Beginner's Mind and Pudsey Bear

Last week, I talked about coming out of comfort zones, something which many people with Asperger's Syndrome, including myself, feel that they spend much of their time doing. This theme has been talked about quite a lot in Asperger forums within the social networks this week, with one comment suggesting that because people with Asperger's Syndrome spend so much time operating outside their comfort zone that it creates low-level anxiety that can result in a weaker immune system. In this entry, I am going to go a little further looking at how coming out of your comfort zone can develop Beginners Mind, a useful strategy when learning new tasks.

In relation to Asperger tendencies, including with the positive aspects of the condition such as curiosity in searching for information and good memory to store knowledge, facts and figures, it is often so difficult to put it aside for a while, to the extent that one may loose touch with what it is like to be new to something. As readers of this blog will know, I have personally found mindfulness practice, including meditation and basic yoga helpful for this. But even within such techniques, I have found that it can be easy to stay with a practice formula which becomes one's comfort zone to the extent that there are different elements of practice that get lost. 

Over the last week though, I have found that it is helpful to explore the practice from a beginners' perspective by revisiting techniques that I don't practice as regularly as others. One of the advantages that mindfulness practice has to help develop the refreshing quality of beginners mind is that there is a huge range of techniques, including over 80,000 known movements in Yoga, so there is plenty of scope for revisiting enabling different and new experiences. Just by revisiting a technique or movement that one practices perhaps infrequently,  we can experience what it is like to start or attempt something that is unusual or new to us.

Since working on our first contract at Autism Works, uncharted territory for the company, it has brought some new tasks and duties to my role as Operational Manager, including processing costs of sales spreadsheets using Microsoft Excel. When approaching learning new or different tasks, applying beginners' mind not only helps one be present with learning the task, but also helps one to un-learn methods and put any knowledge and expertise aside where necessary, so that old habits don't interfere too much. 

Where I find beginner's mind particularly helpful though is when I am giving training as much as when I am receiving it, which helps me when understanding the perspectives of who I am providing training for much better. When one has done something for a number of years and accumulates a high volume of knowledge and experience, this can be become a handicap when it cuts one off from new experiences and understandings of a particular subject, including Asperger's Syndrome. Approaching the subject from a beginners perspective often allows me to learn as much from the audience I am training as they learn from me.

Today is Children in Need day, which reminds me of something that I used to get a lot of fun out of doing in my previous job - dressing up as Pudsey Bear! Disguised as Pudsey, I would scour Durham County Hall with two students from Durham Trinity School for donations, and we broke the record quite a few times! When people asked who was in the bear suit, the students would say that this this is Pudsey Bear himself, so that I could get away with making rude gestures at the Leader of the Council and Chief Executive! Unfortunately, at Autism Works we don't have a bear suit, though I have done my bit this year purchasing a BBC Look North Weather Calendar, the proceeds of which will go to a very worthy course. If you would like to purchase one of these calendars with some lovely images of the North East of England, click on Pudsey below:

Applying beginner's mind may also hopefully help me with writing future blog entries, to find some relevant new approaches. Be sure to stay tuned to Adventures with Autism Works for more refreshed approaches and to tune into Pudsey on the BBC tonight.


Autism Works would also like to thank everybody who has donated or been involved in fundraising for  Children in Need 2011 

Testing and coming out of Comfort Zones

This week has been quite a testing week for me and the team at Autism Works. Using the word ‘testing’ seems quite appropriate working for a software testing firm! When I say testing I don’t necessarily mean that it has been a difficult week, but rather a learning curve in that I am learning new processes within my capacity as Operational Manager. In one sense though, when new duties are beginning to find their way into my role, it gives me a feeling of how my job is developing, as the company grows.

Despite the extensive mindfulness practice that I have undertaken over the last two years including meditation practice and basic yoga, it still sometimes takes me quite some effort to come out of my comfort zone in working environments and I have in particular noticed my tendency to ‘shy away’ from numbers! This tendency perhaps partly relates to me not being used to working with numbers as much as I am with letters and words as well as being hopeless at maths when I was at school, contrary to the stereotype that people with Asperger’s Syndrome are good at maths!

