Why do so many brilliant scientists and engineers get labelled as difficult, resistant, angry, or disengaged?

In this episode of Herding Cats, Katie starts with a familiar Sunday-evening scene. She follows it into a deeper question about resilience, empathy, and what science-led organisations are quietly getting wrong.

Drawing on years of work inside space, engineering, deep tech, clean energy and fusion companies, Katie explores why behaviours often framed as pushback or poor attitude are more accurately understood as signs of distress in neurodivergent nervous systems, particularly in teams with a high prevalence of autism and ADHD.

This episode looks at:

• Why uncommunicated change can trigger spirals, sleepless nights and overpreparation
• Why scientists react so strongly to vague commercial predictions and shifting narratives
• How “resilience” has become a stick to beat individuals instead of a design challenge for leadership
• What empathy actually looks like when it’s treated as infrastructure, not a soft skill
• How environments designed for nervous-system safety unlock intrinsic motivation, creativity and better problem-solving

This episode is not about labels, initiatives, or acronyms, but about the basic human right to feel seen, heard, and respected at work.

If you lead, advise, or work inside a science-led organisation, and you care about performance, retention, culture and real innovation, this episode will change how you think about resilience and what kind of human being you want to be at work.

🎧 Your Host Katie Caiger

I’m Katie, a senior storytelling consultant and advisor working with science-led companies across space, engineering, clean energy and fusion.

I sit at the intersection of communication, culture and neurodivergence, helping leadership teams understand why brilliant people sometimes go quiet, push back, burn out or disengage, and what to do about it before it becomes expensive.

My work focuses on clarity, empathy, and designing environments where people can actually think, speak, and do their best work, without masking, spiralling, or surviving the week.

Herding Cats is a space to talk honestly about complexity, leadership, neurodiversity and the human side of building serious technology, without jargon, bullying or performative optimism. I care less about acronyms and more about whether people feel safe enough to bring their best ideas forward and thrive.

If a multinational with tens of thousands of engineers can admit its own name was working against it, your business probably isn’t immune…

In Episode 4 of Herding Cats, Katie starts with a European aerospace case study where a technically accurate name became a trust liability – described by critics as “a disease” and loved only by engineers.

From there, she jumps to a very modern red flag she keeps seeing in rooms full of smart founders: pitches that turn into discussions.

This episode explores:

• Why engineer- and academic-led companies design communication for themselves, not their audience
• How names, language and localisation quietly shape trust before you ever open your mouth
• Why re-explaining your pitch is a warning sign, not a sign of depth
• hHw to translate complex space and dual-use tech into benefits your nan, your neighbour and a bus-stop stranger would understand
  

Learn about reducing friction, earning trust and designing your story around the people who get to say yes.

If you’re building in space, defence-adjacent dual-use, clean energy, fusion or deep tech, this episode will change how you think about naming, pitching and being understood.

Why do some space, defence and dual-use companies scale belief - while others collapse under it? In this episode, Katie breaks down two real post-2000s case studies from the global space sector.

Both had world-changing ambition.

Both aimed for the same destination.

Only one survived.

This episode explores:

• Why storytelling is a strategic asset in space, defence and dual-use tech
• How over-reliance on hype, media and attention can destroy credibility
• The concept of the credibility ladder - and why investors, partners and talent subconsciously look for it
• The difference between a compelling mission and a survivable narrative
• How proof, not persuasion, ultimately does the heavy lifting
  

If you’re a founder, CEO, Chair, investor or advisor working in:

space tech, defence, aerospace, fusion, energy, deep tech or dual-use innovation - this episode will change how you think about storytelling.

🎧 Company names revealed inside.