Human Fabric

1 in 5 of your employees are likely to be neurodivergent - they think, feel, communicate and process information differently.

They bring unique talents, creativity, and problem-solving strengths — but too often, they’re navigating systems that weren’t designed with them in mind and cultures that expect them to conform.

Many HR and DEI leaders tell us they want to do more to understand and harness neurodiversity, but don’t know where to start, beyond running an awareness session.

The Neurodiversity at Work™ Accreditation helps organisations move from insight → action → recognition.

✅ Insight: Assess your current neuroinclusion maturity across eight levers — governance, awareness, culture, leadership support, ways of working, communications, physical spaces, & HR processes.

🚀 Action: Build a practical roadmap tailored to your organisation’s realities and aligned with your strategic priorities

🏅 Recognition: Let employees and the talent pool know about your commitment through Human Fabric’s independent certification.

It’s a structured and collaborative assessment process that helps you prioritise your efforts to create a more neuroinclusive workplace - increasing engagement, productivity, and innovation.

Book a discovery call today to find out more: https://hubs.li/Q03Wcl6h0

Neurodiversity awareness is the first step, but action is where inclusion lives.

Real change happens when leaders create systems and ways of working that work for all minds.

We guide teams through that shift — from knowing to doing.

Our first ADHD Awareness webinar filled up fast — but good news, we’ve opened more dates!

Next webinar date: Wednesday, 5th November 2025.

Join Human Fabric ADHD Coaches Bex O'Malley and Kayla Oughton - ADHD coaches with lived experience — for a free, interactive 30-minute session. ADHD is often misunderstood — especially in adulthood. Many of us grow up believing we’re “lazy” or “broken,” when in fact our brains are simply wired differently.

We’ll explore:
• What ADHD really looks like in adults (beyond the stereotypes)
• Common struggles like burnout, masking, and late diagnosis
• What specialist ADHD coaching is — and what it isn’t
• Practical tools you can take away today

Who It’s For:
• Adults with ADHD (diagnosed or self-identified)
• People wondering if ADHD coaching might help them
• Friends, whānau, or colleagues who want to better understand ADHD
• Anyone curious about what it means to thrive with a differently wired brain

"Because you’re not broken. You’re wired differently. Coaching helps you thrive as you are."

Spaces are limited again, so don’t wait! ADHD Awareness: What you need to know + how coaching can help https://hubs.li/Q03Rdsvy0

ADHD Awareness: What you need to know + how coaching can help ADHD is often misunderstood — especially in adulthood. Many of us grow up believing we’re “lazy” or “broken,” when in fact our brains are simply wired differently.

Over the past two days, we've had the absolute pleasure of spending time with many engaged people leaders at Open Polytechnic, facilitating two Neuroinclusive Leadership courses — building on the all-staff neurodiversity webinar we delivered the previous week.

Together, we explored:
🧠 What neurodiversity is and why we are hearing more about it these days
💡 The strengths, challenges, and invisible barriers associated with different neurodivergent experiences such as ADHD, autism, and dyslexia.
🏢 The ethical, business, and future case for creating more neuroinclusive workplaces — for both individuals and organisations.
🤝 And most importantly, what leaders can do every day to be inclusive by design.

The conversations were rich and practical. Some of our favourite moments came from the discussions about how to handle disclosure well — what to say (and what not to say) when someone shares their neurodivergence — and exploring the kinds of reasonable accommodations that help people thrive. We also delved into tailoring ways of working, fostering psychological safety, communicating clearly and accessibly, delivering constructive feedback, and challenging unconscious bias.

A huge thank you to all the Open Polytechnic leaders who brought such curiosity, openness, and bravery to these sessions.

If you’re interested in equipping your staff with the understanding, confidence, and practical tools to create a neuroinclusive culture, Human Fabric offers:

- Neuroinclusive leadership courses for people leaders
- Neurodiversity awareness sessions for all staff
- A neurodiversity briefing for HR & execs
- Coaching for neurodivergent professionals
- Coaching and advice for managers
- Consulting support for organisational change
- A holistic neuroinclusion assessment and accreditation for organisations

📩 Get in touch to learn more: [email protected]

👉 Or visit the Human Fabric website.

October is ADHD Awareness Month. For us at Human Fabric, it’s personal.

Too often, ADHD is still misunderstood — reduced to stereotypes of distraction or hyperactivity. But for many adults, ADHD is about burnout, shame, or feeling broken in systems that weren’t built with us in mind.

The truth is: ADHD isn’t something to fix. It’s a different way of thinking, with strengths and challenges. Coaching helps you understand your own wiring, reclaim your strengths, and create strategies that actually work for your brain.

This month, we’ll be sharing:
✨ What ADHD really looks like in adults
✨ What specialist ADHD coaching is (and isn’t)
✨ Stories of transformation and hope
✨ Practical tools you can use right now

If you’ve ever wondered whether ADHD coaching could help you — or if you’re curious about how different brains work — stay with us this month.

📅 And join us for a free 30-min Lunch & Learn webinar later this month: ADHD Awareness: What you need to know + how coaching can help.

Because you’re not broken. You’re wired differently — and that difference is worth celebrating.

🌿 Welcome Bex O’Malley to Human Fabric 🌿

We’re thrilled to announce that Bex O’Malley has joined Human Fabric as a Neurodiversity Consultant & ADHD/AuDHD Coach.

Bex brings 18+ years of corporate experience alongside lived experience of ADHD, combined with in-depth ADHD-informed coach training. Her approach centres on creating safe, supportive coaching spaces where neurodivergent adults can harness their strengths, better understand their unique differences, and thrive both at work and in life.

