How we’re redefining dyslexia in the workplace

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It makes me want to shout about my dyslexia from the rooftops. I am so proud to work for Virgin.

 Lucy Wedderburn is Virgin Limited Edition’s Group People Manager. She also happens to be dyslexic. This was her response when Virgin and Richard Branson partnered with Made by Dyslexia, LinkedIn, and Dictionary.com to redefine dyslexia (literally) and push businesses to see “Dyslexic Thinking” as a critical workplace skill. 

One in five people in the world have dyslexia, including the Virgin Group’s founder, Richard Branson. Richard has long spoken about the unique skills that come with dyslexic thinking, but we wanted to take this one step further. Together with Made By Dyslexia, we decided it was time to fundamentally shift the way the world views dyslexia. 

To raise awareness, Virgin collaborated with Made By Dyslexia and the world’s biggest business networking platform, LinkedIn, to add “Dyslexic Thinking” to its recognised skills list, available for the 810 million users to proudly display on their profiles. Richard Branson was the first person to do so and called for the dyslexic community to join him. The campaign also convinced Dictionary.com to add the term “Dyslexic Thinking” to its online dictionary, with the definition acknowledging its strengths in problem solving, abstract reasoning, and communication. This is how we change mindsets (and business) for good. 

 What we changed  

• With a 1562% increase in positive online sentiment towards the word ‘dyslexia’, we’ve definitively proven that dyslexic thinking is exactly the kind of skill needed to push humanity forwards, and it’s now being recognised as the positive force it should be.  

• Within 30 days, 13,000 HR and recruitment leaders had viewed our film explaining how Dyslexic Thinkers could help take their company to the next level.   

• Finally, and most importantly, over 20,000 people had added “dyslexic thinking” as a skill on LinkedIn, a number which continues to grow to this day, and which global companies including Facebook, EY, HSBC, and Microsoft are already seeking out in their recruitment.   

Following the successful campaign, Virgin and Made By Dyslexia launched phase two, demonstrating what is possible if AI and dyslexic thinking come together. This included a call to action for businesses all over the world to take Made By Dyslexia’s Dyslexic Thinking workplace training.  

As the film demonstrates, while AI aggregates, dyslexic thinking skills innovate. If businesses can harness the power of dyslexic thinking, we can really move the world forward. 

The training is free to access all over the world via LinkedIn Learning and we’re delighted that Virgin Group, Virgin Red, Virgin Hotels Collection, and Virgin StartUp have all earnt the Dyslexic Thinking badge by training all People and Recruitment teams, as well as encouraging all people across the business to take the training.

Richard Branson and Virgin continue to support Made By Dyslexia on its mission to empower dyslexic thinking in every home, school and workplace. Watch this space!