Meet The Duck and the Living Lab

*Don't worry, this isn't a blog about vivisection*

I'm not sure if there's an official definition of a Living Lab but I'm very sure there isn't for a Meet The Duck day - at least not until today - because it's a new thing.

First, say hi to Ed, the Executive Duck.

The computer world has the concept of 'rubber duck debugging' and the ADHD world has the concept of 'body doubling'. Ed is the product of my curiousity: what happens if, instead of talking though a problem, you tell a rubber duck what you are supposed to be doing then sit the rubber duck in your line of sight as you work. 

It is working for me. In fact, it is working so well that when I want a bit of downtime and I haven't finished my list of tasks, I have to hide Ed. 

I'm working on an auditory equivalent as not everyone relies on visual cues as strongly as me, to see whether putting on a specific playlist can provide a 'body double'. A wonderful entrepreneur friend tried it last week on her admin day and achieved more with less stress by using a gentle audio cue.

Which gets us to the concept of a Living Lab.

A small group of us are using our curiosity, knowledge and personal experience to develop and iterate ideas faster than any formal research programme. It's what I call #RealTimeResearch. What turns this into a Living Lab is that we are in the process of starting a membership organisation called NeuDICE, the Neurodivergent and Inclusive Community of Entrepreneurs, thanks to the support of UnLtd and Social Firms Wales through the Welsh Gov funded Ecwiti award scheme.

NeuDICE will be a Living Lab where we ideate, iterate and implement - or, in English, a place where we come up with ideas, try them out on ourselves in real-time, and when we find something that seems good-enough to release into the wider world - well, off it goes!

It's early days as yet. We are still working on ways to capture the learning as we go. In the medium term, we aim to set up INDIE, the Institute for Neurodivergent and Inclusive Entrepreneurship. INDIE will take on the evidence, evaluation and research function leaving NeuDICE free to crack on being curious and trying things out. In the immediate future, we are just using Miro boards to document thinking and findings as we go along.

Remember Ed, the Executive Duck? 

On Wednesday 24th August and Friday 2nd September we are trying out Meet The Duck days in Swansea. The concept is that people book themselves into the same co-working space and bring their rubber duck. By 'people' I mean those freelancers and microbusiness owners who are already on board with the concept of a space designed for neurodivergent entrepreneurs and open to all and are just waiting to sign up for membership to NeuDICE. 

Those days we will be testing:

• does productivity increase when we meet in a shared space, all knowing that we are there to crack on with jobs we've been postponing?
• does the visual of sitting rubber ducks on our desks help build a sense of belonging to a community?
• are the provisional rules* working in the way we think they will?

*provisional rules:

• No speaking to anyone when they are sat at their desk. Comms will be via a virtual 'mirror' co-working space in the NeuDICE Discord server. This includes when you walk into the space. The only exception is that you can approach Zed when you arrive if you aren't sure about anything (Zed is the executive duck wearing dark shades - Zed belongs to the person who arranged the Meet The Duck day). If you just want to say hi to people when you arrive - that's what the Discord server is for.
• If you would like company when you take a break, drop a message into the virtual space, say how long you think you'll be on your break and be upfront if there's anything you'd like to pick people's brains about or enthuse about while on your break. 
• No moving into anyone's personal space. For us, that means staying at least two arms-lengths from anyone else's body.
• Conversational menus are welcomed [This is a credit-card sized list of topics you'd enjoy talking about if you find yourself taking a break the same time as someone else] It saves the anxious pressure of small talk. 
• Stimming is welcomed. Negotiating a way for everyone to be comfortable in the space if one person's stimming causes another person's sensory overload is also welcomed. If it's easier, this can be broached via Zed.
• Wearing noise-cancelling headphones is highly recommended because a) it's hard to work in total silence b) each person has their own optimal kind of sounds when working and c) people will be making and taking calls at their desk.
• Treat the space as an enclosed public space. So follow the noise-pollution, eating and behaviour rules you'd follow if you were sat on a bus or in a waiting room with strangers. 

If you live in or near Swansea and you want to take part in the Meet The Duck days, you can leave a comment here, message @welshflier on twitter or connect with Anne Collis on LinkedIn. 

Categorising, drawing, and an autism diagnosis

 My first degree was botany, back in the 1980s. We learned classification. Most of the time, we looked for particular features to say 'is this'; sometimes we looked for absence of features to say 'not this'. 

Fast forward to my first art class since school, a one-off taster to celebrate the new millenium. I learned you can draw by looking what is inside the lines; but it can be more effective to get the shape by looking at what is outside the lines.

I am autistic. I know that because I looked for the features that say 'is this'. To be autistic is to possess a variety of features, traits, ways of seeing the world that are sufficiently distinctive to allow classification as 'autistic'. 

I have autism. I know that because the NHS looked for features that say 'not this'. The clinical diagnositc process starts with a presumption of what 'normal' means and then looks for features and traits that are considered 'not normal'. My diagnostic process was for autism, so the process looked for ways that autistic people are typically 'not normal'. If it had been the diagnostic process for ADHD, the process would have looked for other ways in which I was typically 'not normal'. [I opted not to repeat the diagnostic process with a different team with a different ethos, given all that is on offer locally for adults with ADHD that isn't available from the autism service for those with AuDHD = both autistic and ADHDer - is medication]

I find this difference between being autistic and having autism is easiest to understand through the lens of neurodiversity. 

When I say I am autistic, I am saying that variation in ways of perceiving, making sense of and interacting within the world is naturally occuring. I am an orange in the fruitbowl of life where variation in types of fruit is naturally occuring. 

When I am told I have autism, they are saying that there is a normal (neurotypical) and that's not me.  I am neurodivergent. I do not fit their model of normal. I am an orange in a fruitbowl where apples are the only permitted fruit. 

One day, when societies recognise the naturally occuring variety of neurotypes, to say someone is neurodivergent will be meaningless because there will be no neurotypical and therefore no divergence from the typical. 

In the meantime, I am proudly neurodivergent. I believe society needs people who see social issues from multiple perspectives and can co-create solutions. This means society needs a diversity of people with the full diversity of neurotypes working together on these social issues. In some places, this is called thought-diversity (as opposed to group-think) or having different cognitive maps (as opposed to sharing a team cognitive map). 

The bottom line is that if society keeps thinking using a limited set of perspectives, society will keep getting the same old results. Problems that have defied solution will continue to defy solution. 

Perhaps the first step towards this future would be switching to a 'is this' form of classification that values each person for who they are, rather than a 'not this' that defines people by what they are not. 

Who knew that a 1980s botany course, drawing on 17th century botanical principles, could be so relevant to policy design in 2022?