Geoffrey Smith On Integrating Neurodiverse Individuals Into Australian Workplaces

Geoffrey Smith is a social entrepreneur committed to reducing unemployment for young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds. As a young Executive at a disability employment provider, Geoff was astonished by the sector’s hardened attitude towards supporting vulnerable people into work.

After supporting an affiliated social enterprise coffee shop, Geoff decided to go all-in; studying social enterprise in his Masters degree and putting his hand up to run Australian Spatial Analytics, a social enterprise employing young neurodiverse adults in Brisbane, Australia. As a data analyst by trade, Geoff puts into action the idea that technology can create work and wealth for disadvantaged communities.

Geoff discusses the strength of neurodiverse workers, scaling social businesses and the opportunities presented by the upcoming 2022 Social Enterprise World Forum.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Tom Allen] - Geoff, what led to your interest in social enterprise?

[Geoff Smith] - I grew up in a small town in regional Queensland with only about a thousand people. I was aware at a young age that most of the people in my town were worse off than our family. My parents owned the only supermarket in town and my father was the local dentist there. All of my mates and I we were really happy, and I had a great childhood, but I would say that I was aware at a very young age that I was quite privileged in the community. But I was only a kid, so I didn't do anything about it. I did what my parents told me, went to a religious boarding school, did well in sports and studied at a great university. A really good graduate program was created around that time, and I became a well-paid analyst at an oil and gas giant.

I was aware that things were easy for me, and it was not due to my hard work. It was mostly due to how society gives an opportunity for people like me because I'm from the middle class.

What does a millennial do in that situation? They quit, and I went and travelled abroad and taught English throughout South Asia. When I came back, I worked my way into an executive position at a non-profit disability provider.

I had the analytical skills from previous work and strategy know-how which they really needed in the new disability sector landscape. There'd been real reform in the sector of disability employment, and some was good, and some was not so good. Some was a bit too neo-liberal for my liking, [as it was] commoditising disability recruitment. What happened next was I really enjoyed it but felt that there had to be an alternative to the run of the mill disability employment sector. What I did is started studying and really got into this thing called social enterprise. This meant learning a lot about STREAT in Melbourne and Green Collect. I wrote a thesis on social enterprise as a vehicle for disability employment, and as you say it started falling [into place from] there.

There was a light bulb moment where I realised, I've got a business management undergraduate qualification, have analytical experience, and am now an executive at a registered charity. Things were culminating towards having the ultimate experience with social enterprise! I felt I was primed for entrepreneurship at that point, so I reached out to the closest social entrepreneur I could find. His name is Luke Terry [and he's] in Brisbane. Then a month later I started running a disability social enterprise called Australian Spatial Analytics.

You’re now the CEO of Australian Spatial Analytics. Tell us a bit more about the organisation's purpose and the key challenges that you faced in getting it off the ground?

We are young, we've only been around for about 18 months. Our purpose is to create data solutions for an inclusive workforce. By inclusive, we're talking about the fact that more than 1 in 70 of young Aussies are neurodiverse, but more than 55% of those are unemployed.

55% is an insane figure, but not just because of that scale. To me, it’s because through my past experience in helping start this organisation, it makes zero sense.

What I mean by this is we're in a digital epoch, young neurodiverse adults are generally pretty good with technology, yet 55% of them are sitting at home. There's a tension within Australian Spatial Analytics I feel, as we're a strength-based social enterprise where neurodiversity is our competitive advantage, but we really shouldn't need to exist.

Neurodiversity should really be a prerequisite for the digital world in a positive organisational culture and a productive workforce.

It's not yet, we're not there yet. Every day we support our legendary team to create geospatial products and services. We work for government departments, software firms, infrastructure consultancies and telecommunication designers. We now employ 27 people which is great. 20 are neurodiverse, 15 were long-term unemployed. 21 of us are under the age of 30. I say us, [even though] I'm not! Nine of those are in their first job and we're very thrilled that three have now transitioned to other employment.

With the news that the Social Enterprise World Forum is being held in Brisbane in 2022, what most excites you about the World Forum, and where do you see that Australian Spatial Analytics will be by September of next year?

That is an enormous question. There's a couple of important things about SEWF coming here to Brisbane or Australia in general. First thing, when we talk about my backstory, there will be an access point for young people wanting to enter this sector. I got extremely lucky, as I found a social entrepreneur who wanted to sit, listen and help. That's really rare, there's no graduate program for social entrepreneurs. They are being developed, but social enterprise is very unlike going to a massive corporation where you need your idea before approaching them. That is a fantastic process for the few people that have those ideas honed, but if you're saying, "look, I want to work in the sector, but I don't know how yet," this kind of event can really be a light on the hill for the sector.

SEWF can help find those new young leaders who may not know yet that they want to work in social impact, but they will see the profile of the World Forum. The other thing is it is the light on the hill for the sector, as there's so much happening in Australia.

We're a young organisation. I'm head down working on the business for better or for worse. SEWF gives me and everyone the chance to look up to the horizon and connect with others moving in that same direction. That sounds a bit like scripture, "thou shall not network for greater social good!" It is certainly true that we get to look up to the horizon and see what's going on. The fact that the Australian landscape is burgeoning and everyone's so busy and working so hard, it's going to be an incredible event for that reason alone. At Australian Spatial Analytics, by September to October 2022 we hope to have doubled our impacts and be employing 50 young people with disabilities.

