It seems as if the Open Space principles and the Law of Two Feet have been designed specifically for autistic communication and collaboration needs. Even the way of initiating conversations in Open Space feels highly intuitive from an autistic perspective:

  1. write down and briefly explain a problem statement,
  2. listen to other problem statements, and then
  3. allow participants to self-organise around specific topics of interest

Source: What CAN be misunderstood WILL be misunderstood | The Aspergian | A Collective of Autistic Voices

Autistic social motivation is deeply rooted in the desire to share knowledge and in the desire to learn, and this has big implications for the protocols that are used in autistic communication. In contrast, the societies we grow up in and live in value abstract social status symbols more than developing a shared understanding, and this leads to the communication challenges that define our social experiences.

Source: What CAN be misunderstood WILL be misunderstood | The Aspergian | A Collective of Autistic Voices

The distributed model can be a boon to folks who have difficulty working in an office, but ultimately it’s up to the people who create and design work environments — distributed or co-located — to recognize that there isn’t a normal employee or a normal mode of work. There are no abnormal employees with abnormal needs. Companies should reject this false dichotomy and acknowledge that every employee is different, and that some might also experience several forms of difference and marginalization at once. Everyone, however, is likely to be happier and more productive when they have choices, agency, and a way to express their individual needs.

Source: Making Work Accessible, Wherever it Happens – Distributed.blog

The Diversity in Social Intelligence project compiled a list of videos and documents explaining their research. Very interesting stuff. When we talk about psychological safety and the emotional intelligence of teams, we should keep in mind that there are different social intelligences.

Hat tip:

I was fine chattering away to myself, singing or making sound patterns, in order to close out the impact of the invasiveness of others, and being told to shut up only heightened the desire to surround myself with the sound of my own voice. If I was expected to reply, however, this was the complete antithesis. Hearing myself speak in my own voice in acknowledged connection to the world was excruciatingly personal and felt like fingernails down a blackboard.

Source: Williams, Donna (2002-09-14T23:58:59). Exposure Anxiety – The Invisible Cage . Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Kindle Edition. 

I’m also a vocal stimmer who shuts down when speaking.

Some people with autism do not realise that they have chronic anxiety as they have either not noticed or recognised the symptoms as anxiety. This seems to be because the anxiety and accompanying symptoms have existed as long as the person can remember, so it feels as if it this is just their ‘normal state of being’.

Source: Purkis, Yenn. The Guide to Good Mental Health on the Autism Spectrum (p. 41). Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Raises hand. It me.

That is why a new capitalism must also include a tax system that generates the resources we need and includes higher taxes on the wealthiest among us. Local efforts – like the tax I supported last year on San Francisco’s largest companies to address our city’s urgent homelessness crisis – will help. Nationally, increasing taxes on high-income individuals like myself would help generate the trillions of dollars that we desperately need to improve education and health care and fight climate change.

The culture of corporate America needs to change, and it shouldn’t take an act of Congress to do it. Every C.E.O. and every company must recognize that their responsibilities do not stop at the edge of the corporate campus. When we finally start focusing on stakeholder value as well as shareholder value, our companies will be more successful, our communities will be more equal, our societies will be more just and our planet will be healthier.

Source: Opinion | Marc Benioff: We Need a New Capitalism – The New York Times

Hearing this from a tech leader is heartening. This makes me all the gladder that Salesforce Ventures invested in us. Let low-road capitalism be done. Build instead a higher road of equity literate capitalism attuned to all stakeholders.

Nevertheless, those who work in and work with education technology need to confront and resist this architecture – the “surveillance dataism,” to borrow Morozov’s phrase – even if (especially if) the outcomes promised are purportedly “for the good of the student.”

Source: Audrey Watters — Education Technology and The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (A Review of Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism) | boundary 2

Personalized learning – the kind hyped these days by Mark Zuckerberg and many others in Silicon Valley – is just the latest version of Skinner’s behavioral technology. Personalized learning relies on data extraction and analysis; it urges and rewards students and promises everyone will reach “mastery.” It gives the illusion of freedom and autonomy perhaps – at least in its name; but personalized learning is fundamentally about conditioning and control.

Source: Audrey Watters — Education Technology and The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (A Review of Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism) | boundary 2

I was fine chattering away to myself, singing or making sound patterns, in order to close out the impact of the invasiveness of others, and being told to shut up only heightened the desire to surround myself with the sound of my own voice. If I was expected to reply, however, this was the complete antithesis. Hearing myself speak in my own voice in acknowledged connection to the world was excruciatingly personal and felt like fingernails down a blackboard.

Source: Williams, Donna (2002-09-14T23:58:59). Exposure Anxiety – The Invisible Cage . Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Kindle Edition.