By Steven W. Pearce, MBA, MPM and Valeriya Hjertanaes, MBA, Ph.D.
Introduction – Two Perspectives, One Vision
We come from very different worlds.
One of us has spent years advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion on global stages, breaking down barriers and empowering individuals to embrace their unique ways of thinking. The other has operated in high-stakes environments where strategy, adaptability, and unconventional problem-solving can mean the difference between success and failure.
Our paths shouldn’t have crossed, but they did. And what we discovered was striking: from opposite directions, we had arrived at the same truth — neurodiversity isn’t a limitation. It’s a superpower.
Yet here’s the challenge: too often, organizations stop at awareness. They host events, share articles, and celebrate difference, but they fail to build the systems, leadership approaches, and performance metrics needed to proactively manage neurodiversity as a driver of innovation, resilience, and competitive advantage. Awareness is a vital first stage — but the game changer is moving from “recognizing presence” to unlocking potential.
Why does this matter so urgently? Because we are living through what can only be described as a mental pandemic. Statistics reveal that millions of neurodivergent individuals worldwide face unemployment, depression, and even suicidal thoughts — not because they lack ability, but because their abilities are misunderstood, unmanaged, or left untapped. This is no longer a slow-burn social challenge; it is an emergency.
In this article, we combine our perspectives — one shaped by public advocacy, community engagement, and lived experience; the other shaped by strategic leadership, intelligence training, and sustainability-driven problem-solving — to explore how neurodiversity can be deliberately managed as a strategic asset. Drawing on insights such as former CIA officer Andrew Bustamante’s view that ADHD offers a broader, more creative lens — the kind that sparks innovations like fusing Algerian and Mexican cuisine — we’ll show why traits often seen as “different” are in fact the engines of high performance. We’ll also explore how certain levels of anxiety, far from being a flaw, can sharpen caution, precision, and detail orientation — qualities critical to leadership, security, and innovation.
The conclusion is clear: the cost of inaction is human lives and lost potential. The opportunity is transformational. The time to move from awareness to proactive professional neurodiversity management is now.
The Transformative Journey: From Awareness to Proactive Neurodiversity Management
We are living through what can only be described as a mental health pandemic. The statistics are alarming: neurodivergent individuals face disproportionately high rates of unemployment, depression, and suicide. Every day without action means more lives lost, more talent wasted, and more innovation unrealized. The time for symbolic gestures is over — this is an emergency.
Awareness of neurodiversity is an essential first stage. It dismantles outdated stereotypes, reduces stigma, and gives people the courage to be seen, valued, and respected. But awareness alone does not save lives or transform organizations. The game changer is proactive professional neurodiversity management — turning presence into power, and potential into performance.
True neurodiversity management means evolving from celebration to integration. It’s about embedding inclusivity into the DNA of the organization so it becomes operationalized rather than performative. This requires systemic shifts, including:
• Policy Integration – Embedding neurodiversity considerations into recruitment, onboarding, training, career development, and promotion frameworks. This ensures that neurodivergent candidates are evaluated for their potential and strengths, not filtered out by one-size-fits-all processes or biased assessment methods.
• Flexible Workflows and Environments – Designing adaptive work arrangements that allow for different sensory, processing, and communication needs. This may include flexible scheduling, quiet zones, hybrid collaboration models, or tools that enable individuals to work in their optimal cognitive state.
• Strength-Based Role Assignment – Moving beyond rigid job descriptions to assign responsibilities based on cognitive strengths, problem-solving approaches, and creativity styles. When tasks are matched to how individuals think, process, and create, both productivity and employee satisfaction increase.
As former CIA officer Andrew Bustamante has taught me, the Agency views ADHD as a superpower. It enables people to process information differently, make connections others miss, and think in broader, more innovative ways. In everyday culture, we see this in fusion — like combining Algerian with Mexican cuisine — a leap of creativity that often comes from an ADHD mind. Similarly, the CIA seeks individuals with certain levels of anxiety, not as a weakness, but as a strength: anxiety drives caution, situational awareness, and attention to detail. In contrast, society often idealizes those who appear carefree and conforming — but it is often the high achievers, with their heightened awareness, who push boundaries and create breakthroughs.
