to do that. And if it is done, then, you know, the the reaction within a workplace is substantially different. And I think one of the questions I have for you is knowing that you are embarking on this journey around creation of centers, when you when you are bringing employees into the fold or you're working in consultancy with other organizations around the globe, what what do they talk about when they talk about masking.

And they talk about, you know, the I guess, the journey before disclosing and then also to what that manifests as? Is it burnout? Is it, you know, is it present absenteeism? What what does that look like, just from a masking perspective? What have you found?

Yeah. Christy, we know that studies are showing that over seventy percent of existing employees do not feel comfortable disclosing. And so there's a couple of things that we continue to hear. One is there is a preexisting conception misconception that most people have around neurodiversity, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, autism, and that pre existing misconception has to be broken. And so one, the first thing that we do and that we talk to large organizations about is to say, ten to twenty percent of your employee base is neurodivergent whether you know this or not. And then the response usually is, yes, but nobody's disclosing. And the and and the conversation we have is, why do you think they're not disclosing? It's because you haven't.

Begun the awareness and education process. You're not talking about this openly, and you're not framing this from a standpoint of a deficit or a disability. You need to start framing this from a strengths based perspective. Each of us have different strengths, and so we think and what we've seen now over the last eight years, not only at but outside, has been the awareness, education, and engagement campaigns are extremely critical that would allow individuals that may be masking to slowly come forward. And whether they want to either talk about a diagnosis, maybe they're undiagnosed, could we strip away from the accommodations process the need to the need to formally show proof of diagnosis? Could we just say.

I need a software that helps me digest information more because that's more helpful to me? And so it's almost creating that equity and that anonymity in your employee population that says, if you're safe to disclose, you can disclose to anybody that you want to. Or if you don't want to disclose, we will educate the rest of our workforce, and we will make the tools available to you to do this. So love that. Yeah. Yep.

Brilliant. What a brilliant term. So I know, we've got a a couple minutes left here. And then as I've mentioned, we we've gotta keep to time. We have not only impacted The UK timeline, with a slight mix up around savings is classic, as you do with global conferences with the change halfway through schedule planning. Moving on, we have the Microsoft team waiting in the wings. So I do wanna make sure that I I allow some time to intro them. But I think just just one final question from me, and that's around and I'm gonna phrase it in two parts is so what aspect of your ADHD has made you the happiest and what's made you the saddest?

And if you could start with the saddest first and the happiest second so we can end on a high note, I appreciate it. Yeah.

You know, the saddest most definitely, Christy, is how come I didn't know this sooner? I wish I would have known this sooner. Not because I needed the label, but because I feel like I try to overcompensate for for areas in which I just truly struggle. Right? It wasn't it wasn't, hey. Just try harder, and you'll get better at time management. That wasn't going to ever happen. So I think I was sad that I I struggled, and I almost dismissed, in many cases, a lot of those deficiencies that I just struggled with, and that that made me sad. What I'm really happy about is this understanding of why do I think so differently than eight, nine out of 10 people in the room with me, and how is that a strength to me? How do I use that to contribute.

As we say at to build a better working world. And so now I think what's made me happiest is unleashing that power of knowing that I have something unique and special, and, frankly, it's okay if others don't. So I'm really happy about that, Christy, but thank you so much for having me today.

Oh gosh, Hiren. The pleasure is all mine and ours on behalf of ADHD Australia. It it's been such a delight getting to know you, and I hope that our relationship grows in terms of our two countries. And, obviously, with the team here locally in Vicryt and James, we, you know, very much enjoy, you know, the partnership with So here's to continued efforts. And, thank you for your time. I know you took some time out from personal celebrations in your family. So I really do thank you. It's been an amazing, amazing time, and and thanks again. Thanks, Christie. Okay. Enjoy. Bye.