✨ The great news: Bex has just opened up limited availability for 1:1 ADHD & AuDHD coaching.

What to expect:
✔️ Online 1-hour sessions tailored to how you think – not how others expect you to
✔️ A safe and supportive environment for self-knowledge, self-acceptance, self-validation, and self-advocacy
✔️ No diagnosis required. All neurotypes welcome.

The first step is simple: book a free 30-minute discovery call with Bex to see how it feels and learn more about the process.

👉 Book here: https://hubs.li/Q03KTVcp0

We’re excited to see the impact Bex will make with our clients and the wider community.

New science out of NZ shows that fidgeting is an effective focus tool for ADHDers.

I always have a range of fidget toys on my desk. During video calls, you’ll often find me rolling balls in my hand, or squeezing a squishy cube while I listen. It helps me stay present in conversations, and I often reach for them when I pause to think when writing too.

In previous leadership roles, I often stood up and moved around during meetings — not because I was restless, but because I thought best while on my feet. Standing at a whiteboard, sketching ideas with colleagues, or even listening to webinars while taking a short walk — these light movements always helped me to think more clearly.

Until recently, this was just my lived experience of ADHD. Now, the science backs this up.

I recently attended a great webinar by AADPA, where Professor Justin Fernandez summarised these new findings from research by the University of Auckland and Mātai Medical Research Institute. It showed that for people with ADHD, fidgeting and small movements increased activation in the prefrontal cortex — the brain’s decision-making and attention centre.

In other words, movement helps the ADHD brain focus!

The research found that for neurotypical brains, the opposite was true — fidgeting often distracted and reduced activation. This explains why workplaces (and schools) have historically dismissed movement as disruptive: they were judging it through a neurotypical lens.

But for many of us with ADHD, movement is a great strategy.

So to the ADHDers out there: no need to feel guilty when listening to an online meeting or webinar while moving around - you are likely to be meeting your needs to support your focus, not "being distracted"!

What this means for organisations:

💼 Rethink “professional” behaviour - A colleague standing, pacing, or using a fidget tool might be supporting their focus, not signalling disengagement.

🧠 Design for inclusion - Meeting spaces and cultures that normalise movement can unlock better contributions from ADHD professionals.

Embracing a little movement can unlock better thinking and deeper engagement from the ~2.5-5% of of your workforce that are likely to have ADHD.

I’ve felt it personally. Now the data confirms it.

On this Thurday 10-1pm - A workshop for people leaders to learn the neuroinclusive leadership techniques that unlock team performance, engagement, and innovation.

Here's what prior attendees have said:

“A valuable workshop to attend for managers, HR teams, neurodivergent employees, and coworkers of neurodivergent employees.

In short, it’s beneficial for everyone who is passionate about creating spaces where our differences are acknowledged as strengths and harnessed for innovation and enhanced personal, team, and organisational performance.

Informative and practical, this workshop creates awareness about neurodiversity at the workplace and supports the participants in planning the first steps to neuroinclusion they can take.”

- Yuliya Schamrel, People And Culture Lead, Morphum Environmental

Register for this Friday, or get in touch to explore running the course at your organisation: https://hubs.li/Q03F8n5f0

There's still time to register for this Thursday's short course for people leaders: Reframing & Harnessing Neurodiversity in Teams.

It's an opportunity to understand the neuroinclusive leadership techniques that will increase your team’s innovation, engagement, and performance - or perhaps to assess the course yourself as an HR leader before rolling it out for your organisation.

Through a 3-hour workshop and 1-hour group coaching session a month later, participants will learn:

- What is neurodiversity

- The benefits of embracing neurodiversity to individuals, teams, and organisations

- Strengths, challenges, and invisible barriers for different neurotypes at work

- 8 core neuroinclusive practices that will harness the potential of all types of minds

$345 + GST. Register here: https://hubs.li/Q03F7SVY0

Interested in running this course at your organisation? Book a free discovery call today to find out more: https://hubs.li/Q03F7--W0

🔹 Diagnosed – Now What? Personal Reflections and a Roadmap for Thriving with Adult ADHD

..Hear this 40-min talk and more at the ADHD Conference, coming up this Saturday, in Auckland!

Receiving an ADHD diagnosis as an adult can be life-changing — and not always in the ways you expect. For many professionals, it sparks a wave of emotions: validation, grief, clarity, confusion, and ultimately, transformation.

At this year’s ADHD Conference, join Human Fabric's founder Jenny Turner - ADHD coach, neurodiversity consultant, and former senior business leader - for a compelling and candid session exploring the realities of late-diagnosed ADHD.

Jenny will:
✔️ Share her personal diagnosis journey in her 40s, including what helped and what didn’t
✔️ Reframe ADHD through a strengths-based lens
✔️ Highlight common themes from the late-diagnosed adults she’s worked with as a coach
✔️ Offer a practical roadmap for understanding your brain, advocating for your needs, and creating a life and career that fit

Whether you're newly diagnosed or supporting someone who is, this talk offers insight, encouragement, and next steps grounded in lived experience and professional expertise.

🧠 Delivered with warmth, humour, and depth, Jenny's session is a must-attend for professionals navigating ADHD.

🗓️ Saturday 23 September | ⏰ 10am–4pm

🎟️ Register now for only $128, via https://hubs.li/Q03D4M0j0

💻 Learn more about Human Fabric's coaching services at: https://hubs.li/Q03D4Tnq0