Revolutionize DE&I strategies by embracing cognitive ergonomics. Redesign modern workplaces to accommodate diverse thinking styles and neurodiversity, moving beyond standard open plans to unlock true employee potential.
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Imagine you are walking into a shoe shop. The salesperson smiles and hands you a pair of size 38 loafers. “But I wear size 40,” you say. The salesperson shakes their head. “I’m afraid we only sell size 38 here. It’s the standard average size for a human foot. If you stretch them a little, they’ll fit.”
It seems absurd, doesn’t it? Yet that’s exactly what we’ve been doing with our offices and workflows for decades. We’ve built the ‘one size fits all’ company.
For years, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) has rightly focused on who we let in the door, ensuring that women, people of different ethnicities, sexual orientations and physical abilities are represented. However, there is a quieter and perhaps more insidious conversation about what happens after people sign the contract. It’s about how we ask their brains to function.
This is where a concept that could revolutionise corporate wellness comes into play: cognitive ergonomics.
The tyranny of the standard
Sociologically speaking, the modern office is still a product of the Fordist factory. Although we now move ideas rather than bolts, the approach remains one of standardisation to maximise efficiency. The apotheosis of this model is the open-plan office: a hymn to transparency and collaboration on paper, but in practice it is a nightmare of sensory overload.
For decades, we have taken for granted that the ‘ideal worker’ has a very specific cognitive profile: they are capable of multitasking, resistant to interruptions, extroverted, quick to respond verbally and comfortable under neon lights.
Anyone who did not fit this mould, perhaps because they were neurodivergent (with ADHD, autism or dyslexia), introverted or a deep but slow thinker, was labelled ‘underperforming’ or ‘socially awkward’. The system was not wrong; the individual was not suitable.
Cognitive ergonomics overturns this paradigm. It asks a simple question: why do we spend thousands of dollars on ergonomic chairs to protect our employees’ backs, yet completely ignore the environment needed to protect their minds?
It’s not just a question of neurodiversity
When we talk about cognitive diversity, we immediately think of diagnosed neurodiversities. And rightly so: for someone with autism, for example, the buzz of an open-plan office can be as physically painful as wearing stiletto heels for a marathon. For someone with ADHD, the requirement to ‘sit and concentrate for eight hours’ is biologically incompatible with how their dopaminergic system functions.
However, cognitive ergonomics goes beyond medical labels. It’s about the biodiversity of human thought.
Some people are ‘visual thinkers’ who need to draw to understand, while others are ‘verbal thinkers'” who need to read. Some people are ‘larks’ who are fully alert at 8 a.m., while others are ‘owls’ who only start to feel awake when others go to lunch.
If corporate culture only rewards those who respond immediately to emails or speak the loudest during meetings, it unknowingly excludes a significant amount of talent. This is akin to applying natural selection based not on competence, but on neurological conformity.
So, how do you design cognitive ergonomics?
Implementing DE&I through cognitive ergonomics does not mean creating padded offices, but providing options. It means shifting from equality (everyone has the same desk) to equity (everyone has the environment they need). Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Sensory zoning: rather than a single expanse of desks, the office becomes an ecosystem comprising different zones. There are zones for ‘noisy collaboration’ and ‘deep focus’ (where talking is prohibited), as well as soundproof booths. Desks are assigned not based on hierarchical role, but on the task that the brain needs to perform at that moment.
- The revenge of asynchronous communication: constant meetings favour those who process information by talking. However, many brilliant minds need time to process data before expressing themselves. Integrating written and asynchronous communication (shared documents and reasoned chats) makes contributions more equal, enabling thoughtful people to shine as much as instinctive ones.
- The personal user manual: some cutting-edge companies are asking employees to write their own ‘Instruction Manual’. How do I prefer to receive feedback? When am I most focused? How do I react to stress? This approach normalises the fact that we are all different, without stigmatising anyone.
From ‘culture fit’ to ‘culture add’
Adopting cognitive ergonomics is the real sociological challenge of post-pandemic work. Despite its flaws, we have seen that remote working has allowed many to ‘hack’ their work environment to suit their mental needs. Returning to a rigid model is no longer sustainable.
Companies must stop looking for ‘culture fit’, that is, hiring people who think and act like us, as this perpetuates bias and conformity. Instead, they should look for ‘culture add’: people who think differently and can therefore offer valuable insights.
However, opening the door is not enough to welcome these different minds. You also need to furnish the workplace so that they don’t constantly bump into the furniture. Real inclusion comes through process design. If we judge a fish by its ability to climb trees, or an introvert by their ability to brainstorm in a crowded room, they will spend their whole life believing they are stupid. And the company will have lost a genius.