A place for all brains: The importance of embracing an inclusive office space

Why do I struggle with productivity? Why is it so hard to apply myself? Why do tasks — both big and small — take so much longer for me to accomplish than it does for everybody else?

These are just some of the questions Unispace’s strategy principal Bruce Khajehnoori has spent his life asking himself while living with ADHD and wanting to understand himself better.

Khajehnoori joined the Australian branch of Unispace, a global workplace strategy, design, and construction company, in 2023.

Crediting his lived experience for fuelling his passion for designing spaces for diversity, Khajehnoori spoke with SmartCompany this week about the importance of designing office spaces with neurodiversity in mind and how he believes organisations can proactively contribute to being part of a multi-layered approach in addressing some challenges that affect a vast number of workers.

He said by acknowledging and valuing the unique strengths and perspectives of individuals with neurological differences such as autism, ADHD, and dyslexia – work design principles can be adapted to better accommodate a range of neurodiverse needs and create an inclusive work environment.

“There is a growing trend in the property industry where an increasing number of organisations position themselves as not only considering but in fact enabling neurodiversity, with very little detail on how this is achieved and what that means for businesses in a physical, operational and workplace culture lens,” he said.

Getting basics right

“Designing for neurodiversity means getting the basics right so that a workplace is not only functional across all factors of user experience normally expected of a workplace, but that it specifically includes considerations of the neurodiverse segment of the workforce, which roughly makes up anywhere from 15-25% of the entire global population, with variations across countries.”

In addition, Khajehnoori has developed specific design principles across three pillars – physical design, cultural and operational changes.

Khajehnoori said by incorporating these principles, organisations can create a space that embraces neurodiversity, fosters diversity and inclusion, and empowers all employees to thrive and contribute to the best of their abilities.

“Having lived experience growing up with neurodiversity, and being diagnosed and treated for ADHD, I have come to accept and embrace that what makes us different can also give us a superpower of exceptional ability,” he said. 

“Where we may have trouble with processing information in the same way that is traditionally taught, there are many of us who have extremely high functioning abilities to visualise our way through complex problem solving and arrive at novel solutions.

“When everything in life feels challenging, and when you notice the people around you appear to have an easier time than you in completing tasks, sitting still, not getting distracted, not interrupting others, you develop many processes to keep yourself in check. 

“This type of observational learning of my surroundings, and never being able to switch it off has helped develop my career over numerous pivotal moments.

Doing away with “inflexible expectations”

“From a very young age I became fixated on Lego, the ability to create something out of somewhat randomly separated pieces and break it up and repeat that process to keep creating new things, was something that has stayed with me over the course of my life.

“It was no surprise that I started out wanting to be an engineer, then an architect, then design, then innovation which opened up my field of vision to try to understand human behaviour of people and their relationship with space, which then naturally led to wanting to learn more about what drove those behaviours and that landed me pursuing further study in neuroscience. 

“Something I’m still pursuing and learning.”

Khajehnoori said organisations can proactively contribute to accommodating needs and addressing challenges workers face by demonstrating that difference is valued and not a deficit.

“Also by promoting a dialogue of acceptance and inclusion, by creating an inclusive workplace culture and establishing behavioural norms and by equipping their people leaders with training and education,” he said.

The National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing conducted in 2021 found that an estimated 1 in 5 Australians aged 16–85 years experienced a mental disorder in the previous 12 months.

Khajehnoori said some challenges workers face include inflexible expectations by people leaders and organisational policies and inflexible scheduling.

“A lack of clear direction often leads to misunderstood direction,” he said.

“Never being able to shake off the feeling of being misunderstood, not only in the workplace but in every aspect of life and forever.

“The inability to focus and resist distractions due to lower than normal levels of dopamine and norepinephrine.

“Or learning difficulties due to different ways of processing information.

“We process information differently and often benefit from learning by doing, not by instruction.”

Khajehnoori said integrating a whole-life approach to workplace culture, overtly promotes the basics of good health principles of sleep, gut health, nutrition, social connection and continuous learning.

“It’s important to get the basics right, good workplace design principles are very important for neurodivergent people,” he said.