Playing to neurodiverse strengths in a team

Marks & Clerk protects innovation and brilliant ideas. Related to this, our previous article in this series on neurodiversity celebrated the remarkable inventor Thomas Edison, who worked alongside our co-founder George Croydon Marks. In particular, and in light of the IP Regulation Board (IPReg) 2024 Diversity Survey, we noted that Edison is known to have had a high number of traits associated with autism, as well as being renowned for his many inventions - including the gramophone, motion picture camera and electric light bulb. 

Given the clear advantages of conditions such as autism, as well as the difficulties, we highlighted the need to support neurodiverse individuals within our teams. But we know that this needs more awareness and understanding.

As a helpful starting point, “The Power of Neurodiversity”, written by Thomas Armstrong, is directed towards “Unleashing the advantages of your differently wired brain”. Its positive message is fundamentally based on why neurodiversity exists at all, i.e., why has it survived evolution? The answer seems to be that ‘differently wired’ brains brought unique survival advantages to ancient communities. Fast forward tens of thousands of years, and corresponding advantages can be seen in our modern-day families, communities and commercial enterprises – including Intellectual Property firms. 

Armstrong’s positivity contrasts with a misunderstanding of neurodiversity as a ‘deficit’ rather than, more correctly, a ‘difference’. Both ‘neurodiverse’ and ‘neurotypical’ people have unique strengths and weaknesses. However, each one of us can only thrive within a team, if we are able to play to our individual strengths. 

Neurodiverse and neurotypical strengths - all of which are nurtured by and contribute to Marks & Clerk’s core values of Trust, Collegiality, Resourcefulness and Excellence - can include, for example,:

• ADHD often gives hyperfocus on a subject of interest, thus enabling single-minded and detailed study;  
• Dyslexic people may have exceptional visual-spatial skills, of huge value in fields such as mechanical engineering and product design;
• Autistic people have pattern-seeking, or ‘systemizing’, abilities that support understanding, experimentation and discovery within STEM subjects, understanding of legal systems and excellence in fine arts such as music; and
• Neuro-‘typical’ people generally have excellent ‘theory of mind’, and thus an innate ability to communicate with and understand other people through spoken and body language.

Alongside such advantages, different types of neurodiversity are nevertheless associated with difficulties. For example, higher levels of anxiety are common in people having autism or ADHD. However, anxiety has surely been a key driver behind some of humankind’s finest achievements; thus, a trait to be understood and cared for. 

The advantages of neurodiverse profiles, if harnessed, are at the heart of why neurodiversity matters in our organisations: they transform a team into a ‘whole greater than a sum of its parts’. There is much less advantage in a team entirely conforming to a societal standard of ‘normal’. After all, Albert Einstein – arguably the most famous patent examiner and suggested in Armstrong’s book to have benefitted from ADHD – is known to have said: “I sometimes ask myself, how did it come that I was the one to develop the theory of relativity. The reason, I think, is that a normal adult never stops to think about problems of space and time … ”.

This is why Marks & Clerk will continue it’s long history of creating an IP world in which everybody can contribute their best. We have - after all - being doing this since 1887, including when our co-founder George Croydon Marks recognised the exceptional mind of inventor and businessman Thomas Edison.