The Crux of Creativity and Worth: A discussion on neurodiversity
By Kate Jones
Neurodivergence, creativity and your worth. This was the theme for the CamCreatives meet-up last night with our brilliant speaker Sara Kedge.
Neurodivergence includes autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and dyscalculia.
Neurodivergent people will have an awareness journey. This is when you discover that not everyone thinks like you do. With a diagnosis comes the realisation that nothing changes but everything is different.
Sara explained that being neurodivergent is like playing a game you don’t have a rule book for.
These ‘rules’ can be things that are implicitly understood by neurotypical people including appropriate eye contact, volume of voice, and focussed energy.
So neurodivergent people build coping strategies. This emotional and intellectual heavy lifting is exhausting and can lead to burnout.
It won’t come as a surprise that burnout has increased since Covid. And happiness is also taking a nosedive.
We looked at ways to be happy which include:
- Meaningful connections
- Bounce back
- Resource
- Society and culture
- Positive thinking
How do neurodivergent people structure their world and lives to move from a work ethic and burnout to a worth ethic and happiness?
Our intrinsic value is our time and attention. When you give your focus and energy to your worth then you start reaching these points of happiness.
We also talked about people with dyslexia working in the creative industries.
Because neurodivergent people are always finding new ways of doing things they are inherently creative (google neurodivergent love languages!).
I did a little research this morning and a UK Parliament report states that while approximately 14% of the population are neurodivergent it is estimated that over 20% of the creative labour force are neurodivergent.
So, for business leaders, Sara’s advice is to work with the human being in front of you. ESG isn’t about recycling, it’s about how you treat people. Remove barriers and people will perform better and your business will be better for it.
Next month
We’ll be joined by Johnnie Moore who’ll be talking about ‘Unhurried Creativity’.
CamCreatives is free to attend, and if you get there early there’s a drink on us!
