Design

Would you be okay with a 3am meeting?

An alarm clock showing 3 0'clock and a caption reading "What would you say to a meeting at 3 A.M.?
Photo: Created in Canva

About a month into her tenure as the prime minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi called a 3am meeting to get ready for a committee meeting later that day. Apparently, that’s not out of the ordinary as she reports sleeping between two to four hours a night.

Public reaction in Japan and around the world like an article The Guardian (McCurry, 2025) had CBC calling to seek a Canadian point of view. It was also an opportunity to talk about generational views on work-life “balance”, or what I prefer to call it “work-life integration”. This led to sixteen radio interviews across the country, something I’ve been privileged to do over the past few years on topics around productivity, remote work, and work-life integration.

Unfortunately, none of the interviews were put online so I thought I’d share a summary of the conversation:

1. What do we think about 3 am meetings?

[Read more…] about Would you be okay with a 3am meeting?

What is “Neurological Safety” and why do we need it?

black woman sitting cross-legged outside and writing in a notebook

 

For people to relax and feel comfortable and ultimately to perform at their best, spaces, cultures, and experiences need to feel safe. But, in our hustle culture and its addiction to stimulation, we are missing an important element.

First, let’s look at what we have been aiming for. The pandemic reminded us of the value of physiological safety and the need for clean air, surfaces, and sometimes physical separation.

Psychological safety, first explored in the 1960s and with renewed vigour in the 1990s, is defined by Professor Amy C. Edmonson as “perceptions of the consequences of taking interpersonal risks in a particular context such as a workplace”. (Edmonson, 1999) With psychological safety present, employees experience less stress and greater well-being.

Yet, there is another type of safety that is much-needed, has not widely been considered, and is under threat that I refer to as “neurological safety”.

What is Neurological Safety?

Neurological safety refers to the calming effect of conditions in an environment – a space, culture, or experience, on the nervous system. The nervous system includes the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), and the peripheral nervous system, a complex network of nerves guiding both voluntary (somatic) and involuntary (autonomic) movements. Stresses can take a variety of forms including but not limited to sensory over-stimulation, cognitive overwhelm, emotional pressure, and pain.

When your nervous system perceives a threat, it moves toward one of three stress responses – changes in the body to prepare you to fight, take flight, or freeze. The amygdala in your brain sends signals to the hypothalamus stimulating the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system and triggering the sympathetic nervous system whose primary process is to stimulate this fight or flight response.

As you many know, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis over ten years ago, and more recently discovered that I’m autistic. I think that a sensitive nervous system is related to both and as a result have spent time building skills to regulate my own nervous system. Given the increasing sensory toxicity of our world, though, it’s not enough. I am compelled to invite the creation of more hospitable containers. In exploring this topic on the Happy Space Podcast, I realized that there is a lack of awareness about the impact on the nervous system.

As co-author of Andre Sólo and I discussed in episode 15 of the podcast, sensitivity appears in people following a traditional Bell curve – 30, 40, 30 percent high, average, and low sensitivity. There is a good chance what the highly sensitive people notice, others miss. I also have a theory that the highly sensitive are the proverbial canaries in coal mine, and we notice hazards that are generally not good for humanity.

This is why I am focusing on developing and sharing this concept. We deserve a kinder, healthier, more hospitable world.

Three Key Elements for Neurological Safety

A neurologically safe environmen will offer:
Sensory Support
– an appropriate amount of sensory stimulation or the ability to adjust it.

Cognitive Kindness
– the ability to move forward using intuition or with support from appropriate information, at the right time, at the right pace, and in an easy-to-work-with format.

Emotional Engagement
– positive posture, prosody (rhythm and intonation), and language

The lack of any one of these elements can cause disengagement, stop forward motion, and perhaps encourage a participant to leave.

I look at this lack as opportunity – to learn about the impact of unhealthy environments, and to design more hospitable spaces, cultures, and experiences. After coaching productivity for over 20 years and working with health challenges, I’m bringing my understanding of personal performance and well-being to work as a neuroinclusive design strategist.

I welcome your questions and opportunities to share this message. Join the Happy Space Pod online community (so far on Facebook) to see examples of spaces getting it right and those with opportunity for improvement.

Hold that door….! Opportunities to Improve Accessibility are Closer Than You Think

half open service elevator door

Have you ever thought about how long an elevator’s doors ought to stay open? I have thought about this several times over the past few years and just wrote a long overdue email to property management in my condo.