We will be in more than one office and have spread our reach to regional communities, owning either an office outright or working through a collaboration hub with other social enterprises.

Something else that really excites me is we're going to venture into product development, which means that our team will not only consist of awesome data analysts, but they will be supported to learn software engineering, project management methodologies, and all those other awesome technological skills that come with building a product rather than being a service provider.

What do you see as the most important traits of a successful social entrepreneur and where can support be found for those change-makers who are really aspiring to start something themselves?

I can frame this answer with where I've made my mistakes. I really encourage for those who are interested to be wary of the ‘quick win’. I hate that idiom the 'quick win'. If it's quick, it's probably going to be bad. You should really foster long-term progress with relationships, whether it be through monitoring impact, relationships with clients, or supporting people with career development. If something looks really quick and easy, as it may bring money, there may be an opportunity to sit back instead and say, "I'm happy to take a risk, but it needs to be a moral risk."

This risk may not work but is it moral in the fact that it will still support the cohort you’re trying to support. I think of an example where we took risks on bringing people in before money started coming through the door, but we were employing team members who had never had a job before, training them and giving them great skill sets. That's a moral risk, as things may not pan out because we may not get that contract that we're training them up for, but they're learning about great software in a supportive environment. Take that moral risk while being wary of the quick win. The third thing is understood that not everyone's going to be as into your purpose as you are, but frame that as an opportunity.

It gives you the opportunity to explain things to people who potentially might be a little wary of what you're trying to do, and then they can help you with constructive criticism.

They're probably the three things:

be wary of the quick win, take moral risks and understand that everyone is not going to be into the same purpose the exact same way as you are and just embrace that. Try and be as collaborative as possible.

I've been so supported from the peak bodies around here; they're doing an awesome job in the sector. Intermediaries such as Social Traders and research institutions like the Yunus Centre are just wonderful and will only get better with more funding. As far as personal support, there are two things that have helped me. First is finding a champion in the community that you're trying to support. One of my mentors is a director at Disability Employment Australia, and I would have just been lost without them. We also have a great relationship with Autism Queensland.

You really need to talk to people who have experience in the community rather than pose a solution by yourself.

My other tip is finding a champion of someone who's done well in business because your model needs to be tight. Whether it's social or not, if you can find someone who is successful, they can potentially help you with those boring strategic and business model questions.

As you are now really working to scale Australian Spatial Analytics, do you have any specific advice when it comes to scaling your business model?

When it comes to the model itself, I only have experience with strengths-based value propositions. When it comes to developing the model of how you have comparative advantage, focus on the strengths of the team and what you're trying to support. That raises everyone's confidence and self-esteem and has the flow on effects of just creating a thriving workforce. It gives you that opportunity when you are talking to potential clients or potential funders to say, "we're not putting a square peg in a round hole here, this solution fits really well." When it comes to the model, support that strengths-based approach. [Also consider] employing young people as support workers or people who are just really keen to be involved.

Young people bring such enthusiasm, different skills and aren't too disenchanted with how things have gone due to previous work experiences. I think having young people around those that you want to support certainly makes my job a lot easier and you've got to keep the vibe up somehow. Then there's other stuff that is a part of the sector which is just wonderful. We have an advisory committee of people who just want to volunteer their time, who come from all different walks of life and are unbelievable. I remember when the board said, "Geoff, you need an advisory committee," I said, "who the hell would want to help? We're unknown. It's a great idea but asking for an hour of people’s time every month is insane." Now we've got nine advisors and are welcoming a tenth at our next meeting. They are just unbelievable. I really do think when you're trying to scale things, you need people outside of the sector.

What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across that you believe are creating really positive social change?

There's two initiatives that come to mind, because I literally talked to them yesterday. The first is called GeoNadir, and they're a mob out of Cairns run by Dr. Karen Joyce and Paul Mead. What they're doing is crowdsourcing drone data to protect at-risk ecosystems [such as] the Great Barrier Reef. They're doing some really awesome citizen science, so I highly recommend checking out GeoNadir and their approach to using technology to help at risk ecosystems. The other organisation is at the other end of the spectrum. The Atlassian Foundation is a huge technology company. They have an ‘engage for good’ program, and we are a month into our engagement with them on that. It's a skill volunteering program and they're helping us build an online technical training portal. Training is difficult at the best of times, but when there's so many different projects going on for us, we need it all in one place. Just having skilled volunteers who want to be there [is amazing]. It's a 12-week program and I highly recommend people looking for skill volunteering programs, because providing training for volunteers I've found quite difficult myself. It has been unbelievable, that engage for good program. The Atlassian Foundation and GeoNadir I really think people should check out.

To finish off, what books would you recommend to our listeners?

I'm reading this book called Late Bloomer: How An Autism Diagnosis Changed My Life. It's by Clem Bastow, she's a writer and a journalist. She was diagnosed with autism late in her mid-thirties. It's super valuable if you want to test your misconceptions about developmental disabilities in general or autism specifically. I really highly recommend this book, it is very funny, sad and great. If you don't know much about autism, go to Clem, she's an incredible advocate and it's a really cool new book.

I just finished reading a book called Status Anxiety by the philosopher Alain de Botton. He looks at the origin of why some jobs and activities have a higher status today than others. It's really interesting and talks a lot about meritocracy and the notion of why the rich are only considered the useful and worthy ones. It talks about dependence, and if you're keen to learn about why society is the way it is and why we need social impact, that angle on status I found thoroughly enjoyable. They're the last two books I read, so I'll leave you with those!