If You Really Want To Innovate Put An Autistic Person On Your Team

[FarCenter]

Companies who really care about innovation should consider hiring a person who always sees things differently: one with Aspergers syndrome or high-functioning Autism, some experts say.

"Innovation is all about looking at things in a new way," says innovation consultant Phil McKinney and founder of Hacking Autism. High functioning Autistic people are "hard wired" to look at things in an unconventional way, he says. (Hacking Autism is a non-profit that creates new tech for people with Autism.)

People on the spectrum are particularly suited to the tech industry with their attention to detail, precision, affinity for repetitive tasks and natural ability with tech skills. Many of them have college degrees and IQs that are off the charts.

"They can see your product or software differently. They can figure out how something works, break down the product, find the problems and rebuild it -- and they can do all that in their heads," says Tara Roehl, McKinney's daughter and a speech pathologist specializing in Autism.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/if-you-really-want-to-innovate-put-an-austic-person-on-your-team-experts-say-2012-5

The trick is to keep the fraternity/sorority types in marketing away from them.

[hifiguy]

1. I second this as a dx'd Asperger person

Some years ago, before my diagnosis but long after I had figured out I was quite a different sort of a duck, I was working as a contract attorney on a big antitrust case representing plaintiffs.

The partner in charge called me in to his office shortly after I started at the firm and told me I was going to have to write a motion to challenge defendants' classification of certain documents as confidential so that we could show them to our clients. He told me up front "this is a nuisance motion, but we have to do it. I've never seen a court grant one of these, so I certainly won't hold it against you when the magistrate judge denies it. Give it your best shot."

I buried myself in the library with every civil procedure treatise I could lay my hands on, read dozens of cases and crafted a very carefully reasoned sniper-shot brief over the course of three weeks. It was then argued by my boss to the magistrate judge.

Two weeks later, in a team meeting, my boss singled out my "excellent" efforts and announced that the motion had been GRANTED as to about 80% of the documents we wanted out clients to see and congratulated me personally in front of everyone. Being a good Aspie I am terrific at connecting logical dots others just don't see, and explaining the connections with painstakingly obscure citations and details. I won't say boo to anyone in a meeting, but give me a truly thorny legal issue and the time to research it and think deeply about it and I can make a better argument than just about anyone.

[Odin2005]

2. This Aspie sez K&R!!!

[MineralMan]

3. Absolutely!

One of my wife's best friends has a 20-something son with Asperger's. He and I get into the best discussions about things and I really enjoy hearing his perspectives on subjects that also interest me. We get along famously. I'd hire him in a second, if I had a business with employees, and would create a position that took advantage of his unique thinking and accommodated areas where he had difficulties.

[KamaAina]

4. Talk to me.

I am significantly underemployed from the perspective of a 25-year Ivy League graduate. And my IQ actually did test off the charts once (on the WAIS, which maxes outy at 145).

[felix_numinous]

5. K&R Diversity is strength

the more people you have who can think outside the box and with specialized skills, the better--on a team or in life!! What a wonderful article to see here

[limpyhobbler]

6. i heart aspergers

I should be so lucky to be doing some hiring. I would hire autistic spectrum people all day long. Basically they rule.

[cpamomfromtexas]

7. Absolutely, I often think regular people are one dimensional with aspy types multidimensional

My brother can talk to me but few others.

We both think alike. He can put a crashed airliner back together and tell you what happened to it. For real, he's done it.

[Taverner]

8. At Apple, there was a developer who had Aspbergers

One of the best coders I ever knew

[AndyTiedye]

9. And HR

> The trick is to keep the fraternity/sorority types in marketing away from them.

First you have to keep the HR types from screening out the Aspies before you can even interview them.

[KamaAina]

10. ^^^ What he said. ^^^

I can't tell you how many potential employers over the years have been thrilled to see a resume with Ivy League background and tech skills, only to be crestfallen when they discovered it belonged to me.

[AndyTiedye]

11. Good Engineering Managers Know This, and Keep HR Out of the Loop Until an Offer is Made

For the jobs I actually got, I was interviewed by the engineering manager and his reports, and
by the time HR saw me, I had an offer in hand already and they couldn't do anything about it.

The first time this happened (Digital Equipment Corp back in 1976) the HR people were visibly pissed
that the engineering manager had made an offer without letting them screen me first,
and tried hard to screw up my hire. They were not successful, and I worked there for 16 years,
during most of which it was a really nice place to work.

By the time I next interviewed for a position, the HR dept. in those companies seemed to be used
to engineering going around them.