Inclusion Through Play

In this episode, Joanne Lockwood speaks with learning and development specialist Nikie Forster about how playful methods can make training more inclusive and effective. The conversation centres on LEGO Serious Play, custom activities, and other hands-on techniques that help participants feel comfortable, contribute in their own way, and engage more deeply with learning.

Joanne and Nikie explore the limits of traditional one-size-fits-all training and discuss the importance of designing for different learning styles, pacing, and levels of confidence. They talk about setting adult expectations in the room, creating psychological safety, using pre-workshop preparation to understand participants’ needs, and adapting facilitation in the moment based on what the room needs.

The episode also reflects on Nikie’s career journey into learning and development, her experience of using creative tools to encourage discussion, and her belief that inclusion is not just about content but about how people are treated in the learning experience. The overall message is that inclusive facilitation can help people feel valued, connected, and able to learn more effectively.

One-sentence summary

Nikie Forster’s message is that people learn and belong best when they are treated with dignity, given room to participate safely, and invited to bring their whole selves rather than squeezed into someone else’s idea of how they should show up.

Synopsis (two paragraphs)

Nikie Forster comes across as someone who has spent a lifetime noticing what helps people open up and what shuts them down. Early on, she wanted to be a radio DJ, and that urge to communicate clearly and connect with people never really left her. She found her way into training almost by accident, through shop-floor demonstrations, making things tangible, practical and human. Over time, she learned that her instinct for props, play and interaction was not frivolous at all — it was her way of helping people feel safe enough to think. She speaks like someone shaped by years of watching rooms: who speaks, who goes quiet, who feels excluded, who is pretending to cope, and who only needs a little space to come alive.

What Nikie is trying to change is the idea that learning has to be stiff, samey, and built for the loudest voice in the room. She wants people to experience training as something that notices them, respects them, and meets them where they are. Her work is about more than engagement; it is about protecting dignity, reducing anxiety, and creating room for reflection without shame. She understands that people do not just need information — they need to feel they are allowed to be here. When she says, “it should always be about the learner”, she is pointing to a deeper hope: that nobody has to shrink themselves to take part, and nobody should leave feeling overlooked, embarrassed, or quietly certain the space was not made for them.

10 Small, digestible concepts for easy learning

1. People open up when they feel safe, not when they feel managed.

Safety is what makes participation possible. Control often gets obedience, but not honesty.

2. The quietest person in the room is not the least engaged.

Some people think deeply before they speak. Silence can mean reflection, not disinterest.

3. Treat adults like adults.

Respect grows when people are trusted to make choices, rather than policed into compliance.

4. Inclusion starts before the session starts.

A welcome, a video, a simple explanation — these small things help people arrive without dread.

5. The room should bend to the people, not the other way round.

Good facilitation fits human difference instead of demanding sameness.

6. Play is not childish when it helps people think.

A prop or activity can lower fear and make ideas easier to hold, share and remember.

7. Listening is a form of inclusion.

If you do not listen properly, you miss the person and only hear the performance.

8. People remember what feels personal.

The detail that stays with them is often not the main point — it is the moment they felt seen.

9. Small discomforts add up.

A phone left buzzing, a dietary need ignored, a voice interrupted — these moments tell people whether they matter.

10. Belonging makes learning stick.

When people feel thought about, they are far more likely to engage, absorb and act.

The “why” in the story

What they believe is true about people

Nikie believes people are not difficult by nature; they are varied, busy, anxious, thoughtful, distracted, or unsure, and they need different routes in. She believes most people want to do well when they feel respected. Her work rests on a simple human truth: “it’s about understanding people.”

What they cannot unsee

She cannot unsee how often training and group spaces favour the confident, the quick, and the already-comfortable. She has seen what happens when someone is told to stop writing, when a room is expected to behave like a single mind, or when practical needs are ignored. Once you notice that, it is hard to go back.

What they are no longer willing to tolerate

She is no longer willing to tolerate one-size-fits-all teaching, performative “rules”, or spaces that make people feel small. She pushes back against approaches that mistake control for good facilitation, and against experiences that leave people hungry, excluded, or quietly embarrassed.