This week, I have been learning how to do Cost of Sales spreadsheets to calculate the profitability of the work we have been carrying out. From my previous blog entries, you may remember me talking about how developments in history rarely occur in isolation. Such processes are also visible in the development of an enterprise, especially if the enterprise is one that is breaking relatively new ground like Autism Works. Acquiring our first contracts from clients has seen us adapting to different ways of working in line with the clients’ requirements as well as bringing me new tasks, for which I have to learn new processes and, in some cases, unlearn old habits. The combination of learning and un-learning helps one revisit task and duties that may not have been undertaken in a while, from where skills so often get lost.

As well as shying away from numbers, I have also noticed that I have a tendency to procrastinate over software packages that I am not familiar with, largely because I don’t use them as much as others particularly Microsoft Excel. I am confident though that the more I use it regularly, I will become more accustomed to it. As the cost of sales spreadsheet that I am working on is our first, so it is a process where we will very likely have to learn from mistakes to get it right for our business.

Elsewhere, since my last blog entry, I have been in situations where I am largely within my comfort zone, giving training on Asperger’s Syndrome to staff at ESPA, which ironically involves interactive activities where staff are encouraged to come out of their comfort zone to experience  what it may be like to have Asperger’s Syndrome, which is often quite fun! In the meantime, stay tuned to New Aspie Horizons for the latest developments in the world of Autism Works.

Autism Works staff would like to take this opportunity to pay our respects for Remeberance Sunday this coming weekend. 

Silly Questions and Going Up Mountains

What a busy week this has been at Autism Works, with software testing work we have been doing for contracts we have had coming in, as well as working on a major funding bid. Though 'busy' can sound like hard work, don't confuse it with the fun it can bring.


In among the software testing work that our Test Analysts are progressing with, which is done in a language that makes as much sense to me as Klingon, I have been doing some preparation work for some training that I am doing for the Connexions service next week. Preparation work, especially putting together Powerpoint presentations, I often find fun. In relation to the subject that I am developing the training around, something I found very enjoyable was looking for questions asked at job interviews that can be open to literal interpretation by a candidate with Asperger's Syndrome, or interview questions that either don't make sense or are just plain stupid, to give Connexions staff an idea of the difficulties that a candidate with Asperger's Syndrome can have during job interviews, before exploring reasonable adjustments.


When giving a seminar with Tony Attwood back in 2007, something that I remember him talking about was how the best comedy was the world seen through different eyes, including Asperger eyes. In the case of Asperger's Syndrome though, comedy can also be the result of doing what we are told quite literally or just through being comfortable with the truth. This can also apply to job interview questions. A friend of mine also diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome said that a difficulty she experienced at job interviews was being able to form a 'dishonest' answer, particularly when asked 'why do you want to work for us?'. The standard answer she said that she would give was along the lines of 'your company has a lot of drive and potential for growth', while a more honest answer she would give would be 'because I have been made redundant and need the money'!  


The Autumn 2011 edition of The Autism File includes an in depth interview with me in which I talk about how open or abstract questions can present problems for candidates with Asperger's Syndrome as well as how employers need to be flexible within their recruitment procedures to capture the unique skills and talent that candidates with Asperger's Syndrome can bring. In the interview I also talk about the development of Autism Works, including what we have managed to achieve so far in our relatively short history as well as what we hope to achieve. 


Interwoven with this interview is a feature article I have written about my experiences of trekking up mountains, focusing particularly on how I have found experience of constantly changing weather and conditions helpful in coping with change. Change in various shapes and forms is hard for many people with Asperger's Syndrome to cope with, including in working environments. What we must also realise though is that when, faced with change, is that before we can learn new ways we need to unlearn old ways. As much change occurs as a result of circumstances both social and natural, one cannot control it. Just by changing our relationship with it though, including how we think about it, can enable us to see the meaningfulness in it, rather than becoming stressed or anxious through resisting it. 


At Autism Works, we have had some really positive feedback about the company from this interview. I have been asked to do some more writing for future editions of The Autism File which should bring Autism Works more positive publicity. In the meantime though, to keep up to date with developments at Autism Works, stay tuned to this blog.  

