Supporting ADHDers with External Processing in the Workplace
Differences in how individuals process and communicate information can pose challenges in the workplace.
Internal processors - individuals who excel in quiet environments where they can reflect on information independently before engaging in discussions. They prefer receiving information and having the opportunity to contemplate it privately before contributing to conversations.
External processors thrive when they can verbalize their thoughts to others. They enjoy collaborative brainstorming sessions and prefer discussing new ideas immediately with colleagues. Verbalizing their thoughts helps them organize ideas, evaluate different options, and determine the best course of action. The majority of individuals with ADHD tend to identify with the experience of being an external processor.
Individuals with ADHD often struggle with executive functioning skills such as memory, planning, organization, and prioritization. These challenges extend to processing information and ideas, making it essential to understand and accommodate their preferred communication styles in the workplace.
Scenario:
To provide a concrete example, let's consider a scenario where an employee is assigned the responsibility of planning, advertising, and executing an open house event aimed at boosting community awareness of the business's services.
Peek Inside ADHD Brain:
To allow you to peek inside the stream of consciousness of an ADHD brain when assigned this task, I set a timer for one minute and verbally recorded all the thoughts that surfaced within my own ADHD brain while imagining just receiving this assignment.
"When will we hold this?" "How many people will come?" "Who is our target audience?" "How many people will come?" "What space in the office will we hold this in?" "What will the theme be?" "What would be a fun thing that would make people actually want to come?" "What’s our budget for this?” “Who should we advertise to?" "What kind of advertising routes should we use?" "What would be engaging for people once they got there?" "What would actually entice them to show up?" "How are we going to know if this is actually effective?" "Who else is going to help with this planning?" "How much time is it going to take for me to plan this?" "What steps am I going to need to take?"
You can see the difficulties with organization and prioritization present in my thoughts. Most of the thoughts were further questions. Each of these questions felt equally important. I felt no sense of clarity around any of the items and had no idea where to focus or begin.
It’s likely that if given more time, I simply would have continued asking more questions rather than finding any answers.
This is why being able to verbally process with another person can be very helpful. However, when the verbal processor’s thoughts are disjointed, listeners often have a difficult time following along. This often leads to negative reactions from the listeners. Even though the listener may have good intentions, because they often don’t understand what is needed from them in this scenario, the listeners make attempts to help, but miss the mark and leave the ADHDer feeling frustrated, dismissed, misunderstood and with no more clarity on the presenting concern than when they started.
Tips for Supporting a Colleague with ADHD’s External Processing:
Avoid Interrupting Too Soon - When we are interrupted before getting our thoughts out, we forget what we were saying and may get frustrated and need to start over again. It’s totally reasonable that you have several questions and may be lost. Options here include agreeing upon a physical signal to let the other person know you have a question or need clarity and then wait for them to pause so you can ask. You could also offer to take notes, outline themes you hear, or pros and cons of options.
Avoid Judgmental Comments - ADHDers frequently receive microaggression types of comments such as: “Just get to the point.” “Where are you going with this?” “Focus.” “You’re all over the place.” “What the heck are you talking about?” If it feels necessary to seek clarification, you can simply say, “Can I clarify a couple of things…” or “I want to understand and am having a hard time following, can you help me understand how X is connected to Y?”
Don’t Assume Difficulty Speaking in a Linear Manner = Ignorance - The ADHDer’s non linear thinking process sometimes leads others to make assumptions that they don’t understand at all. The issue typically isn’t a lack of comprehension, rather it’s not being able to organize and present our understanding in a way that makes sense to others. These incorrect assumptions lead to colleagues explaining things that the ADHDer already understands. In some cases, a colleague may take responsibility away from the ADHDer due to their assumption. This leads to the ADHDer feeling misunderstood and frustrated. If the ADHDer directly asks for help understanding something, it’s certainly appropriate to provide clarification, just avoid assumptions.
Adding Unsolicited Suggestions and Ideas- An ADHD strength is often idea generation; our struggle lies in organizing and carrying out the ideas. Adding additional suggestions often adds to the overwhelm. Only provide additional suggestions when directly requested. If you are uncertain if suggestions are needed you can ask, “Would it be helpful to explore additional options, or do you just need space to talk out the ones you’ve already identified?”
Encourage What Works for Them - Well intentioned colleagues may share how they would go about the task to plan the event. ADHDers often need to do things in a different way than others do. Instead, ask what does and does not work for them “What process has worked well for you when planning events in the past?”
Don’t Assume the ADHDer will Present this Same Way With Clients/Customers -- Verbal processing allows us to form decisions and organize our thoughts. The types of interactions and conversations one has with customers are likely to be different than those they have with colleagues. They may have strong knowledge, or processes in place when interacting with customers and not present in this same way. Instead of making assumptions, you can ask “How do you plan to present this to X?”
Don’t Assume Everything We Say is Final - Internal Processors generally arrive at a decision before they speak on something out loud, so they often hold this same expectation for others. External Processors are often speaking out loud all the potential options and ideas (even the bad ones). Sometimes colleagues will assume that because the external processor shared an idea, that they were strongly considering it or moving forward with it, when it may have just been mentioning it as one option to consider, but never giving it any more thought. Instead, ask clarifying questions, “Just want to clarify, did you make a concrete decision about the theme for the open house?”
Provide Reflection/Summarizing - When supporting a verbal processor, what can be helpful is listening for themes, or strings that connect them. Once they have stated everything they needed, you could provide a reflective summary. “I’m noticing you're talking most about themes A, B, and C. Are those the top choices for you?” It can also be helpful to guide them towards exploring any conflicts that are arising. “I’m hearing you want to do theme A but you’re worried about having enough money in the budget for it?”
Break things down into smaller steps - Offer prompts to help break things into smaller steps and help prioritize. “Which step must be completed first?” If you hear them list out all the things that need to be done, write out a list of next steps, and help put them into prioritized order.
Provide Guide Rails if Needed - ADHDers struggle with accurately estimating how long things take to complete. If you have concerns about them overexerting themselves, you could non-judgmentally ask, “How much time might that take?” and give feedback if the response doesn’t match your estimation. Or, “That sounds like a lot of work in little time. When will you have time available to work on that?”
Understanding and supporting individuals with ADHD who are external processors in the workplace is crucial for fostering a collaborative and inclusive environment. By recognizing their unique way of processing information and communicating ideas , refraining from judgment and assumptions and offering assistance tailored to their needs, colleagues can provide helpful support. By adopting these strategies, workplaces can enjoy increased cohesion and collaboration and decrease communication challenges.