What they are trying to build instead

She is building learning spaces where people can think first, speak safely, and leave with something that belongs to them. She wants experiences that are practical, playful, and deeply considerate — spaces where people feel, “this was for me”, and where reflection continues long after the room empties.

Narrative structure

1. The trigger

The trigger seems to be a long accumulation of moments: being told to stop writing, watching people be forced into single-style learning, and realising how often early training ignored human difference. Her own path — from radio ambitions to shop-floor demos to formal training — showed her that engagement is created, not assumed.

2. The tension

The tension is between structure and humanity. She wants sessions to work, but not at the cost of people’s comfort or dignity. She also keeps meeting pushback from rigid expectations, distracted leaders, and methods that value content over connection.

3. The insight

Her insight is that learning is emotional before it is intellectual. People absorb more when they feel seen, and inclusion is not an add-on — it is the condition that allows thinking to happen. “What’s useful for the learner” became the guiding truth.

4. The pivot

She pivoted away from lecture-style delivery towards props, play, participation and careful pre-work. She stopped treating engagement as something that would happen by itself. Instead, she designs for it: building safety, giving choice, and inviting people in gently.

5. The destination

The destination is a world where people do not have to mask or perform to take part. It feels calm, respectful and spacious. People leave with confidence, not confusion; with belonging, not self-consciousness.

Five key takeaways and learning points

1. People are more open when they feel respected.

So what: if the room feels adult and fair, people are less defensive and more willing to contribute.

2. Good learning is designed around human reality.

So what: different energy levels, personalities and comfort zones stop being “problems” and start being something to work with.

3. Play can make serious conversations safer.

So what: props and creative methods help people speak without feeling exposed.

4. Small details carry big messages.

So what: food, access, tone and timing all tell people whether they are genuinely considered.

5. Belonging improves attention.

So what: when people feel they fit, they are less distracted, less guarded, and more able to learn.

Ten distinct ideas explained

1. Belonging is felt in the little things

A room that has thought about food, pace, participation and comfort tells people they matter. When those details are missing, people notice immediately.

2. Not everyone learns by speaking first

Some people need time, structure or a physical prompt before they can put words to experience. Forcing instant answers often privileges confidence over insight.

3. A prop can protect a person

A Lego model or an object gives people something to stand behind while they explain themselves. It creates distance just enough to make honesty easier.

4. Calling people in is kinder and more effective

Nikie values correction without humiliation. If someone is distracted or off-track, the aim is to help them notice, not to shame them.

5. What feels “fun” can be deeply serious

Play is not the opposite of substance. For Nikie, it is a route into depth, because people often reveal more when they are relaxed.

6. The loudest person is not the whole room

Good facilitation leaves room for the reflective, cautious or anxious person too. Inclusion means refusing to let volume become authority.

7. People need permission to participate

Especially when they are new, unsure, or out of their comfort zone, they need signals that it is safe to join in. Silence can be fear, not disinterest.

8. Learning continues after the room

Nikie’s idea of “distracted reflection” recognises that understanding often lands later, not in the moment. The brain needs space to digest.

9. A good experience makes learning stick

When people enjoy the process, they remember it. Emotion helps memory, and memory helps change.

10. A person-centred room is a fairer room

The point is not to accommodate everyone perfectly, but to stop defaulting to one narrow way of being. Fairness starts when difference is taken seriously.

How people should change as a result

1. Think

• Stop assuming silence means disengagement; it may mean discomfort, thoughtfulness or caution.
• See inclusion as an everyday practice, not a grand statement.
• Notice that the way a room is run says as much as the content being delivered.
• Understand that people do not learn in identical ways, even when they want the same thing.

2. Feel

• Move from defensiveness to curiosity about other people’s needs.
• Move from impatience to patience with slower or quieter participation.
• Move from guilt to responsibility: not blame, but better choices.
• Move from scepticism about “play” to openness about how humans actually learn.
• Move from indifference to care about the emotional effect of small exclusions.

3. Act

• Ask people what helps them feel comfortable before a session