Manager development for performance and retention
Creating a Neuroaffirming Workplace
Managing Neurodivergent Employees
A half-day or full-day course that changes what managers do, so the capable people you already have can perform and stay.
Why this matters now
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Performance
1.6×
more revenue at inclusive workplaces
Accenture, The Disability Inclusion Imperative, 2023
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Risk
63%
of neurodivergent employees have masked at work
Pearn Kandola, Neurodiversity at Work, 2024
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Talent
39%
of neurodivergent professionals plan to leave within a year
EY Global Neuroinclusion at Work Study, 2025
The cost of getting this wrong
Most managers want to support their teams. But no one taught them how neurodivergence shows up at work, or what to do when it does. The cost lands on performance, retention and risk.
- Capable employees underperform, not from lack of skill, but from environments never designed for how their brain works.
- Managers misread the signals: withdrawal as attitude, missed deadlines as lack of effort, directness as rigidity. Performance management ends up aimed at the wrong problem.
- Employees mask to fit in, spending cognitive and emotional energy that should go into the work.
- Talent walks out the door. Replacing one employee can cost up to two times their annual salary (Gallup), far more than the small adjustments that would have kept them.
- Few managers are equipped for any of this: only 37% of neurodivergent professionals say their organization trains line managers on neurodiversity (EY, 2025).
This is fixable. And it starts with managers.
What your organization gets
Outcomes in the three terms leaders already manage to.
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Performance
Managers who can tell a performance gap from a barrier gap, and remove barriers before they turn into performance problems.
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Talent
Capable people who stay, and the visible signals of safety that tell neurodivergent candidates this is a place they can thrive.
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Risk
Managers who handle disclosure and accommodation requests well the first time: consistently, confidently, and without waiting for HR.
Plus managers who can make the case to their own leaders in performance, talent and risk terms, and a Pre-Course Reflection retaken at six months, so you can see what changed.
What participants learn
Seven topics designed around behaviour change, not awareness. Each builds on the last.
Define Neurodivergence
See cognitive diversity in the room, get precise on the language, and see why it matters at scale.
The Value of Neurodivergent Thinkers
The business case, not just the moral one, and the real cost of forcing everyone into one way of thinking.
How Does Neurodivergence Impact People at Work?
Masking, the barriers the environment creates, and how to tell a performance gap from a barrier gap.
Ways to Support Neurodivergent Employees
Make disclosure feel safe, respond well when it happens, and support people with or without a diagnosis.
Foster a Culture of Inclusion
Everyday inclusion behaviours, how identities intersect, and what actually happened in the two case studies.
Positioning Neuroaffirming Practice in Your Organization
Reframe accommodation cost as performance investment, and pitch it to leaders in performance, talent or risk terms.
Pulling It All Together
Three micro-commitments participants can act on within two weeks.
Format Half day or full day. In person or virtual. Up to 25 participants.
How it is designed
- Behaviour change over awareness. Every activity is designed to change what managers do, not just what they know.
- Two case studies thread through the whole session. Managers observe, design a support plan, then see what actually happened.
- Decision-forcing activities. Participants practice the conversation, not just discuss it.
What's included
- Participant workbook with a neuroaffirming accommodations menu managers can use in conversation with their team.
- Pre-Course Reflection: a five-pillar assessment of how neuroaffirming your workplace is today, retaken at six months to measure change. Available as a document or an interactive web tool.
- Action Plan Generator: an interactive tool that turns the course into three micro-commitments and a two-week check-in reminder.
- Post-course companion to keep the learning going after the session.
Privacy by design
Both interactive tools are free to use, with no AI, no accounts, and nothing participants enter ever leaving their device.
Your facilitators
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Katie Pelletier, RPsych
Registered psychologist and co-owner of Indigrow Psychology with over 15 years of expertise in neurodiversity, supporting individual clients in neuroaffirming therapy and leading systems-level approaches that foster more inclusive and responsive environments.
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Jared Andres
Learning and development leader with deep expertise in leadership development and behaviour change program design across industries.
The anonymized case studies in this course are drawn from real clinical work. The clinical rigour is built into the course design, not just the facilitator bio.
Ready to build a neuroaffirming workplace?
Contact us to learn more about pilot pricing and availability.
Get in touch