Workplace learning should be for everyone.

In this blog, we’ll discuss how you can make your workplace learning accessible to your neurodiverse employees – specifically, those with ADHD – by understanding the relationship between ADHD, dopamine and learning.

Dopamine isn’t just an inconsequential neurotransmitter; it’s arguably the key to working with your ADHD learners, rather than against them – and moulding your L&D strategy in a way that reaches everyone in your team.

What is ADHD?

Most everyone knows what ADHD is by now – but despite the widespread awareness, there’s still plenty of misconceptions. In thinking about ADHD, some might immediately call to mind the stereotypical image of the condition: a hyperactive child (usually a boy) not being able to sit still in class, fidgeting with the paper on his desk, and blurting things out while the teacher is talking.

The truth is that while the predominant symptom of ADHD is inattention, there is a whole litany of other symptoms that aren’t as widely talked about – and these can vary a lot depending on the individual. (It’s just like the saying goes: “If you’ve met one neurodivergent person… you’ve met one neurodivergent person.”)

If you’re new to learning about the condition, you may not even know that there are actually three different types (Hyperactive presentation, Inattentive presentation, and Combined presentation) leading to ADHD presenting very differently from person to person – and that’s not even getting into the differences in presentations between genders.

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What are the three different types of ADHD?

Hyperactive presentation: Perhaps the most widely publicised and commonly known ADHD presentation, this is characterised by mainly hyperactive traits such as restlessness, fidgeting, talking over or interrupting others, impulsivity, impatience, and getting easily overwhelmed.

Inattentive presentation: This is arguably the lesser-known presentation of ADHD. Symptoms include having trouble focussing, a lack of attention to detail, frequent daydreaming, forgetfulness, making mistakes, becoming bored easily, difficulty following instructions, and difficulty listening.

Combined presentation: This is a combination of both hyperactive and inattentive presentations.

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Dopamine and ADHD

To understand the all-important relationship between dopamine and ADHD, let’s first get to know dopamine. What’s its deal? What does it actually do around here?

What is dopamine’s role in the brain?

Let's imagine that your brain is a company, made up of different departments.

Dopamine is an extremely important "employee" within this extremely important company, who should really be on track for a pay rise considering the amount of duties it’s juggling.

Firstly, it heads up the "Reward and Pleasure" department within the brain, motivating you with positive reinforcement whenever you achieve a goal. It's also responsible for facilitating smooth communication between other departments, helping to transmit messages back and forth. It even takes on Project Management duties, helping you to focus on important tasks, maintain attention, and organise your work. Finally, it dips its toes into Quality Assurance by regulating movement and coordination.  

When dopamine is off sick

Right now, dopamine is sounding like employee of the month, isn’t it? If someone in your organisation was in charge of that many duties, you’d be absolutely screwed when they took holiday.

Well when dopamine is on holiday, off sick, or has an erratic work schedule – as is the case for those with ADHD – all of these duties fall into disarray. This results in a lack of motivation, communication breakdowns, disorganisation, and quality issues. (Are we stretching this metaphor far enough?)

Put – a little bit more – simply, ADHD is linked to dysregulation in the dopamine system. That’s why it’s so important to keep dopamine in mind when understanding how to structure and deliver workplace learning to employees with ADHD.

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The impact of ADHD on learning

If you have this condition, or know someone who does, you’ll already be aware of the complex relationship between ADHD and learning.

Those with undiagnosed – or diagnosed but misunderstood – ADHD often share the common experience of being told throughout school, college and university that they’re too slow, too lazy, or even unintelligent.

This leads to a crippling cycle of self-doubt and confusion – because between struggling to pay attention to their maths teacher and failing history class, they’ve managed to speed-read three books by their favourite author, perfectly play a complex song from memory, or paint a beautiful portrait. They know, somewhere within that spiderweb of self-doubt and inadequacy, that they’re a smart and creative person… So why isn’t that translating in an academic setting?

Understanding and working with an ADHD diagnosis can be the key to breaking this cycle. And just like academic settings, the workplace can be a very common trigger for these feelings.

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How to work with – not against – dopamine when designing workplace learning

So how can you help mitigate this?

Here are some tips, tricks and hacks for working with dopamine when designing workplace learning for employees with ADHD.

Gamification

Gamification is such an effective workplace learning tool (for all neurotypes!), we've even dedicated an entire blog to the topic. Dopamine plays a crucial role in gamification, because when you unlock an achievement, get to the next level, score points or whatever it might be, the brain releases that crucial neurotransmitter. Key to ADHD’s relationship to learning, activities have to be fun in order to release dopamine and increase motivation.

Here are just a few examples of gamification in workplace learning:

Leaderboards:

For those who are motivated by a healthy dose of competition, the results of mobilising their competitive streak can be extremely effective. Research by Ding-Chau Wang & Yong-Ming Huang compared the effectiveness of both “competition” and “collaboration” in learning, and saw competition come out on top:

“Perceived competition is a factor more significant than perceived collaboration behind learning performance, in which perceived competition directly affects perceived collaboration.”

You know, not that it’s a competition or anything…

It follows, then, that your learning platform should enable leaderboards in order to encourage this. With a leaderboard, learners can see where their name falls on the hierarchy, celebrating as they climb further and further up the list – or putting in more learning hours to prevent their name falling down it.

Either way, our friend dopamine is being released and a sense of motivation is being achieved.

Quizzes:

The first benefit of quizzes is that they serve as a way to lift up the learning and make it more engaging. Instead of merely reading the material, people are actively interacting with it. This is one of the keys to gamification: the feeling of active participation, rather than passive participation.

Certificates:

The final pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, certificates are a great way for learners to demonstrate what they know and really drive home that sense of reward.

Providing certificates might seem like a relatively small deal to some, but it’s actually inextricably linked to a sense of motivation for learners – especially those managing ADHD symptoms.

"Chunk" your learning content

If you’re reading this blog, the chances are that you’re already familiar with the idea of spaced repetition and “chunking” learning content. This refers, unsurprisingly, to breaking your learning into smaller, more manageable chunks – therefore lining the road to the finish line with little pots of dopamine. Research shows that breaking things down in this way is extremely beneficial for those with ADHD. Microlearning is the perfect example of this: smaller, more purposely engaging modules to achieve quick wins and hold your learners’ attention.

Create a productive working/learning environment

People with ADHD quite obviously struggle with focussing – but the flipside of that coin is that they can also hyper-focus on tasks or activities, leading to a somewhat supernatural level of tunnel-vision. When this is interrupted it can be extremely jarring, leading to the person feeling stressed out, irritated and disorientated.

To create an environment that encourages focus rather than distraction, allow your ADHD learners accommodations like wearing noise-cancelling headphones, having a quiet space to work in, and minimising the amount of noisy distractions in the office. Some prefer to work (or learn) from home, while others find that “body doubling” actually leads them to be more productive.

Something to keep in mind! While hyper-focus is great, it’s also very important to encourage employees to take regular breaks to move around, get fresh air and eat. (Anyone who’s been deep in a multi-hour hyper-focus vortex while ignoring a rumbling stomach will relate!)

If you’re looking for an LMS that facilitates many of these strategies, book a Thrive demo today.

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