Inter-connected Technologies and Needs

Welcome back to adventures of Autism Works. First of all, apologies for the delay between entries as I have been away on leave. After my work at Daisy Chain and the success of the World Autism Organisation Conference, I have had a week's break in Italy, before resuming my duties at Autism Works, where I have been reviewing the company's operational procedures that I have been in the process of drafting.


Far from being just a welcome break, my visit to Italy was a fascinating cultural journey, seeing a huge breadth of recorded history stretching from the dominance of the Roman Empire under Constantine in Rome through to the Renaissance in Florence. Seeing such a range of history during a visit is fascinating not just to see the individual breakthroughs in art and science themselves, but also to see such events in contexts. Historical events, art movements and scientific breakthroughs very rarely occur in isolation. Often previous developments play a part, which allow for discoveries to be made by those who can make use or build upon these developments. In Florence, I visited the science museum where I saw the telescope with which Galileo discovered Jupiter's four largest moons, a discovery which had a profound impact on advances in astronomy, changing our perceptions of the solar system. Galilieo though didn't invent the telescope, but instead it was supposedly developed by spectacle-makers in the Netherlands who in turn built upon methods of glass-making developed in 13th-century Italy.


Far from being a series of isolated occurrences, history, including technological development is inter-connected. The Italian Renaissance spawned further historical periods such as the the Dutch Golden Age, which saw further developments in including the microscope. In turn, Dutch technology gradually found its way into England after the Glorious Revolution in 1688 (when William of Orange invaded by invitation), which would later contribute to the Industrial Revolution. Similarly, in contemporary times, those who have followed Autism Works since its inception will no doubt appreciate that the company has far from developed in isolation, not least as it is built upon already existing practice, but also technological developments and needs have played a strong part. 


With developments in software moving so fast in a competitive world (some may even argue that it is moving too fast), there is increasing demand for better-tested software products to reach the market quicker. Just like the developments of visual aids helped Galileo see more details in the heavens beyond the 'fixed stars' visible to the naked eye on a clear night, the positive traits of autism allow Autism Works to see detail that may otherwise be obscrued by the working practices of software developers, just like an independent proof-reader of texts for publication, including this blog, may see spelling and grammatical errors that may be obscured by the writers' creativity. This approach will also be helpful when reviewing the Autism Works Operational Procedures. There are two deliberate spelling mistakes and a grammatical error in this entry - did you manage to spot them? Answers on a postcard!


As well as seeing so much history and culture as well as variation in Italian cuisine, I was also fortunate to see Pope Benedict XVI address the crowd during his Wednesday audience in Rome's St Peter's Square. In the meantime, be sure to stay tuned to New Aspie Horizons for further inter-connected developments in the world of Autism Works.

First Impressions, Daisy Chain and the World Autism Organisation

This week at Autism Works has been a busy yet exciting one, not least because I have enjoyed some time visiting different locations and giving talks, but most interestingly I have had the privilege to find out about different approaches to autism from some fascinating presentations from people from places as diverse as Kuwait, Spain etc. Such events are great for exchange of ideas, as well as other organisations learning from us at Autism Works, there is also much we can learn from then.

Earlier in the week, I was speaking at the Daisy Chain Project in Stockton-on-Tees. As readers may remember, I gave a talk at Daisy Chain earlier in the year to their members, but this time though it was the Friends of Daisy Chain, largely made up of businesses that support the charity. It was interesting to hear about why businesses support an autism charity. One of the representatives was a Financial Advisor who became aware of Daisy Chain through a client who had a child with autism, and felt that becoming a friend of the charity would be a good way to 'give something back'. 

After I spoke, I then had the opportunity to hear a talk by Sue Donnelly, an internationally renowned image consultant, who talked about first impressions. As a person with Asperger's Syndrome, I tend not to place a high degree of importance on personal image, as I tend to focus more on the content and presentation of my work. Sue's approach to image and first impressions though, like my approach to Asperger's Syndrome, is largely unconventional in that she likes to focus on how you can make a good first impression by being yourself, which can be done quite easily. I later asked Sue for her honest opinion as an image consultant as to how I come across and I was pleased to hear that she felt I came across as 'authentic', who I am as I am, which is really just being me! I was almost like seeing myself from the outside, which was an interesting experience.

