Daniel Wendler knows what it feels like to be a polar bear in the wrong climate.
“Because most people are neurotypical, organizations are designed according to neurotypical needs, which means that people with neurodivergent needs get left out,” Wendler said May 20 at Fortune’s Workplace Innovation Summit.
His go-to illustration: imagine taking a polar bear — an apex predator, unrivaled on Arctic ice — and dropping it in Austin, Texas. The animal doesn’t suddenly become less capable. It’s just been placed in an environment that wasn’t built for it. Neurodivergent workers, he argues, are that polar bear every time they walk into a standard open-plan office.
“This is the exact same principle that explains how we can unlock the talent of the neurodivergent team members within our organization,” he said.
The same report found that 18% of neurodivergent respondents qualified as “suppressed talents”: highly skilled workers unable to perform at their potential because of structural workplace mismatches, not personal shortcomings.
“If your company becomes a leader in this area, you’ll immediately leapfrog over two-thirds of your competitors,” he said, “and you gain a durable competitive advantage in attracting the kind of talent that is looking for a place where they can make the best of their time.”
The next time a team member is struggling, Wendler says managers should resist the instinct to question motivation or fit.
“You need to ask: are they a polar bear in the desert?”
