Widening the business talent pool
To successfully lead an organisation, business leaders need access to a wide range of perspectives.
How organisations can create inclusive opportunities and contribute to a more progressive society is discussed in The Business Of… Inclusive Leadership podcast, the fifth episode of the AGSM @ UNSW Business School Leadership Podcast series hosted by Emma Lo Russo, CEO of Digivizer.
Belinda Sheehan, Senior Managing Consultant and Manager of the Neurodiversity Program at IBM, and Quentin Masson, CEO at Wandering Warriors – a national veteran’s charity – join Nick Wailes, Director of AGSM and Deputy Dean at UNSW Business School.
They discuss diversity and inclusion from the perspective of leaders who are creating new inclusive business models to reflect the evolving market demand.
Neurodiversity: A competitive advantage
Recent changes at IBM mean neurological differences – such as autism, dyslexia, or ADHD – are now recognised and respected as any other human variation, says Ms Sheehan.
“Some of the characteristics that neurodivergent people are known for is attention to detail, unique problem-solving, thinking outside the box, dedication and huge focus … we see all of those things.
“We’ve got people in automation coming up with unique ideas to solve the problems that our clients are facing,” she says.
Ms Sheehan has been running the global program since 2016, and in Australia since 2018.
To run this program, IBM partnered with Specialisterne Australia – a third-party dedicated to help source, assist and ongoing support of autistic people into the workforce.
And many of IBM’s new hires from the program are in roles such as SAP developer, blockchain developer, cloud engineer, testers and automation specialists.
Victoria Tichá is a Business Journalist at UNSW. She was formerly a senior reporter at the Financial Times in London. Follow her on Twitter.