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Neurodiversity in FM: Building Stronger Teams Through Curiosity, Empathy and Inclusion

7/1/2026

Key Takeaways: 

As facilities organizations grapple with workforce shortages, employee engagement challenges and increasingly complex operations, creating workplaces that support a wide range of thinking styles has become more important than ever.  

During his session at NFMT West “Managing and Understanding Neurodivergence in Facility Management,” Steve Course, facilities manager at Mid Atlantic Retina, will share how his experience as a neurodivergent leader has influenced his approach to team building, problem-solving and operational management. This session, among others, will be at NFMT West in Las Vegas from November 3 to 4. 

FN: How has your experience as a neurodivergent facility manager shaped your leadership style and approach to building teams? 

Steve Course: It's not the only thing, but it's probably 90 percent of it. If you look at my resume, it's incredibly busy up until I came here. This is the longest I've been anywhere. Other than that, it's generally been about two years at each place, unless it was a freelance job — some of those I held for a really long time. 

It's kind of a mixture of things. Originally, I jumped from HVAC into facilities management, and I was immediately put in satellite buildings by myself and just kind of left to it. A lot of this stuff was self-taught in the beginning through pattern recognition and experience. 

I already knew my way around buildings from being a vendor. After that, it was really about talking to the people in the buildings every day, looking at what was happening every day and asking myself: What do these people need? What do these systems need? What needs to happen for these things to work better for the people using them? 

Pretty much everything comes down to that. 

The rest of it comes from previous jobs. Whether a job was a good fit or a bad fit, I don't think anybody has ever had a manager they didn't learn something from, either from the consequences of bad management or from the things that worked and stuck with you. 

Then I started going to NFMT, listening to other speakers, joining the Association for Facilities Engineering (AFE) and working on my certified professional maintenance manager (CPMM) certification. By that point, I'd been doing this for a few years, and I realized that a lot of the things I thought were just my own weird way of doing things actually had names. Other people were doing them too. Some had expanded on those ideas, and in some cases I had my own takes that I could build on and share. So it's really been a mixture of all of that. 

FN: How can facility leaders leverage technology and workflows to support neurodivergent employees while also improving operational performance? 

Course: The same way you would with any system, really. You want to cut down on friction and reduce background processes. The more background processes you're running, the less effective you're going to be at your primary one. 

Those background processes can be human, too. Maybe somebody has a health issue and doesn't have time to go to the doctor. Maybe their kid is sick. For me, there are days when my pain is worse, and I can't do the same things I can on a day when it's more manageable. Sometimes the brain fog is worse, too. 

Because of that, I try to set the table for my work. When I'm having a really good thinking day, I do a lot of planning, problem-solving and organizing. That way, on the tougher days, I can focus more on executing the plan rather than having to create it from scratch. 

It's the same with my technicians. I know they're generally happy to do just about anything, and they genuinely want to get things done. If someone asks them to take on something extra, they'll usually jump right in. For me, it's not about squeezing something out of every minute of every day. It's about getting the highest-quality work out of everybody every day. 

That might mean recognizing that some days are mentally demanding. If you're managing multiple vendors, jumping on and off phone calls, answering emails, researching issues and getting back to people, your brain is spinning at 1,000 RPM. 

One of the great things about facilities work is that we also have tasks that are completely different. Maybe an office needs to be repainted. You can put on headphones and focus on that all day. There's enough variety in the work that people can have cooling-off periods from different kinds of demands, whether that's intense mental work or physical work. 

If you can alternate between those different types of work, you create a more sustainable balance. People can help each other out, and you can be smarter about how work gets done. Sure, one person could drag a heavy item up the stairs alone, but if you plan ahead and assign a second person for that part of the job, it gets done faster. You don't end up repairing walls because something got banged into them, and the whole process is calmer, smoother and a lot more friction-free. 

FN: What are some best practices for recruiting, training, and managing neurodivergent team members in facilities management, and what benefits can organizations gain from embracing a more inclusive workforce? 

Course: It's really more about how we can improve hiring in general, because anything we do for neurodivergent staff tends to improve things for everybody. That's basically the concept of universal design, and I think it's 100 percent true. There has never really been a disability accommodation added to the built environment that hasn't benefited everyone else as well. 

Whether it's curb cuts, which were incredibly useful when I was pushing flight cases and carts around, or elevators, ramps and better lighting, those things make life easier for everyone. When lighting isn't aggressive and uncomfortable, that's a benefit no matter who you are. 

When it comes to hiring practices, I think we need to move away from some of the things people are doing more of, like filtering resumes by keywords and text. It's really reductive, and as far as I'm concerned, it's not very productive. One reason I've generally had good results in building teams is that I try to look at whole people. 

Take me for example. If all you know is "Steve Course, facility manager" or "Steve Course, HVAC technician," you don't really know anything about me. Those titles will probably create a picture in your head, but if you asked 10 people to describe what Steve is like based only on those words, none of them would be accurate. 

The same goes for my electrician, Paul. Sure, Paul's an electrician. But he also went to school for audio technology. He's worked as a stagehand. He loves taking things apart and putting them back together, no matter what they are. He's naturally curious and always asking why something works the way it does. 

Then there's Jules. She has a facilities certification, but she also has a fine arts degree. She's an incredible painter, an incredible illustrator and just a deeply interesting person. 

If you look at my own background, I'm a DJ, I'm a musician and I'm involved in disability advocacy. When you look across my resume, all of those experiences connect. 

In facilities management, almost any job you've had outside of facilities isn't just some unrelated thing — it's experience. Waiting tables and bartending, for example, are incredibly useful backgrounds because, at the end of the day, what do we do this for if not people? 

At the end of every chain of everything we deal with is a person. Buildings exist for people to occupy and for people to do specific things in. That's what all of this supports. 

So much of the job comes down to understanding people. Whether we're working with staff, customers, contractors, or multiple vendors on a major project, we need to understand who those people are. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What corners might they cut? What details might they overlook during planning? Do they work well with others? Are they a good fit to work while the office is occupied, or are they someone who should be scheduled after hours? 

Those human factors matter. Understanding people is everything. 

FN: What do you think will be the most important takeaway from your session? 

Course: The biggest takeaway is understanding that almost any problem you run into in facilities management has, at its root, an unmet need, a lack of support or a question that was never asked. Everything we do in facilities management exists to support people. 

Our job is to stay curious, keep asking questions, keep listening to people's needs and advocate for the support required to meet those needs. 

I hope attendees leave with answers to some of their immediate questions and a framework for beginning to understand neurodiversity and organizational psychology. I also hope sharing some of my personal experiences helps people better understand what it feels like to be treated differently — and how those of us who are different can bring unique talents, perspectives and ways of thinking to the table. 

More importantly, though, I'd like people to leave with the empathy, understanding and curiosity to keep asking the right questions, continue learning and keep advocating for improvements that help the people in our spaces thrive. 

As facility managers, the best way to measure our success and our impact is by looking at how well the people and systems around us are doing. When they thrive, we've done our job well. 

To learn more about understanding and managing neurodivergence, be sure to check out Course’s session at NFMT West 2026 this November. Register for West here. 

Jeff Wardon, Jr., is the assistant editor for the facilities market. With more than three years of experience, he covers topics including technology, wellness, sustainability and emerging industry trends.