The Canary Code: Coaching for Neurodiversity, Dignity, and Belonging

In this episode of the Coaching Book Club Podcast, Christy and Ken explore The Canary Code by Ludmila Praslova, PhD — a transformative guide on neurodiversity, dignity, and intersectional belonging at work.

While written for organizational leaders, this book holds profound implications for coaching. Christy and Ken reflect on:

• What pre-boarding means for coaching, and how it creates psychological safety before a client even signs on.
• Ways to design inclusive sessions — from sensory-aware setups to communication preferences.
• Why neuroinclusion isn’t just good customer service — it’s core to cultivating trust and safety.

Whether you’re new to coaching or reimagining your practice, this episode invites you to reconsider what true inclusion looks like — not just in what you say, but in how you show up.

Explore the book on Bookshop.org: The Canary Code

Transcript

Christy Stuber: 0:11

Welcome to the Coaching Book Club podcast, the show that empowers coaches through books. I'm Christy Stuber here with my friend and co-host Ken McKellar. And today we're talking about the Canary Code, A Guide to Neurodiversity, dignity and Intersectional Belonging at Work by Ludmila Praslova, PhD. Here's what you can expect in this episode. First, we'll share a quick overview of the book, what it's about, and why it matters to coaches like you. Next, we'll break down some key takeaways that stood out to us and how they might inspire you to reflect on your own practice. Finally, we'll talk about how we've been applying these ideas in our coaching practice with some strategies you can experiment with in your own life. Hello, Ken. Hey, how you doing? I'm good. Good, good, good. So what did you think of this book?

Ken McKellar: 1:01

I thought the book was very educational. I mean, if you are a leader, and I mean even more than a leader, but you wanted some ideals of what working with neuro neurodiverse groups to look like in your organization, this right here gives you, it gives you. Framework and a checklist.

Christy Stuber: 1:30

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Very instructional. Um, the quote from the beginning of the book that stood out to me was holistic. Neuro inclusion means social, cognitive, emotional, and physical, sensory inclusion and organizational statements and PR cannot create belonging because it's a process on deep, emotional and embodied levels. And that made me think about. My coaching practice, like my business and how I am creating belonging specifically for neurodiverse folks, um, through my presence, through my systems, through my flexibility. What am I doing to demonstrate neuro inclusion and how I coach? And those were my takeaways from this book. Were really very practical. What are ways that I can build that in to my existing practice to ensure that I am creating that belonging? And I can start with my first takeaway if you'd like. Please. Yeah. Um, so she talks. Her book is really geared towards employers and leaders and how they can bring this into their businesses. And she talks about something called pre-boarding. So not onboarding when the person is hired, not onboarding when we are, um, you know, bringing a client on as a paid client, but pre-boarding, which is designing these early stages of that client relationship. And so including things like, um. Understanding individual needs. You know, what am I doing in my chemistry sessions to make sure I'm really understanding my client's needs in all ways. Um, that might lead to practices. Like what does my paperwork look like when I'm bringing on a client? Um, how am I explaining the process and expectations of coaching and our roles independently of each other and together. How is my communication clear and consistent, so it connected to me back to the core competency, cultivating trust and safety. You know, we think about this in session, but this made me think about it before even the first conversation, that first email that I get with an inquiry or maybe a connection that's being made. What am I doing to honor my client's unique processing needs throughout that whole process. Um, and so thinking about like what are the assumptions I'm making about my client onboarding process and pre-boarding, like even the inquiry process and what check-ins can I build in to make sure that I'm meeting them where they are and with what they need? And you can think about this as like customer service. You know, how am I building customer service? My practice, this book helped me realize this is neuro inclusion in action. It's not just giving a good service, it's it being inclusive in everything I'm doing. What are your thoughts?