Quite often, conferences and events often deliver more than just their itinerary. The Daisy Chain event certainly did this and then two days later, the World Autism Organisation (WAO) Conference did this on a huge scale, in terms of what it opened me up to as to how Autism is understood throughout the world, not just in what we call the western world, but also in places such as South Africa, Namibia and Sudan. Representatives from these nations came to the conference to share good practice. Though there is much good practice in autism in the UK that they can take home, there is also a lot that we can learn from them, particularly from countries where provision for autism is minimal. Affected families in these countries have very little, but often make good use of what they have. 

It was also a privilege to hear remarkable stories from autism parents including Samira Al-Saad, founder of the Kuwait Autism Centre and an innovator in autism and learning, Isabel Bayonas, founder of the Association of Parents of Autistic Children in Spain and Polly Tommey, editor-in-chief of The Autism File, who gave a particularly inspirational speech. When interviewed on the local news later, WAO Chairman Paul Shattock mentioned that as many as one in six of us has a first degree relative (parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin) on the autistic spectrum. As well as this, there are also many people who know of someone who is either affected by autism or who has a relative on the autistic spectrum through social circles, as seen at Daisy Chain. Though there was much good news that came from the WAO conference, there is still plenty of work to be done in raising understanding of autism, in addition to awareness. Most of us are familiar with the word 'autism' itself, but many still don't quite understand what it is.

Daisy Chain, who have asked me to do some more work for them, have for now, convinced me to attempt to climb Kilimanjaro to raise funds for them in 2013. I have been impressed with how they have managed to attract support from outside the autistic community with the Friends of Daisy Chain aspect. This is important as autism doesn't just affect those on the spectrum but also others around them, not least because we breathe the same air! Be sure to stay tuned to Adventures with Autism Works to see how this develops.

Refreshed Approaches and Lunarticks

Welcome back to Adventures with Autism Works. After a week's meditation retreat, I feel very refreshed. The refreshing feeling that I brought back from Powys, Wales, I feel has had some significant benefits for certain aspects of my work at Autism Works, especially for next week's World Autism Organisation conference at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland, where Peter Macdonald and I will be speaking about Autism Works. Hopefully, the results of this conference will be the opposite of Sunderland AFC's start to the season, which has so far been unsuccessful with only two points from four games.

The meditation retreat at the Samatha Centre was a really relaxing experience, despite the rainy weather! This was my second full retreat here, but I felt that there was something different about the effects this time. When doing something like this for the first time, one is never quite sure what to expect. As I knew what the expect in terms of practice levels this time, I felt that I was able to experience further effects, especially feeling refreshed after each meditation practice. After each practice, everything seemed to become much clearer. I was able to realise who I am in relation to the interconnections of my surroundings, almost as if I had just returned home from travelling and noticed details my new experience had enabled me to notice.

Such refreshing perspectives are often very helpful when having to learn processes that one is trained in and, in some cases, become 'conditioned' in to the extent that it becomes automatic pilot. Such an approach to recruitment processes, not just within Autism Works or similar organisations, including our inspirations Specialisterne and Aspiritech, is needed across employers universally, to enable people with ASC access to employment within a wide range of roles, not just within IT. Practices that we have developed at Autism Works, some of which we will be talking about at the Stadium of Light next week, once established can hopefully be incorporated among employers where possible to provide flexibility towards candidates with an ASC, which could also be another service that Autism Works can provide as well as software testing.

To enable this, many aspects of conventional recruitment practice need to be un-learned. Too often, the focus is candidates with ASC needing training or coaching on how to adapt to conventional recruitment practices, including job interviews. Though this may be necessary up to a point, one has to  draw the line somewhere, so that people on the spectrum don't feel that they have to be actors/actresses to manage a recruitment process. People with ASC are often described and even stereotyped as being 'rigid' or 'inflexible', but often, it helps to look at where conventional approaches in education and employment are perhaps inflexible towards people with ASC.