• Managerial Training and Accountability – Equipping leaders with the skills to recognize neurodiverse strengths, offer appropriate accommodations, and foster psychological safety. Making inclusion a measurable management responsibility, not just an HR initiative, ensures it stays a business priority.
• Data-Driven Inclusion – Tracking progress through meaningful metrics, such as neurodivergent hiring rates, retention statistics, and promotion outcomes, ensures that inclusion goals are tied to tangible results and continuous improvement.
When organizations move from passive acknowledgment to deliberate action, they don’t just include neurodiverse talent — they activate it. This is where innovation accelerates, resilience strengthens, and diversity commitments turn into measurable business value.
But again — this is not just about business. It’s about saving lives. By turning individual awareness into shared organizational knowledge and embedding it into daily practice, we create ripple effects that can lift entire communities, save countless lives, and reshape the future of work for the better — starting now.
From Awareness to Action: The Four Pillars of Proactive Neurodiversity Management
If awareness tells us who is in the room, proactive management ensures that everyone in the room can contribute at their highest level. This shift is not just an HR initiative — it’s a business, innovation, and resilience strategy.
We’ve distilled the process into four interconnected pillars that any organization, from a startup to a multinational, can adopt immediately:
Inclusive Role Design – Most job descriptions are written for an imaginary “average” employee who doesn’t actually exist. Inclusive role design flips that script by tailoring responsibilities to individual strengths and preferred working styles. For example, a detail-focused autistic analyst might thrive in pattern recognition roles, while a hyper-creative ADHD strategist could excel in ideation and rapid problem-solving. Matching strengths to tasks turns differences into productivity multipliers.
Tailored Enablement – Tools and environments are not “one size fits all.” Noise-cancelling headphones, flexible scheduling, visual workflows, or speech-to-text systems can transform performance for neurodivergent employees. The key is to design the workplace like an adaptable ecosystem — able to flex to cognitive needs rather than forcing people to adapt to a rigid structure.
Adaptive Leadership – Leaders are the amplifiers of potential or the silencers of it. Adaptive leadership means training managers to recognize cognitive diversity cues, adapt communication styles, and structure projects so that each thinker can contribute at their best. This isn’t about “special treatment”; it’s about unlocking competitive advantage by deliberately leveraging different thinking models.
Metrics and Accountability – Intentions without measurement are just slogans. Establish metrics that track representation, retention, advancement, and innovation output among neurodivergent employees. Publish the results. When leaders are held accountable for outcomes, inclusion stops being a talking point and becomes a performance driver.
Why this matters now: As Valeriya Hjertenaes emphasizes, we are living in a mental pandemic. The statistics are sobering — neurodivergent individuals face disproportionately high rates of unemployment, depression, and suicide. This is not just a workplace issue; it’s a public health emergency. Every time an organization moves beyond token awareness into proactive neurodiversity management, it’s not just driving innovation — it’s literally saving lives.
Metrics that Matter: Turning Inclusion into Measurable Impact
In both intelligence operations and high-performance businesses, what gets measured gets managed. Without measurement, neurodiversity remains a good intention rather than a competitive advantage.
Organizations should track and analyze:
Neurodivergent hiring rates – Are recruitment pipelines actively identifying and engaging talent from diverse cognitive backgrounds?
Retention and promotion statistics – Are neurodivergent employees thriving and advancing, or are they leaving due to cultural misalignment?
Innovation output – Are neurodivergent employees contributing to new product ideas, operational efficiencies, or market strategies?
Engagement and satisfaction scores – Do neurodivergent employees report high levels of belonging, trust, and psychological safety?
The goal is to create a feedback loop, much like an intelligence agency uses operational debriefs, where data informs leadership decisions, and leadership decisions are continually refined to maximize the unique advantages neurodiverse talent brings.
Awareness starts the conversation. Action changes the culture. Measurement sustains the impact. Organizations that master all three will find themselves operating at a level of adaptability, creativity, and problem-solving their competitors simply cannot match.