Ken McKellar: 4:39

I went to Walmart the other day

Christy Stuber: 4:42

and

Ken McKellar: 4:45

I only had cash. I left my wallet and at home and I was short about 27 cents. And I said to the lady, listen, I'm in the rush because I'm going to see and meet with Christy Stuber. And she said, Christy, you know Christy, stop that. I know Christy. And she reached in her pocket and got 26 cents, took a penny from take one foot, one jar, and I was off and running. So I'm just so happy that I got, I get to hang out with you and you get to give those incredible insights about the books you read and how you bring it in to your coaching. Not just today, but every day. Not just every day, but our conversations. You amaze me sometimes, and what you just said there was amazing because it is. Part of, for me, of how can I bring this into my awareness, right? Whether it's going to the extents that you did and right. Bringing it to your practice or bringing it to my education and coaching with folks, or acceptance as I'm listening to this. Folks with folks, um, 'cause these are conversations and I think more and more we are starting to have 'em in the coaching arena. So making space for it, these books, I, I think it's, it's very valuable. Um, for me, I got a lot of education outta for me. I, I, I. I didn't really get to that application aspect of it like you did. That's why I'm, I'm in great awe. But I did get educated in terms of like a lot of, wow, you never, I never thought about that. Ooh, that makes sense. Oh, that's a good idea. And some, yes, I know. I've been known that for a minute now. So that's, that's kind of what, how I'm moving with this book.

Christy Stuber: 7:14

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think. I think the book reminded me, you know, I'm always looking that why underneath why do this? And it reminded me of like things that I'm already doing too that I do because of personal preference and there's a value to it for neuro ilu inclusion. So, um. I'll be curious how you, what your preference is on this. So she talked about honoring, um, communication preferences, right? So giving options for people to have audio only calls or video calls. And, um, I, I've always done that and even when I'm on platforms that only do like a video offering, they don't do a phone call offering. Um. I always offer to turn the camera off if the person wa prefers to do it that way. From my own practice, something that has been really beneficial that she highlights is turning off the self-view, you know? So when I'm talking to you right now on Zoom, I don't see my little box because that stresses me out. It gives me another thing I'm focused on and takes me out of the listening of the session. Uh, so even ref understanding like how it helps me to have those options, how it helps me then help my clients when I have options, when they have options is really useful. How do you like to coach? Do you have a preference between audio and video?

Ken McKellar: 8:50

No, I don't. I, I adjust either way. Um, if it is. I don't, I mean, I have a neurolinguistic NLP background, and one of the things that we was taught early in the training was, you know, visual, kinesthetic, and auditory, right? And so really having appreciations for those forms of like, um, how people taking information. So when you're talking to people, you know, you don't want to. So how are you feeling along that, or how do you see that? Does that ring a bell? Like using those, those systems, um, representational systems. So for me, I, I, I, yeah, I, I can do the gamut. I have my own preference. If you don't know what your preference is, you know how to find out your preference. Hmm. GPS, right. So when you're riding down the street and your GPS system tells you something, do you need to look at the map for reassurance or are you okay hearing what they're saying? Like, can you, can you do a GPS with it turned off? I can, I need, I needed to say, Hey, turn left on Rosary Boulevard. Turn right on Chemistry road. Mm-hmm. Right. I need to hear that. If I don't hear that, I'm like, know where I'm going. There's the map right there. It's showing you, it's pointing you to the next turn. I need to hear it. Mm-hmm. Right. Because I'm, I'm auditory in that aspect. Right. So to answer your question is I do think it's important. Um, sometimes I forget. Um. This book was a, a great reminder of making sure that you're leveraging those, those what you just said. I mean, those, what you said, even the platforms providing different options, choice of how people want to participate in their change mechanism.

Christy Stuber: 11:10

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. The options, the choices. Um, well, I had one more takeaway if I can share. And this was thinking about how the coaching session is actually run in a way that is neuro inclusive. Oh. So she has a whole checklist again, like she's got great resources, great checklists. I'm just pulling the things out that landed for me for how I wanna think about my practice, things I'm already maybe doing or things I wanna do. And so she's got this fantastic checklist in the book, designed for meetings. All kinds of meetings and I pulled a few items out of that that I thought would be useful to remember. Um, the first was clear agendas. You know, I find that when I tell my clients, here's what you can expect from every coaching session. You're gonna come in with a topic. I'm gonna ask some questions. We're gonna explore. We're gonna then sort of integrate learning that helps them understand what to do, um, use of client's language. And we talk about that a lot. In the episode, um, about Haesun Moon's book coaching A to Z, how important it's to use our client's language and not try to bring our own language into it. Um, I loved what she talks about in the book about valuing learning over perfection. I think that's very much a coaching value that we certainly cultivate in our learning. Um, at the end of each session, throughout the sessions overall and the engagement and. The one I wanted to really think about is continuous improvement, which is how do I continue to get feedback from my clients on how the coaching is going, what they might need from me, um, what I might be doing too much or too little of. So not a, not as a performance review, but as a way to cultivate the relationship and to create more of that sense of belonging. What do you think?

