Below is the revised preface to Loving Diverse Minds, Leading Diverse Hearts: the Way to a Humanistic Future.
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As you read below, think about what content/curriculum you could create for leadership development among Neurodivergent People.
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Opening
“This book is a leadership guide for Neurodivergent People who imagine better outcomes for humanity and who are ready to design a future in which those outcomes are possible.
Neuro relates to nerves or the nervous system. The term neurodivergence suggests there are "neurotypical" ways human nervous systems function. Also, it suggests that nervous systems that do not function in those ways diverge from or operate outside of what is "normal". The neurotypical / neurodivergent categories serve many agendas, including colonization of resources (human labor). I use the term neurodivergent in this book for ease of communication - to describe people who are having a set of life experiences that don't feel “normal”. Neurodivergent People experience life as Autistic, bi-polar, attention deficit, dyslexic, hyperlexic, alexathymic and/or others that diverge from what the medical, mental health and other paradigms consider typical human development.
As a Neurodivergent Person, you have distinct abilities and capabilities to lead in ways no one else can. You may have always thought of leadership as something others do. You may be thinking about how you could lead. You may already be leading, whether or not you label your actions as leading, if you are attempting to meet community needs, no matter how small. Regardless of your experience with leadership, this book supports you in designing outcomes, at a scale that makes sense for you and your body.
Designing solutions to human needs is a leadership process that requires you to challenge basic assumptions about the world, about society, about your communities, about your relationships and about yourself. To arrive at these solutions, I discuss directly how White supremacist delusions shape the ways we imagine leadership, and I discuss what actual leadership is, outside of White supremacists delusions.
In this book, you will find a definition of leadership that speaks directly to you, as a Neurodivergent Person. You (and a vast network of Neurodivergent People) are uniquely qualified to lead in this complex world. This book tells you how you are qualified and what you can do with this knowledge.
Nowhere in this book do I use the label Neurodivergent Leader or just leader. This book does not support people who call themselves leaders because the status of "leader" is an ongoing assessment by those who want/need your leadership. This book does support, however, Neurodivergent People who want to lead.
Preface
If you have been following the development of this book through my crowdfund, you'll notice (upon reading this version) that I have shared almost two different books with you.
Talking to You
The first version would eventually fall flat for me and for you, if you were to continue to the end. After lots of healthy, self-critique, I realized there was no overarching framework in the former version. As a person who is also an academic writer, an Autistic, a pattern reader and a prolific thinker with ADHD, I need a solid framework to help me decide what to include and exclude in writing projects. The lack of an overarching framework had enabled me to write a safe, prescriptive list - not a book you could take to heart and apply time and time again in your real life. In the former version, there was no clear call to action AND, most importantly, no call to action to anyone in particular. If you liked the book parts I released, you may see them again. I need to decide how to organize those parts into a different book, outside this one.
Despite my not clearly naming an audience in the first version of this book, in my head, I was speaking to Neurodivergent People. I needed to speak more directly to Neurodivergent People who recognize, at some level, we have to construct worlds in which a neurodiverse population of people feel we belong. To be clear in this version of the book: I am speaking to Neurodivergent People who want to collectively and intentionally build the future.
We, the Futurists
We have to think of ourselves as futurists.
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