Rebranding the Brain With Neurodiversity Expert Dave Thompson

**Morra Aarons-Mele** (0:04)
What if you got to design your ideal workplace from the ground up? From the lights in the bathroom, to the colors on the wall, to the when, how, why, where and what of what you did every day? Well, my guest today got to do just that. And he helped design a business for people working there who are neurodivergent, and many of whom had quite high needs. What he learned creating that social enterprise, which went on to become hugely successful, has informed his life's work, and also through his work consulting and guiding other companies, how many other businesses from very, very big to small social enterprises create workplaces that work for everyone.
I'm Morra Aarons-Mele, and this is The Anxious Achiever. And today we've got Dave Thompson, who is author of the great new book Brainstorm. Dave is a visiting scholar at the Frist Center for Autism at Vanderbilt University. He's the third guest from the Frist Center on the show. I just can't get enough of them. They're so smart. We've got in previous episodes, Dr. Kavon Stassen and Dr. Jessica Schoenhut-Stasic recently. Dave has ADHD and dyslexia. He, like many of us, grew up feeling like he had been raised as a person who couldn't do all the things.
But through his life experience, through his transformational work, he can and does and has so much to teach everybody about how to create workplaces that bring out the best in us, no matter what our neurotype is. So I hope you enjoy this really funny and warm and super duper helpful conversation on designing work that works with Dave Thompson.
David, so good to have you on the show.

**Dave Thompson** (2:15)
It is an honor. I am a long time fan and first time caller. I was thrilled that you reached out. Thanks for having me on.

**Morra Aarons-Mele** (2:25)
Well, you know, I love your book. I love your LinkedIn presence. I love your drawing. I love everything about how you talk about neurodiversity and neurodivergence at work. And I wanted to I wanted to ask you a question. One of the things that really resonated with me in your book Brainstorm is right up front. You're kind of like, I'm not a scholar, I'm not a clinician, I'm not a doctor, but I'm kind of an expert.
And I have so much imposter syndrome around this stuff. Maybe it's because I live in Boston and everyone here has 10 Ph.D.s, but I loved how you opened the book with that strong statement. Why did you start the book with that statement of who you are?

**Dave Thompson** (3:15)
Well, yeah, I think it's important to talk about who you are and who you're not, right? One of the most empowering things about taking a strength-based approach to thinking differently is making peace with some of my gaps, right? Like, and it's funny you mentioned scholar because since I finished the book, I am now a visiting scholar at the Vanderbilt-Frist Center for Autism and Innovation.

**Morra Aarons-Mele** (3:39)
You are a scholar.

**Dave Thompson** (3:40)
Yes, I am quite literally a scholar on paper now. But yeah, I think it's equally empowering to say I don't do spreadsheets and I don't want to do payroll. And I've been blessed for the last 15 years or so to write my own job descriptions and talk about who I am and who I'm not. And what's interesting about this movement, I've been involved in neuroinclusive employment since before we were really even using the word neurodiversity or neuroinclusive.
And I've evolved along with it. But we've all come at it from such different angles, like the kind of Main Street mission-driven social enterprises that have been started by eager self-advocates and mostly parents with some social and financial capital who don't want to give up on their kids just because the world of work didn't work for them. And then, you know, folks that come into this identity later in life and otherwise have very successful careers in certain areas and use those skills and connections, you know, leverage those to change the world of work. And I have colleagues, you know, my boss at Vanderbilt is an astronomer. And you had Dr. Stassen on the show and Dr. Jess as well. And I work alongside people with their masters in public policy and organizational psychologists. And so my position within all of this is A, of course, lived experience, but B, that I've been doing this stuff, boots on the ground, you know, from the ground up for a long time. And I'm good at it because of how I think, not in spite of it. And so yeah, I think I like to own what I am not just as much as I own what I am.