Flexible approaches within businesses both in recruitment processes and in the working environment are important not just to accommodate people with ASC, but also to enable pooling of skills, abilities and ideas which ultimately enhance output. Earlier in the week, I had the privilege to listen to Adam Hart-Davis, author and broadcaster, at the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society. Hart-Davis' fascinating lecture was about about the Lunar Society of Birmingham, or the 'Lunarticks', as they called themselves. The Lunarticks, whose members included the likes of James Watt (inventor of the steam engine), Josiah Wedgewood (founder of Wedgewood Pottery) and Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin), met every full moon during the late 18th century when the Industrial Revolution was in motion. Hart Davis showed how some of its members were good inventors while others were good entrepreneurs, a fusion of which allowed key stages of the Industrial Revolution to develop. Similarly, a fusion of people with ASC and people who don't have ASC working together can enhance output in the marketplace.

Stay tuned to Adventures with Autism Works to see how the conference goes next week!

We would also like to say a huge thank you to Sumanjeet Sandhu, our student intern from Newcastle University, who finishes her placement with us at Autism Works today, for all her hard work and creativity raising our profile through the social media networks. We wish her well for her future, which we hope will be a bright one.

Training and Meditation Retreat

Welcome back to Adventures with Autism Works. First of all, apologies that there hasn't been a blog for the last two weeks. This has been due to a combination of being in training one week and then giving training the next. I guess this shows the degree of variation that my role involves. It is a nice balance to learn new and useful skills as well as pass on knowledge and experience to aid the learning of ESPA's students. Tomorrow, I am off on meditation retreat for a week at the Samatha Centre in Powys, Wales.


One of my new responsibilities as Operations Manager is to manage the petty cash. ESPA's staff have introduced me to the system that they use for recording such small expenses, and were quick to notice that we go through quite a lot of milk! With a little practice, I feel that I have managed to get the hang of it. It is often easy to see new duties or responsibilities as an extra burden, but for me, doing this task is a good way to 'switch off' from my main tasks of continuing with the Operational Manual, before revisiting it from a refreshed perspective, similar to what I will hopefully find from when I come back from meditation retreat in a week's time.


The following week, I gave a lecture at Sunderland University as part of ESPA's training week, which was a fun experience. Prior to my part, Peter gave a talk about the Databridge project, an online system being implemented at ESPA where information can be recorded digitally, thus minimising the use of paper. Peter mentioned that he had given the same talk two years ago, before I started at Autism Works, and he asked the audience if they were there two years ago and just about everyone put their hands up. He then said that they would probably find my talk more interesting and entertaining providing I didn't mention Sooty or Timmy Mallett! I found Peter's talk entertaining and quite innovative for someone who wasn't there two years ago, especially with some of the things that ESPA staff can record on Databridge of observations on individual student's learning. Such a system could also be used effectively when looking at reasonable adjustments for employees at Autism Works.


The talk on the databridge project by Peter then fed effectively into my part. Often, when talking about Asperger's Syndrome in education, I focus on how effective observation is often helpful in being able to find student strengths as well as weaknesses to be aware of. Such detail can be recorded onto the Databridge system so that when different members of staff are working with an individual student, they have the necessary information at hand in case anything occurs, including understanding why a particular student may react in such a way. A problem that I had and many others growing up with undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome in mainstream school no doubt had was that different teachers would often see two or maybe three students in one. Teachers of the student's stronger subject may see the student as 'gifted' while teachers of their weaker subjects may see the student as 'backward'.


My next blog entry will come when I return from meditation retreat. Rather than a break from work and from my normal life, the retreat is a way of stepping back from the flow, detaching myself from the constraints and responsibilities that I am used to. Hopefully, when I come back I will be able to approach my duties at Autism Works from a refreshed perspective, including being able to see detail that I may have missed through becoming caught up in responsibility, which will hopefully enhance the upcoming conferences speeches I have later this month, including the World Autism Organisation (WAO) Conference at the Stadium of Light. To find out more about this, please visit the conference's official site clicking here 


The WAO conference will also give us the chance to learn about developments in adult autism services in places as diverse as Latin America, South Africa and the Arab world. There may well be some things from such diverse cultures that will benefit Autism Works, as much as we may have something that could help them. Stay tuned to Adventures with Autism Works to find out how this unfolds!