Beyond the uncluttered views of this lakeside condo, I chose to move here for single-floor living and easy-to-access amenities (if visiting, you can pick up dinner, wine, and chocolate right downstairs!) because I was afraid of how multiple sclerosis (MS) might rear its head. Having had four attacks in as many years, the last one inviting me to walk with a 15-year old baby-stroller for support (the stroller came with cargo space and I was happier to look liked I’d misplaced a child more than that I needed a walker 🤔), I had definitely noticed that the elevator doors closed very quickly but never thought to do anything about it.

That was until I came to know a fellow resident who experiences MS more severely than I do. My friend – let’s call her Jean, rolls in a wheelchair or scooter. Several months ago, we chatted about the challenge she faced because of the quick-closing elevator doors. I decided that I would write to our board to request they be slowed down. Since then, I have noted many times when I would have benefitted from extra time.  Any time I have heavy shopping bags, or new planters for the patio that I have to set down while I’m waiting for the elevator, I need more time to be able to pick them up and get to the available car. I have also spoken with a few residents who agreed that it would be helpful.

Today, I decided to start investigating what we are dealing with and what, if anything is legislated.

First, I timed the door:
a) 2.4 seconds to open
b) 2.5 seconds fully open
c) 2.8 seconds to close

Then, I measured the distance from the elevator call button in my hallway to the furthest elevator. Over 12 feet (3.66 m).

Have a look at just how quick it is…

I started to investigate regulations that should inform what we do. I keep hearing about accessibility legislation so didn’t think it would be very difficult.

Not so fast.

Yes, we have the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, established in 2006 and as of today, adopted by 183 nations, one of which is Canada.

But what do we have in my country of Canada, my province of Ontario, and my city of Toronto to help guide us? After all, jurisdiction matters if you want to look to legislation as a lever. From a building code perspective, the provinces determine what we must do for safety but touch lightly on accessibility. One recent change, for example, is that sensors must not only detect what is between the doors, they must detect an approaching object. I could find no mention of door opening time. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act is slowly building standards to which organizations with over 50 people must adhere. Accessibility, it seems, is left to the cities to guide and these guidelines vary. In a condo, you are at the mercy of the condo board.

Here’s some of what I found:

The U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act standards of 2010 state that elevator doors must be open for a minimum of 5 seconds. It offers a formula to augment that duration based on the distance one would need to travel to reach the door after pressing a call button. In this case, 8 seconds would be warranted. Brock University and the City of London (Ontario) stipulate 8 seconds without regard to distance.

The City of Toronto’s 2021 Accessibility Design Guidelines have simpler guidance: “Have a minimum period of 5 seconds before the doors start to close if it is a hall call, and 3 seconds if it is a car call.” The hall call assumes that 2 seconds will enable you to cover whatever the distance is to the elevator. It also does not clarify if this is from the start of the doors opening or from the doors being fully open.

I’m curious to see what action will be taken. Torontonians are known for being impatient and often in a rush so I expect that there will be some resistance to making a shift. In fact, the city worker I spoke to suggested the sensors should take care of it because they would sense a body or wheelchair in the way of the doors. So not good enough! Why should someone have to sense doors closing on them as a matter of course?

Many changes have been made to improve accessibility that benefit far more than folks in wheelchairs. Take the curb cuts I talked about with Peter Shankman in episode 19 of the Happy Space Podcast, for example.

I invite you to notice what is inaccessible in your world and consider what small steps you might take to open the world up a little for those who face barriers.

I’ll keep you posted on what the board says by updating this post when I have an answer and also by sharing it in my monthly missive, “the museletter”. Sign up here to stay in the know.

In the meantime, go be an ally. We will all benefit.

 

 

Walking Into a Glass Wall and Why I Can Point a Finger at Poor Design

Cover Image of "The Design of Everyday Things" by Don Norman

 

I wrote the post below back in 2014, but the lesson is timeless so I’m bringing it back.
This incident happened the day after meeting the iconic Don Norman who teaches that it can be poor design rather than human error that contributes to things going wrong. In this story, I can see that it is both. You’ll have to let me know what you think!

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Original Post

This morning, I walked full speed ahead into a glass wall. A glass wall I knew of. A glass wall I even anticipated someone walking into, I just didn’t think it would be me.  It wasn’t pretty. Unlike Martha Stewart, I will spare you the photo.

