I was barely paying attention to an interview on CNN Thursday morning. My mind was on full filter as I focused on editing our whitepaper on sources of hire that Mark and I want out next week.
Out of the corner of my eye I caught Amanda, a severely autisitc adult, in deep conversation with a medical reporter and suddenly was riveted as her hands flew over her computer and a voice synthesizer converted her keyboard strokes into a coherent verbal argument with a sophisticated tempo. She rapidly built her points, drew conclusions and, inserted several wry comments that caught me unprepared. I doubt if anyone seeing the piece could have prevented their jaw from dropping to the ground.
Amanda was explaining her interaction with the world around her while admitting to a struggle with a limited language of words and symbols (she was doing quite well however). Amanda has fewer filters than many of us and the inputs of smell, sight, sound, etc. all have an intensity few of us can imagine - without drugs.
I began thinking about the notion that the US takes pride in its ability to innovate which has evolved to a great extent from the our ability to think from different...diverse points of view... and all that implies. Yet perhaps we've not tapped the most diverse among us in that search for even more innovation.
My business partner, Mark Mehler, and I are not strangers to the issues of hiring people who happen to be disabled. We have written extensively about some of the recruiting challenges but we have always tended to think pretty linearly about what accomodation means. This was the first time I was pulled away from matching the skills and behaviors we want to hire in our companies to thinking about how to use capabilities we can't easily comprehend but sense somehow that they are the seeds to increased innovation. It made me think about the accomodation I might need for myself in order to make use of individuals with unusual abilities rather than disabilities.
Amanda came to CNN's attention because of a YouTube video she made called In My Language. It's 8 minutes long and in the last 4 minutes she explains the behaviors you see in the first four minutes. I was astounded. I think you will be too.
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