Ken McKellar: 13:07

Cultivating trust and safety. Um, yeah, I, I like that. I mean, I like that and I hear you. Yeah, you do that anyway. I mean, that's, that's not new is it? I mean, I, I know you and I see those things in you.

Christy Stuber: 13:25

It, it's, I would say it's not new. Uh, it's a, it's a grown reminder of the importance of it. Again, it's the, the way my brain works is I wanna know what, what's the why, why am I being told to do this? And so when I see it from different angles, I can look at the why, you know, why competency eight, oh, from the neuroscientist angle, it's this, from the neurodiverse angle, it's this from the linguistic angle, it's this. Then that helps my brain. Um, get more excited by it and more wanting to do it when I can see all those reasons. So I just said a lot of things that I'm taking away. What are you gonna bring into your own practice, do you think?

Ken McKellar: 14:06

I think words matter. I think that's the biggest thing for me. Um, um, language choice shapes. You know, dignity and belonging, how we use it. So just being aware of that and like, I mean, she talked about the, was it, was it pre-boarding?

Christy Stuber: 14:33

Mm-hmm. Pre-boarding.

Ken McKellar: 14:36

Yeah. First onboarding. But I like that the whole idea of pre-boarding as a coach and really not only understanding what is it that you want outta the session, but also. Like, how do you want this session to, to, to, to go? Mm-hmm. Do you want information? Are you collaboration? Are you seeking just to, to talk? I mean, what is it? How do you want this session go? What do you need right from me in the session? Can't just sit there and be like, Nancy Klein. Or Bruce Lee, whatever, either both of 'em still quiet. Just be quiet, right? And just be with me. Just be in tune with me, right? Is that what you need? Okay. So, so that I pre forward and just that little bit of information and as it comes to, as far as, I'm a storyteller, so I may not be as 1, 2, 3, right? So even knowing that Ken, I need one, two, and three, that's really helpful. Mm-hmm. So being inquisitive about what that person may need, and since I'm in charge of the process and they're in charge of the content, it, I think it's apropos for me to really be in tuned to how this can be as smooth as possible for that person that's sitting across from Yeah.

Christy Stuber: 16:17

Yeah, that's really, I appreciate all that thinking that you're sharing. I also am reminded for me of, from my practice of the, again, the way my brain wants to work is to make a lot of assumptions because it's easy for my brain to do that and assumptions. Are not useful, you know, and me assuming, oh, this client knows what coaching is, they might not. And so all those check-ins useful, not just for neurodiverse brains, but also for every brain. 'cause we are all different in different ways. We all have different ways of being. You're the storyteller. I might a little bit more of the uh, 1, 2, 3. And so checking in on that is so important.

Ken McKellar: 17:06

You know, I was, um, my daughter did a triathlon. She did amazing, right? But, uh, I had took her bike to the car and as I was walking back, um, a father was walking with her, this little girl, and he said, um, you have to be disciplined to do the triathlon. And she almost broke down in tears to say. Why do I have to be disciplined? Mm-hmm. She thought she was in trouble. Right?

Christy Stuber: 17:44

Right. So her brain heard it like, you're gonna be disciplined because you did this. Right. Not that you have this trait of discipline in you to be able to do this. Right. Good. Good example. Really great example. Thank you for sharing, for closing us out on that wonderful story. Ludmila Praslova's book, the Canary Code is a call to action for creating inclusive spaces, not just at work, but also in coaching. And if you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to subscribe to the Coaching Book Club on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And we'd love to connect with you on LinkedIn. Follow us for more coaching insights and updates about upcoming episodes. Before we wrap up today, we want to remind you about a truly transformational event coming up very soon. ICF Converge 2025 is in San Diego Ludmila P raslova is one of the signature speakers. ICF Converge is more than just a conference. It's a global gathering of coaches, thought leaders, and change makers. Whether you're looking to deepen your coaching practice, connect with fellow coaches, or get inspired by cutting edge ideas, converge is the place to be. You can get more information@icfconverge.com and we hope to see you there. So for today, thanks for being part of our community. And until next time, happy coaching.