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Hi everyone! Thanks for joining us on The Leader Show with Lou Carter. Today we cover the first part of Lou’s interview with Dr. Temple Grandin, a renowned author, and academic, well-known for her research in autism and animal behavior.
In this episode, the speakers discuss topics such as autism, neurodiversity, working with companies as neurodiverse individuals, and Temple’s new book Visual Thinking.
Now, let’s jump right in!
Dr. Grandin gets the ball rolling by discussing her new book, “Visual Thinking,” which emphasizes the value of thinking in images and how individuals who think visually can contribute to businesses.
According to her, people who are good at visual thinking often excel at mechanical skills. She cites her experience working with tradespeople who had invented innovative equipment despite not having finished high school.
She also expresses concern that the education system is currently disregarding trade skills, with shop classes being removed from the curriculum, which she believes will have negative consequences on American society.
Lou and Temple continue their discussion, touching on the challenge of math requirements in education and its impact on visual thinkers. Temple expresses her concern about how math requirements can screen out visual thinkers, stating that algebra is too abstract for her.
She highlights that people who are skilled at fixing and inventing equipment are needed in various sectors, including the meat and automobile industries.
Additionally, she points out that although computers run robots, someone with a visual thinking mind is required to design the tool that goes on the end of the robotic arm, which is controlled by a computer.
Moving on, the speakers discuss different kinds of thinking and the importance of recognizing them as complementary skills. Temple identifies as an object visualizer and photo-realistic visual thinker. She emphasizes that people with her kind of mind are good at mechanical skills, fixing and inventing mechanical equipment, and working with animals.
On the other hand, there are pattern thinkers who are good at music and math and are traditionally degreed engineers. She also mentions verbal thinkers who think in words and are highly organized in their thinking. Temple expresses her concern about the loss of skills in technical fields and how it impacts various industries.
Next, Lou and Temple talk about how she got past red tape because of her autism and was able to show off her work. Temple shares that in interviews, she often showed off her drawings and pictures of her past work, which was how she got jobs. Plus, she mentions having designed the front end of every beef plant for Cargill. She landed the job by sending the CEO drawings, photos, brochures, and trade magazine articles.
On this note, the author emphasizes the importance of showcasing one’s work in interviews and urges the listeners to keep looking for doors to opportunity in career development. She also shares how she approached the editor of the Farmer Ranch Man Magazine to get his card so that she could write for the magazine, which helped her career.
Subsequently, Temple highlights the little details she noticed in cattle behavior, which led to her work in animal behavior and welfare. She mentions that in the early seventies, the biggest barrier for her was being a woman, and her autism was not much of an issue for her. As a visual thinker, she noticed things that others tend to overlook, such as shadows that can scare cattle.
She shares an example of a shadow, which she calls the spider monster, that appeared from an overhead structure in the morning and frightened Angus cattle. To fix it, the owner had to build a roof over it. Temple suggests that cattle are not afraid of getting slaughtered but are more afraid of shadows and little things that people tend not to see.
Then the speakers discuss the different ways of thinking. Lou brings up Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night” painting and how a mathematician found a mathematical pattern emerging in the turbulence model of the painting. Temple adds that this shows how people with different ways of thinking can bring something unique to the table.
Furthermore, she mentions that there are different kinds of minds, such as object visualizers and visual-spatial thinkers, and it’s important to recognize these distinctions in scientific studies. She recommends using the search terms “object visualizer” and “visual-spatial” for more information on the topic.
On the same note, Temple highlights the most suitable jobs for different types of thinkers, such as photography and mechanical work for visual thinkers, mathematics and engineering for visual-spatial thinkers, and legal practice and education for verbal thinkers.
She also emphasizes the importance of hands-on education for visual learners in technical fields and how the removal of such classes from schools has resulted in a shortage of skilled workers in industries such as manufacturing and agriculture.
Furthermore, she mentions that she helped improve technical systems for cattle ranching and meat plants by creating her own gate and other projects that reduced labor requirements, bruising, and workman’s compensation. She sold these projects strictly on economics, and her work also improved the environment for the cows.
Next, Temple emphasizes the importance of exposure to different things in order to discover one’s strengths and interests. She points out that many hands-on classes have been removed from schools, depriving children of the opportunity to discover their potential in fields like welding or programming, which is unfortunate.
Grandin also warns against focusing on labels, citing a case where parents of an autistic child with a talent for math assumed they couldn’t teach their child programming because of their child’s diagnosis. She emphasizes the need for collaboration between different types of minds and highlights her upcoming book on visual thinking, co-authored with Betsy Lerner, as an example of such collaboration.
Finally, Lou asks Temple Grandin about the long-term success of neurodiversity hiring in organizations. In response, Temple mentions that, economically, organizations need neurodiverse individuals, and they need people with different types of thinking, such as visual thinkers and mathematics experts.
Furthermore, she emphasizes the importance of attention to detail, which is a strength of neurodiverse individuals, and the need to avoid overgeneralization, which is a weakness of verbal minds.
Reminder: The conversation doesn’t end here. Stay tuned for Part B, where we dive deeper into this topic
Thank you for listening!