Leadership Beyond Accommodation: Redesigning Systems for Neurodiverse Excellence
The traditional workplace narrative around neurodiversity has often been reactive, centered on “accommodations” designed to help neurodiverse individuals adapt to the existing system. While accommodations are important, they carry the implicit assumption that the system itself is static, and that the burden of adjustment rests primarily on the individual.
True leadership takes the opposite approach: it reimagines the system itself, intentionally structuring it to leverage and amplify the unique strengths of neurodiverse talent. Rather than making space within the margins, leaders design from the outset with cognitive diversity as a core pillar of strategy, innovation, and resilience.
This shift transforms inclusion from compliance to competitive advantage through actions such as:
Strategic Team Design – Matching project teams according to complementary cognitive profiles. By balancing analytical thinkers, pattern recognizers, visual-spatial innovators, and detail-oriented processors, leaders create synergy that drives breakthrough problem-solving.
Empowered Influence – Giving neurodiverse employees direct influence in decision-making processes, particularly in areas where their perceptual strengths offer a unique edge, such as spotting anomalies, envisioning novel solutions, or identifying overlooked risks.
Insight-Driven Feedback Loops – Establishing continuous, structured feedback mechanisms that capture how different thinkers interpret challenges and opportunities. These perspectives can reveal blind spots in strategy, uncover untapped market potential, or inspire product innovations that traditional approaches miss.
Adaptive Leadership Mindset – Training managers not just to “manage difference,” but to lead through difference, shifting their role from gatekeepers to enablers of diverse cognitive contributions.
In this model, neurodiversity isn’t something an organization accommodates, it’s something it optimizes. The result is a workplace where every cognitive style is not just accepted, but actively positioned to help shape the organization’s direction, strengthen its adaptability, and elevate its performance.
Turning Cognitive Differences into Competitive Advantage
In both high-pressure operational environments and mission-driven advocacy work, one truth consistently emerges: the solutions that move the needle rarely come from conventional thinking alone. They often arise when individuals see the world — and its challenges — through a different cognitive lens.
When harnessed strategically, neurodiverse teams become a catalyst for organizational breakthroughs. Their value isn’t limited to creativity; it extends across the entire performance spectrum:
Spotting Risks Earlier – Neurodiverse thinkers often excel at detecting subtle patterns, anomalies, or early warning signs that others overlook. In sectors where timing is critical, from cybersecurity to public health, this can mean the difference between prevention and crisis.
Generating Unconventional Solutions – By challenging default assumptions and approaching problems from unique mental models, neurodiverse teams often produce non-linear, innovative solutions that reframe challenges into opportunities.
Adapting Faster in Times of Change – Diverse cognitive profiles interpret change through varied frameworks, enabling teams to pivot strategies more effectively when faced with uncertainty, disruption, or market volatility.
This is not just inspirational theory, it’s a measurable advantage.
Research consistently shows that organizations embracing cognitive diversity outperform competitors in metrics such as innovation output, problem-solving speed, risk mitigation effectiveness, and long-term resilience.
The competitive edge of the future will not come from simply hiring the “best” talent as traditionally defined. It will come from orchestrating teams whose differences are intentional, integrated, and aligned with mission-critical outcomes.
Metrics and Accountability
The old leadership adage still holds true: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”
When it comes to neurodiversity, data isn’t just a compliance tool, it’s the foundation for proving impact, driving improvement, and building the business case for sustained investment.
Forward-thinking organizations don’t stop at awareness campaigns. They track clear, evidence-based metrics that connect inclusion to performance:
Representation Across the Talent Pipeline – Monitor the percentage of neurodiverse individuals not only at the point of hiring, but across all levels — from entry-level to senior leadership. This ensures diversity is not just entering the door but advancing through the organization.
Retention and Promotion Rates – High turnover can signal a lack of integration or support. Tracking progression shows whether neurodiverse talent is thriving, not just surviving.
Innovation Output – Tie measurable outcomes, such as patents filed, products developed, process improvements, or unique solutions delivered, directly to cognitively diverse teams. This reframes neurodiversity as a strategic innovation driver, not a side initiative.
Engagement and Satisfaction Scores – Disaggregate employee survey results by cognitive profile to see if different thinkers feel equally valued, heard, and supported.
