Working With and Celebrating Autistic Colleagues: A Progressive Nonprofit Manager's Guide
Seven modules for managers, peers, and people who report to autistic colleagues at progressive nonprofits. Built on identity-first language, the Double Empathy Problem, and The Management Center's equitable-management practice. Credits autistic researchers by name.
MdR Palacios · Lead Instructor, Equitable Management
Maria del Rosario Palacios is an author, data engineer, policy expert, and civic-technology builder. She has spent more than a decade building training infrastructure for movement organizations across the South: at Generation Data she launched the first Spanish-language Intro to Progressive Data course and taught data visualization, WhatsApp outreach, and community data practice. MdR has published three books, including Project Management for Xingones. She is a 10-year certified train-the-trainer instructor with UGA's Fanning Institute for Leadership. This course is co-developed with autistic colleagues, draws on research by autistic scholars (Raymaker, Kapp, Nicolaidis, Pellicano, and others), and applies The Management Center's equitable, sustainable, results-driven framework to neurodiverse teams.
Equitable management
Building manager systems (1:1 cadences, written feedback, named expectations) that work without forcing autistic colleagues to mask their way into legibility.
Anti-deficit framing
Naming the Double Empathy Problem as a mutual culture clash, not an autistic deficit. Coaching the team's defaults, not just the individual.
Progressive nonprofit context
Built for orgs with structure and resources (HR functions, accommodation processes, people teams) and an explicit commitment to justice and inclusion.
Datos Lab
Co-developed inside a multidisciplinary team where data, policy, and community work depend on neurodiverse contributors being able to do their best work.
What you will do
You will move through three relationship directions (managing, peering, reporting up) and build a workplace audit you can rerun annually. The course is built for progressive nonprofit context, identity-first by default, and credits autistic researchers by name.
Name your language and your lens
Use identity-first language with confidence, understand the debate, and apply the Double Empathy Problem to your team's communication norms.
Read the group's stage
Adapt Tuckman's five stages (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning) to neurodiverse teams, and act in a way that includes autistic colleagues as full participants.
Run honest 1:1s, write strong norms
Manager 1:1s, peer norms, 'Working With Me' docs, and reports-to-autistic-managers practices for the three relationship directions.
Protect bodies and build a workplace
Treat masking, burnout, menstrual and chronic-illness needs as working conditions — and build an org-wide audit you can act on.
Modules in this course
Seven modules (about 30 minutes each; Module 1 runs 40). Each ends with a downloadable working template you can use the same week.
Why this course, this language, this lens
Identity-first language, the Double Empathy Problem, anti-deficit framing, a shapes self-assessment, a deep dive on pairings and the decision flow, and why a progressive nonprofit context matters.
Begin Module 1 MODULE 2 · 30 MINStages of group development on a neurodiverse team
Tuckman's Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning; read for neurodiverse teams, with a diagnostic you can use this week.
Begin Module 2 MODULE 3 · 30 MINIf you manage someone autistic
The manager job (1:1s, expectations, feedback, accommodations) practiced as a team-wide default, with the places defaults break for neurodiverse teams called out plainly.
Begin Module 3 MODULE 4 · 30 MINIf you are a peer of someone autistic
Peer-to-peer collaboration, written norms, friction repair, and how to build the kind of team people stay for — especially the ones the rest of the org tends to lose first.
Begin Module 4 MODULE 5 · 30 MINIf you report to someone autistic
Reporting up to an autistic manager — what to write, how to ask, and how to handle the moments where neurotypical assumptions break.
Begin Module 5 MODULE 6 · 30 MINMasking, burnout, and the bodies in our buildings
Camouflaging, autistic burnout, retention harm, and how to treat menstrual, hormonal, and chronic-illness needs as working conditions, not personal problems.
Begin Module 6 MODULE 7 · 30 MIN · FINALBuilding a workplace that celebrates difference
From individual practice to an org-wide audit and three concrete commitments: for executive directors, HR leads, and people managers.
Begin Module 7What you take home
Seven working templates that fit together as an equitable-management operating system for neurodiverse teams. Each one unlocks when you complete its module.
| Template | Unlocked in | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Language & Framing Reference Card | Module 1 | Pocket guide to identity-first language, anti-deficit framing, and a pre-send check. |
| Shapes & Neurodiversity Self-Reflection | Module 1 | One-page worksheet to record your primary and secondary shape, friction patterns, and three commitments to autistic colleagues. |
| Shapes 1:1 Conversation Guide | Module 3 | Manager + report worksheet for surfacing primary shape, stress default, and pair-bridge moves in 1:1s. |
| Shape Pairings Cheat-Sheet | Module 4 | One-page reference: six common shape pairings, where each gets stuck, and the one sentence that unsticks them. |
| Stress-Flip Self-Check | Module 6 | Worksheet to name what each shape does under stress, the impact on autistic colleagues, and a recovery move. |
| Tuckman + Neurodiversity Stage Diagnostic | Module 2 | A team-stage diagnostic adapted for neurodiverse teams. One concrete move per week. |
| Manager 1:1 Template for Neurodiverse Reports | Module 3 | Standing agenda, sustainability check, written feedback discipline, and action log. |
| Peer Collaboration Norms Worksheet | Module 4 | Two-person worksheet for writing shared norms, signing them, and logging friction. |
| 'Working With Me' Document Template | Module 5 | A one-pager every team member writes (including managers) to remove guesswork. |
| Masking & Burnout Conversation Guide | Module 6 | A non-clinical guide for managers to talk about masking cost — with four levers they control. |
| Neurodiversity Audit for Org Leaders | Module 7 | Multi-tab workbook for an org-wide read: hiring, manager practice, comms, environment, culture. |
How the course works
| Design choice | How it appears in this course |
|---|---|
| Identity-first language | Default to 'autistic colleague'. The debate is taught in Module 1.1; we follow the individual's stated preference always. |
| Anti-deficit framing | We treat communication friction as mutual (Double Empathy Problem): not as an autistic deficit to be coached. |
| Three relationships | Modules 3, 4, and 5 cover managing, being a peer, and reporting to autistic colleagues — most courses only cover the first. |
| Bodies, not abstractions | Module 6 names masking cost, burnout, and menstrual/hormonal/chronic-illness conditions: a callout based on the 2025 Bowden & Miller research. |
| Researcher credit | Autistic researchers (Raymaker, Kapp, Nicolaidis, Pellicano, and others) are named where their work informs the lesson. |
| Operational, not theoretical | Every module ends with a downloadable working template you can use the same week. |
Who this is for
- People managers at progressive nonprofits, foundations, and movement organizations.
- HR leads, people teams, and executive directors building inclusive systems.
- Peers and team leads who collaborate with autistic colleagues.
- Staff who report to an autistic manager and want to do that relationship well.
- Autistic professionals who want to give their team a shared text.
Prerequisites: None. Familiarity with The Management Center's vocabulary is helpful but not required.