Designing for All Minds: Tracy Brower Brings Neuroinclusivity to the Workplace Conversation
By Brady Mick | June 2025
Each month, our IKO board brings you an industry expert with valuable insights, engaging stories, and thought-provoking perspectives on our ever-evolving world of work and place. In June 2025, we welcomed someone who embodies all of that and more, Dr. Tracy Brower.
Tracy is Vice President of Workplace Insight at Steelcase, the author of The Secrets to Happiness at Work, Bring Work to Life, Crucial Connections (coming March 2026), and a senior contributor at Forbes and Fast Company. She’s also a trusted professional friend and someone I admire deeply for her work, her writing, and the joy she brings to every conversation. Just a day prior to our session, she had taken the stage at NeoCon to lead a standout panel on neuroinclusive design. For our Coffee Chat, she continued that conversation in her signature way: blending hard data with human experience, deep insight with actionable strategies.
A Four-Chapter Data Story
Tracy opened the session with a compelling four-part data narrative that framed neurodiversity not as a niche concern but as a pressing design and leadership imperative:
- It’s Prevalent: Nearly one in five people identify as neurodiverse. But when the question shifts to “Do you feel you think differently from others?” that number jumps to 28%. Among Gen Z and millennials, the figure is even higher.
- It’s a Trend, Not a Blip: Younger generations are more willing to talk openly about neurodiversity and to ask for accommodation. This is not a passing issue. This change is shaping the future of workplace design and culture.
- There’s a Disconnect: While 83% of people believe accommodations benefit everyone, 60% still fear stigma when requesting them. This points to a cultural lag that thoughtful workplace strategies can address.
- The Value Is Real: People who identify as neurodivergent often bring heightened capabilities in creativity, focus, pattern recognition, and innovation. When well-supported, these individuals report higher job satisfaction and are easier to retain.
From Universal Design to Targeted Belonging
Tracy challenged us to move beyond universal design as the only goal. “If you designed a playground with only universal design in mind,” she said, “you wouldn’t have swings or slides or climbing walls because not everyone can use them.” Instead, she advocated for targeted design of environments that support specific needs and invite everyone to belong.
We explored how neurodivergence shows up across industries and regions, noting overrepresentation in sectors like technology and oil and gas, and how that shapes local awareness and response. At one point, I asked a personal question: Is neurodivergence a disability? Tracy responded with clarity and compassion: “It’s a different way of being. A different capability.” Sometimes yes, it can be a disability and naming it that way can help us act. But more often, it’s a call to design differently, not less.
Inclusive Design as Both Opportunity and Obligation
With humility and precision, Tracy walked us through the barriers that people who identify as neurodivergent individuals face in the workplace, such as too much noise, unpredictable lighting, lack of personal control over the environment, and she offered tangible solutions: varied work settings, customizable lighting, sound masking, and transition spaces. All rooted in the idea that great design serves everyone better.
A standout moment came when someone asked why soft seating is so prevalent in inclusive workplace designs, even though it may signal a less alert mindset. Tracy explained that embodied cognition research shows how physical relaxation can support psychological readiness. Relaxation is not about slowing down the mind but is about calming the stress to create room for real thinking, real connecting.
Teaming, Culture, and the Road Ahead
Toward the end of our conversation, I offered a hope: that we can evolve the neurodiversity conversation beyond the individual to explore its role in high-performing teams. Tracy agreed that this is not just about singular experience, but about team collaboration, organizational culture, and systems of belonging.
As one participant noted, many of us are already incorporating these ideas intuitively in workplace design, adding focus booths, soft seating, acoustic options, without necessarily labeling them as neuroinclusive. Tracy affirmed that instinct, but also urged us to be more intentional, to learn the language, and to ask better questions.
Final Thought: When We Know Better, We Do Better
Perhaps Tracy’s most important reminder was this: When we know better, we do better. Neuroinclusivity is not about perfection but is about progress. Neuroinclusive workplaces begin by asking how our places, policies, and practices can welcome more ways of thinking, feeling, and working. Understanding and results move forward through empathy, curiosity, and thoughtful action.
Thank you, Tracy, for guiding us into this essential conversation. We look forward to where it leads next.