These data points create a continuous feedback loop, showing leaders what’s working, where the friction points are, and how inclusion strategies translate into measurable returns.
In the end, managing neurodiversity isn’t just good ethics, it’s good economics. Companies that measure, manage, and optimize for cognitive diversity position themselves to outperform peers in resilience, adaptability, and market competitiveness.
Closing: The New Competitive Edge
In a world defined by rapid change, uncertainty, and complex problem-solving, the most successful organizations will be those that move beyond awareness campaigns and actively embed neurodiversity into their operational strategy. This is not just about fairness or compliance, it’s about building an adaptive, innovative workforce capable of seeing what others miss.
Intelligence agencies have understood this for decades. They don’t recruit a single “ideal” type of thinker — they build teams with cognitive variety, ensuring they have people who can challenge assumptions, spot hidden risks, and create unconventional solutions. The private sector can apply the same logic.
The companies that lead in the next decade will be the ones that:
Treat neurodiversity as a business-critical asset, not an HR side project.
Assign roles based on cognitive strengths, not just linear qualifications.
Measure inclusion with the same rigor they measure revenue, innovation, and market share.
Recognize that diversity of thought is the ultimate hedge against blind spots in strategy and execution.
For leaders, the call to action is simple: stop seeing neurodiversity as a “special accommodation” and start seeing it as a strategic advantage you can’t afford to ignore.
We have both seen, in our own work across corporate boardrooms, government agencies, and international initiatives, how transformational the right placement of the right mind can be. Neurodivergent talent isn’t just “nice to have” in a competitive market. It’s the difference between incremental improvement and breakthrough innovation.
The future belongs to the organizations that understand this truth and act on it. The question is: will yours be one of them?
The Call to Action
The future will belong to organizations that can harness the full range of human thinking. That means going beyond awareness, beyond accommodation, and into intentional, measurable, strategic management of neurodiversity.
It’s time for leaders to see cognitive difference not as a challenge to work around, but as a core capability to build upon.
Because the organizations that do this well will not only be more inclusive, they’ll be more innovative, more resilient, and better prepared for the complexity of the world ahead.
About the Authors
Steven W. Pearce, MBA, MPM is an award-winning sustainability strategist, global development expert, and founder of Pearce Sustainability Consulting Group (PSCG). With over 13 years of experience advising governments, corporations, and NGOs across the U.S., MENA, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Europe, he specializes in ESG strategy, climate risk mitigation, and innovation-driven development. A published author (From Warming to Warfare: Climate Change and the Road to World War III) and contributor to Illuminem with more than 200 articles on ESG, climate resilience, and global sustainability, Steven applies systems-level thinking to both environmental and human capital challenges.
Drawing on insights learned directly from former CIA officer Andrew Bustamante, Steven embraces the idea that ADHD is a “superpower” — a way of seeing connections others overlook. This broader, more creative view has fueled his capacity to innovate across disciplines, much like how culinary fusion blends seemingly unrelated traditions, or how sustainability can merge technology, culture, and policy into one solution. Bustamante also taught him that the CIA values certain levels of anxiety — not as a flaw, but as a driver of caution, precision, and attention to detail. For Steven, these neurodivergent traits are not just personal strengths; they are competitive advantages in leadership, analysis, and problem-solving.
Valeriya Hjertenaes is Mrs. World Congeniality, a global sustainable fashion and DEI advocate, and host of the Diversity Game Changer podcast. She works at the intersection of creativity, inclusion, and impact, championing cultural transformation in industries worldwide. Valeriya leads initiatives that connect fashion, sustainability, and neurodiversity advocacy — driving global awareness and accelerating meaningful change through media, community engagement, and high-profile collaborations.
Together, Steven and Valeriya bring a rare combination of policy-level strategy and cultural influence — proving that when data-driven frameworks meet authentic advocacy, inclusion becomes more than an initiative: it becomes a movement. And the stakes could not be higher: with millions of neurodivergent individuals worldwide facing unemployment, depression, and even suicide, this is not just an HR conversation — it is a mental health emergency. The call to action is urgent, the solutions are within reach, and the time to act is now.