So you know how this story will end, but allow me to back up a bit to explain how I got there. Yesterday I had a full day planned. Full of good things – a walk with my dog, lunch with inspiring entrepreneurs, delivery of a quick but meaningful productivity primer at the Women in Biz Conference, time to read the beginning of “Thrive” by Arianna Huffington while taking the subway (and reveling in NOT being stuck on our sadly in need of repair Gardiner “Expressway”, a complete misnomer for the next two years), an hour to sit in the sun and get creative, dinner and meeting fellow organizers in Toronto, and the highlight for me, listening to Don Norman, esteemed thought leader and author of “The Design of Everyday Things” in discussion at the Rotman School of Business. It’s my desire to have Pliio® become an “everyday thing” so you can imagine how interested I was to hear him speak.

I don’t often have insomnia (thankfully), but last night my mind was on fire after listening to Don’s talk and reading “Thrive” so I ended up awake for over half an hour in the middle of the night. Despite the lack of sleep, I was eager to attend my regular 8 am yoga class with a teacher who I respect for his breadth of knowledge, how he practices what he preaches, his sense of humour, and his redefinition, for me, of the term “hot” yoga.  Have a peek at www.mryoga.com where you can meet Daniel and discover a wealth of information on how to practice yoga.

The class was wonderful – working out the kinks (my word for pain in muscles I didn’t know I had) of a conditioning workout I did with Brent Bishop and his crew on Saturday morning over at Think Fitness.  We finished as we normally do with a restorative, mind-cleansing Shavasana also known as the far less elegant sounding ‘corpse pose’. Whether I’m getting better at the meditative state or whether, more likely, it was my bout of insomnia last night, I came out of the class feeling a little out of this world.

I had a regular client scheduled across town for 10 am, so knew I had to move quickly this morning to make it there after class. Being a bit time pressured, I decided to change my route on the way out of the gym. I normally wash my hands before leaving, but figured I’d head home quickly and get ready there so I made my way straight to the gates.

The gym where I work out is in a corporate office building with a lovely atrium over the stairs. When the gym was renovated recently, they built glass walls around the atrium to preserve light (which I love). The shortest way to leave the gym is around the atrium and through the cardio area to the entrance gates. I came down this wide hallway, narrowed by the recent placement of exercise balls (storage always seems to be a challenge in the gym, but that’s another story).

I could see the gates right in front of me and walked purposefully towards them.  Head up, not texting, not distracted by something at my side, eyes forward. In fact, eyes forward gazing directly at the parking ticket machine into which I needed to put my receipt. The only thing is, I forgot to take the sharp left, through the too narrower passageway that actually gets you there.

Instead, I tried to come through this “wall”.

 

I hit the glass so hard, it shook and triggered the alarm which immediately called the police. I dropped to the ground, my nose bleeding.

While getting cleaned up and speaking with the police (who were definitely amused), I learned that I am not the only one to have made this mistake. At least five other people had walked into the same wall.

Wait, what? They knew this and nothing was done?

One of the concepts Don talked about was that accidents happen, but often not why you think they do.  Often design plays a part in guiding a person to move a certain way.

If you notice the floor, the edges of the hallway are marked on the left side. Today, the hallway no longer goes that way.  The dark line is a subtle cue to guide you in that directly. With the renovation, this wasn’t updated.  Glass walls block the commercial-sized hallway, and you must rather travel through a residential-sized passageway into the cardio area to get to the gates. So why write about this?

I am suggesting a few things, all of which could have been avoided, combined into a rather unfortunate experience for my nose this morning. And when something goes wrong, it’s always worth learning from.  Here they are, not necessarily in order of importance:

1. Lack of time 

2. Lack of rest

3. Change of routine

4. Poor design

This brings me right back to Don’s presentation and the concept he shares on page 14 of his book. Don created the term “signifiers” for communicating “where the action should take place”.  We count on cues to tell us how to use things – whether to push or pull on a door, for example.  Signifiers are important for the clear-minded, well-rested folks among us, but even more important for the sleep-deprived, distracted, crew that abounds.

I can find many other examples where errors have emerged because of time pressures and changes in routine.  I have already blogged about two examples. “Losing” my car and the unfortunate occurrence of forgetting a child in the car [both of which I will be reposting soon].   Don’s book is full of design examples, and Arianna’s book starts off talking about accidents due to lack of sleep.

What have you noticed?  What have you learned? What can you share with us? On my to-do list for tomorrow – buy flowers as a thank you to the staff who took care of me this morning. I am praying there is no video to go viral.

 

UPDATE – March 26, 2015

I pursued getting the problem fixed and asked Goodlife to etch the glass so no one would miss seeing it in future. t took almost a year, but I’m happy to say that pursuing this safety improvement paid off.

Etching of Goodlife logo on glass wall

 

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