Delivered by Intellectus Strategies CiC
The Neuro-Discipline Roadmap
Designing work that holds under pressure.
A 90-day, non-clinical operational intervention that stabilises neurodivergent-heavy teams by changing how work is set up, prioritised, and recovered after error — not by asking people to cope better.
This Is Not Wellbeing. Not Coaching. Not Training.
The Neuro-Discipline Roadmap is deliberately not:
- ❌ therapy or mental health support
- ❌ awareness-only training
- ❌ a culture change programme
- ❌ a motivation or resilience initiative
Instead, it is a practical redesign of work systems so performance does not collapse under pressure.
Why Standard Work Systems Keep Failing Neurodivergent Staff
Assumptions That Break Down
Most organisations rely on systems that assume people can:
- start tasks easily,
- juggle multiple priorities,
- stay consistent under stress.
The Organisational Cost
For many neurodivergent staff, these assumptions fail. The result is:
- missed deadlines and rework
- manager firefighting
- sickness absence and burnout
- avoidable escalation and attrition
This is not a capability issue. It is a work design issue.
What Changes — Practically
Clear Start Cues
Clear task-start cues so work is easier to begin (reducing initiation friction).
Priority Guardrails
Reduced priority overload to limit cognitive strain and task switching burnout.
Recovery Protocols
Built-in recovery protocols when things slip or break, standardising the fix.
Decision Aids
Manager scripts and decision aids instead of subjective judgement calls.
The crucial difference: Even if individuals disengage, the system changes still apply around them.
A 90-Day Pilot. One Team. Clear Exit Points.
Identify where work repeatedly breaks down.
Install workflow scaffolds directly into existing systems.
Stabilise delivery and measure early indicators.
Decide: scale carefully, repeat elsewhere, or stop.
No long-term commitment.
No organisation-wide disruption.
Our Mission: Structural Protection
We Exist to Protect People Who Were Never Meant to Thrive in Neurotypical Systems
Intellectus Strategies CiC is not a training company. We are a structural countermeasure. We exist because high-potential neurodivergent people are repeatedly lost to burnout — not due to lack of skill or commitment, but because the systems around them were never designed for how their brains actually function.
That means:
- removing the friction that causes paralysis,
- reducing the ambiguity that triggers shame,
- and stabilising the workflows that push capable people out of work altogether.
We design systems that hold people under pressure, rather than asking them to endure it. Because once someone burns out, the human and organisational cost has already been paid.
Neurodiversity, Employment & Workplace Support: Research & Evidence
Selected Academic & Policy References
Academic & Systematic Review Sources
- Lauder, K., et al. (2022) A systematic review of interventions to support adults with ADHD at work. Frontiers in Psychology, 13:893469. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.893469.
- Fuermaier, A.B.M., et al. (2021) ‘ADHD at the workplace: ADHD symptoms, diagnostic status and work-related problems’, PMC Articles.
- Davies, J., Heasman, B., Livesey, A. et al. (2023) Access to employment: A comparison of autistic, neurodivergent and neurotypical adults’ experiences of hiring processes in the UK, Autism.
- Doyle, N. (2020) ‘Neurodiversity: a biopsychosocial model and the impact on working adults’, PMC Articles.
Policy & Official Reports
- UK Parliament (2025) Supporting neurodivergent people into employment: 2023/24 financial year employment statistics. Research Briefing, 5 September.
- Government of the UK (2024) The Buckland Review of Autism Employment.
Surveys & Workplace Research
- Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) (2024) One in five neurodivergent employees have experienced discrimination at work.
- City & Guilds (2025) Neurodiversity Index (workplace inclusion and experiences).
What This Evidence Supports
- Neurodivergent adults face significant structural barriers in employment and workplace systems.
- Where supports are present, they tend to be environmental or systemic rather than focused on individual motivation.
- There is a research gap in interventions that operate at the workflow or system level rather than at the individual level — exactly the space NDR is designed to fill.
Founder’s Note — Why We Built This
This Work Exists Because the System Didn’t Hold Me — Until I Rebuilt It
Hi — I’m Paulina Ellis, founder of Intellectus Strategies CiC and creator of the Neuro-Discipline Roadmap™. Before this became a public-sector intervention, it was a personal survival system developed over nearly two decades.
I was a high-performing, neurodivergent professional with a repeated pattern of crashing out of roles that should have worked. Therapy helped. Coaching helped. But lasting stability came when I stopped trying to change myself — and redesigned the structure around the work.
The Start Again Protocol came from a period where shame after a setback led to withdrawal, lost contracts, and damaged relationships. The scaffolds came from replacing internal pressure to “just get it together” with clear, external supports that actually worked under stress.
This isn’t theory. It’s a system built in real conditions, refined through lived experience, and now deployed in local authorities, NHS teams, and social-impact organisations that cannot afford to lose people to structural mismatch.
We don’t fix people. We fix systems — so they stop breaking the people they rely on.
Start With Clarity — Not Commitment
If you’re exploring how to reduce burnout, rework, or escalation in neurodivergent-heavy teams, the next step isn’t a sales pitch.
We will tell you if this isn’t the right fit.