Harnessing the strength of neurodiversity within Agile teams
James Hogan1,2 1Google, Mountain View, CA, USA2Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia
Abstract
Current innovation practices to product development and growth acceleration across revenue generating communities typically follow the Agile methodology. However, current Agile practices risks limiting innovation by favouring the preferences of those with dominant communication styles, to the exclusion of diverse perspectives. Increasing cognitive diversity in organisations has been shown to create both social and economic value when supported by specific inclusion practices and organisational changes (Bruyere & Colella, 2022; Houdek, 2022; Ott, Russo & Moeller, 2022). Framing innovation as the process of value creation through delivering novel solutions for growth (Singh & Aggarwal, 2022), this research aims to enhance the innovation capability of Agile teams through neuroinclusion: enabling the natural diversity in information processing, thinking and interaction styles.
This three-phase project will develop and test a novel innovation framework based to augment the Agile methodology by 1) exploring the barriers and enablers of effective team collaboration; 2) co-designing a preliminary framework with multiple stakeholders; 3) testing and evaluation. Expected benefits include social and economic value creation by increasing the sense of inclusion and belonging for all employees and increased organisational capacity for innovation.
Biography
Jim (he/him/Autistic) wears multiple hats at Google including his roles as the Chief Innovation Evangelist, Google Cloud and Vice President, Accessibility in Technology for Google’s Disability Alliance. Jim is researching how to innovate innovation through neuroinclusion as a PhD student at Griffith University.