“We love our jobs!” Systems Thinking and Participatory Action Research for the future of neurodiversity and skilled employment

Although neurodivergent people can achieve high levels of academic and vocational training in the same professions as others, they remain un- and under-employed; this is in part due to the “wickedness” of the problem. To address the complexity we convened a group of neurodivergent lived experience and employment experts to 1) define which problems in neurodiversity and skilled employment are most urgent to address; 2) create actionable strategies with potential leverage for generating the desired employment outcomes. We used qualitative methods from the systems thinking field: Soft Systems Methodology, futures visioning and SWOT analysis, and Group Model Building (system dynamics). The workshops resulted in identifying intervention leverage between organizational psychology constructs of employee wellbeing, workplace climate, and mutually beneficial workplace relationships, in conjunction with a new disability stress construct, rather than specific skills building or remediation of disability characteristics. Reaching a future in which neurodivergent people love their jobs will take education, resources, champions from the outside and inside, universal access, paradigm shifts, infrastructure, and recognition of individual and social complexity. We recommend examining the organizational psychology literature for adaptable interventions; focusing on peer support; leveraging emerging technology to manage complexity; and supporting supervisor behavior change based on authentic understanding.