# 'Agricultural specialisterne': rural employment revolution for those with Autism

**URL:** <https://pheromonetalk.com/t/agricultural-specialisterne-rural-employment-revolution-for-those-with-autism/50615>\
**Category:** Lounge\
**Created:** [June 5, 2011, 5:40am UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/agricultural-specialisterne-rural-employment-revolution-for-those-with-autism/50615 "2011-06-05T05:40:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 184

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**Author:** ![Visionary7903](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/45deac/32.png) [@Visionary7903](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/Visionary7903)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 9:00am UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/agricultural-specialisterne-rural-employment-revolution-for-those-with-autism/50615/184 "2012-03-26T09:00:27Z")

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In a [post](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/specialisterne-leveraging-the-unique-skills-of-autistics-at-competitive-market-terms/50245/75) of mine from late last year, I mentioned Robert Austin, a Harvard Business School professor.

> [@](#):
>
> …In an article he co-wrote this year with Javier Busquets, Austin quotes a manager at one of Specialisterne’s client companies, who had a revelation when he realised the tailored management approach could benefit all his staff.
> 
> **"He realised that the same approach could be applied to all his employees, especially the particularly talented ones.**
> 
> “Many (but not all) of those, he observed, had eccentricities or other idiosyncrasies of personality or behaviour.”
> 
> He goes on: “You don’t apply interchangeable units of labour to a task; rather, you ‘cast’ a group of variously talented ‘actors’ particularly suited to their roles. And you don’t get to choose among the features, only among the people. Suppress idiosyncrasy and risk suppressing talent also…”

Similarly, an adaptive Tennis program for children with Autism being developed in Getzville, New York by Brian and Pam may also give these instructors ideas that could be used to improve their teaching of ‘neurotypical’ kids…

> [@](#):
>
> …My main business is creative problem solving, so I like playing in the mind," [Brian] said. **"To learn how to break things down into very, very small, bite-sized chunks [for the Autistic kids] has been a nice challenge on the tennis side, which I’ve been transferring to working with typical kids as well.** So there’s been a lot of learning for me, too"…

(sources: [Company where being ‘different’ is a bonus](http://tools.afr.com/viewer.aspx?EDP://20081118000030548257); [http://www.thinkfirstserve.com/uploads/51772a054ac805e65a9bd78c2be55e3d.pdf](http://www.thinkfirstserve.com/uploads/51772a054ac805e65a9bd78c2be55e3d.pdf))

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