#PositivePeopleExperiences

We’re all familiar with PPE — personal protective equipment. Joanne Lockwood reclaims those three letters for something more human: Positive People Experiences. The premise is simple but powerful — culture is the sum of the experiences people have with one another. Get those everyday moments right, again and again, and inclusion stops being an initiative and becomes the way things are done.

Why #PositivePeopleExperiences matters

Organisations pour energy into strategies, statements and training, yet culture is ultimately decided in the small moments: how someone is greeted, whether their idea is heard, how a mistake is handled, whether they leave a conversation feeling bigger or smaller. Nobody remembers the policy. Everybody remembers how you made them feel.

That’s why #PositivePeopleExperiences is the human foundation underneath diversity, equity and inclusion. You can’t mandate belonging — but you can shape the countless interactions that create it. When every person commits to leaving others a little better off, inclusion becomes everyone’s job, not just HR’s.

It also cuts through the alphabet soup. DEI, EDI, an added “J” for justice — the acronyms multiply and, as Joanne puts it, confuse the layperson and make inclusion feel like someone else’s technical specialism. Positive People Experiences is deliberately human and memorable. And “people” means everyone who touches your organisation — employees, yes, but also customers, suppliers, partners and community.

“I coined an acronym — PPE: Positive People Experiences. We get caught up in DEI, EDI, putting a J in for justice, and it confuses the layperson. Positive People Experiences is the fundamental — and it’s not just the employee, it’s anybody who touches your business.” — Joanne Lockwood, Inclusion Bites podcast

The mantra: Smile · Engage · Educate

The approach is captured in three words — the SEE in SEE Change Happen: Smile, Engage, Educate. It’s a deliberately gentle, human order of operations for change.

Smile — lead with warmth

A smile is disarming. It signals safety, approachability and goodwill before a word is said. Leading with warmth lowers defences and opens the door to honest conversation — which is exactly what difficult subjects like identity, bias and inclusion need. Warmth isn’t soft; it’s strategic. People don’t change for those who make them feel judged.

Engage — connect before you convince

Engagement means genuinely connecting: listening, staying curious, and meeting people where they are rather than where you wish they were. It’s a dialogue, not a lecture. When people feel heard, they’re willing to be moved — and you learn what’s really going on beneath the surface. Relationship comes before persuasion, every time.

Educate — bring people with you

Only once there’s warmth and connection does education land. Educating means raising awareness and sharing understanding so people can choose to do better — not shaming them for not already knowing. It assumes good intent, fills gaps with knowledge, and trusts people to grow. Change built on understanding is willing and durable; change built on fear evaporates the moment no one is watching.

Why it works

Calling people out makes them defensive and drives behaviour underground. Smile, Engage, Educate does the opposite: it calls people in. It’s especially powerful with the well-meaning majority — the people who want to get it right but are afraid of getting it wrong, so they say and do nothing. Give them warmth, connection and knowledge, and they become your biggest allies. That’s how you create change that’s willing rather than grudging, and lasting rather than performative.

Joanne’s approach in the room

This philosophy runs through everything Joanne does — keynotes, workshops and the Inclusion Bites podcast. Audiences leave informed, not lectured; challenged, not shamed; and genuinely motivated to be part of the change. It’s inclusion with humour, humanity and hope — and it’s why the work sticks long after the event. Explore the Inclusive Culture & Belonging keynote or read more guides.