Clarity
- Use plain, unambiguous language that is collaboratively agreed up front.
- Clearly define success metrics and role expectations for all employees.
- Make policies and processes transparent to everyone.
Ambiguity creates hidden labour; clear expectations reduce waste and risk.
Capacity
- Acknowledge the role of sensory, cognitive, and emotional energy, not just time.
- Balance workloads to reduce risk of burnout.
- Provide support structures such as coaching, mentoring, or peer networks.
Productivity increases when work is redesigned and allows for flexibility.
Culture
- Celebrate diverse strengths: creativity, deep focus, pattern recognition, fairness.
- Challenge stigma and myths about ‘professionalism’.
- Leaders model openness, vulnerability, and curiosity, before any conflict arises.
Leaders who model inclusion curb non-inclusive behaviours.
Conditions
- Adjust sensory environments (lighting, noise, space).
- Offer flexible working conditions where possible.
- Ensure technology and systems are accessible.
Accessibility is strategy: fix the environment, unlock participation.
Compassion
- Assume good intent when behaviours differ.
- Respond to adjustment requests with respect and care.
- Recognise intersectionality: gender, disability, queerness, cultural background, and trauma all shape experience.
A compassionate approach converts good intent into measurable outcomes.
Select any section of the wheel to see what you can do. Select it again to close.
By Callie Elward-Barrett, Executive Functioning Leadership
Introduction
Workplaces are facing a defining challenge around talent acquisition in a rapidly changing world, with many organisations identifying difficulties attracting and retaining employees with future-facing skills. For neurodivergent employees, who consistently report advanced proficiency in the most sought-after core skills identified by the World Economic Forum, including those with ADHD, autism, dyslexia and more, the barrier is not capability, but exclusion, despite many accommodations being free or low cost and simple to implement.
Rigid systems, outdated measures of professionalism, and environments that favour one way of thinking systemically exclude many neurodivergent people.
The 5Cs Model for Neuroinclusion ™ provides a practical, evidence-informed approach to transform awareness into systemic change. Built from lived experience, professional expertise in leadership and system design, and consultation with neurodivergent communities, this model gives leaders the tools to create workplaces where all minds can thrive.
The 5Cs Model for Neuroinclusion ™
At its core, neuroinclusion is not about accommodating individuals on the margins. It’s about redesigning the system to better suit the variety that already exists within every workplace. The 5Cs offer a simple, memorable structure for leaders and organisations to use with all employees, not just those who may be neurodivergent. Embedding the 5Cs at organisational level creates an environment that is truly neuroinclusive. For everyone.
The 5Cs Model operates alongside the Neuroinclusion Capability Framework™, to deliver meaningful and measurable inclusive change.
1. Clarity
Definition: Reducing ambiguity in communication, expectations, and processes.
- Use plain, unambiguous language that is collaboratively agreed up front.
- Clearly define success metrics and role expectations for all employees.
- Make policies and processes transparent to everyone.
- Ambiguity creates hidden labour; clear expectations reduce waste and risk.
Why it matters: Ambiguity disproportionately disadvantages neurodivergent staff, who often expend additional hidden labour decoding unspoken rules. Clarity builds trust, psychological safety, and consistent performance.
2. Capacity
Definition: Designing workloads and supports that enable sustainable performance.
- Acknowledge the role of sensory, cognitive, and emotional energy, not just time.
- Balance workloads to reduce risk of burnout.
- Provide support structures such as coaching, mentoring, or peer networks.
- Productivity increases when work is redesigned and allows for flexibility.
Why it matters: Capacity recognises that productivity is not limitless and can be inconsistent. Sustainable planning allows neurodivergent employees to contribute their best work without sacrificing wellbeing. With a minimum of 12% employees identifying as neurodivergent (15-20% is believed to be more accurate) burnout and attrition remain high due to unsustainable systems.
3. Culture
Definition: Explicitly embedding values, norms, and behaviours that normalise difference.
- Celebrate diverse strengths: creativity, deep focus, pattern recognition, fairness.
- Challenge stigma and myths about ‘professionalism’.
- Leaders model openness, vulnerability, and curiosity, before any conflict arises.
- Leaders who model inclusion curb non-inclusive behaviours.
Why it matters: Culture determines whether employees feel safe to be authentic. Without it, accommodations are tokenistic. With it, inclusion becomes self-sustaining.
4. Conditions
Definition: Creating environments – physical, digital, and procedural – that remove barriers.
- Adjust sensory environments (lighting, noise, space).
- Offer flexible working conditions where possible.
- Ensure technology and systems are accessible.
- Accessibility is strategy: fix the environment, unlock participation.
Why it matters: Neurodivergent talent often shines or struggles depending on conditions. Adjusting the environment can unlock performance without requiring individuals to mask.
5. Compassion (The Core)
Definition: Leading with empathy, humanity, and curiosity.
- Assume good intent when behaviours differ.
- Respond to adjustment requests with respect and care.
- Recognise intersectionality: gender, disability, queerness, cultural background, and trauma all shape experience.
- A compassionate approach converts good intent into measurable outcomes
Why it matters: In every conversation with neurodivergent people, one message is clear: compassion makes the difference. It transforms policies into practices and workplaces into safe psychosocial spaces. Fear of prejudice and judgement stops people from disclosing their needs. Compassion makes it safe to do so.
Why Organisations Need the 5Cs
The 5Cs Model helps organisations to:
- Raise Awareness: Building shared language around inclusion.
- Increase Competency: Giving leaders practical tools to act.
- Drive Systemic Change: Embedding inclusion across structures, culture, and environments.
- Strengthen Reputation: Positioning the organisation as a leader in inclusion and innovation.
- Employee Value Proposition: Driving recruitment and retention of talented people.
In short: the 5Cs move workplaces from good intentions to measurable impact.
