The Quiet Alchemy of Inclusion: Finding Home After the Hard Places

Thursday, 15 January 2026 |
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Inclusive Education

The Quiet Alchemy of Inclusion: Finding Home After the Hard Places
Dr Chew Cheng Hoon, Public Health Medicine Physician, SEAMEO TROPMED Malaysia

 

I’ve learned that the most transformative work often begins not with a grand plan, but with a quiet question: What if we could do this differently?

This question wasn’t born out of idealism alone; it was born out of experience. Early in my career, I lived through experiences where exclusion was not subtle; it was a gross, wounding noise that drowned out the quiet promise of my own potential. There is a grief that follows you home from a hard place, and it’s the kind of pain that forces you to examine your soul and ask: How do I keep this darkness from spreading?

This experience was my most precious inheritance: the clarity to see the Subtle Acts of Exclusion (SAE). These everyday paper cuts leave colleagues feeling cold and unseen. Policies are the sturdy architecture of our institutions, yes, but they cannot warm a cold room. Only human warmth can do that.

That is the profound question that brought me to SEAMEO and to this project.

Mine arrived on an ordinary Friday during a SEAMEO Gender Working Group meeting, in the window of a Microsoft Teams video call. Looking at a shared slide where colleagues were contributing ideas, I typed something simple, almost playful: “Gamify gender activities/educational sessions”

The room caught it, cradled it, and turned it into the Gen(der) Lab. The mission, then, was this: How do we teach the heart what the mind already knows? How do we weave the abstract concept of gender inclusion into the very fabric of our working lives?

 

Loss and the Longing for True North

My path to answering that question was a messy, beautiful pilgrimage, a process of letting go.

I began with a grand vision. I built The Grand Utopia, a beautiful, complex virtual world called Chrysalis Haven. It was the equivalent of packing a giant, expensive steamer trunk for a simple weekend retreat. I poured my heart into it, believing this complexity was necessary.

But the universe, as it always does, stepped in with a gentle, insistent lesson: You cannot force intimacy.

The reality was humbling: our busy colleagues simply did not have the emotional bandwidth to learn a new, complicated tool. And then the final, quiet rejection: institutional firewalls treated my beautiful, earnest creation as a foreign threat, blocking access for some members.

I had to weep for the loss of my Utopia. I had to sit quietly and admit: The tool was not serving the mission.

My second attempt was a complex career pathways simulation, filled with data and detail. I shed the heavy, complex ideas; the data-laden career simulations, the grand architectures, and sought true simplicity.

The final pivot was to a chatbot. Built with a simple, drag-and-drop tool called Typebot, it felt like a whispered secret, not a mandated lecture. It taught me that true mastery lies in simplicity, and true connection resides in the light touch.

Experience the simulation at:https://cutt.ly/5rdZ15AU

 

The Design Journey: From Complexity to Scalable Simplicity

I named the simulation ‘Workplace Crossroads’. This was not a test of goodness; it was a safe space for the soul to stretch and experiment with choices, finding no right or wrong answers, only awareness.

When we invited our colleagues to step into the simulation, what we witnessed was a beautiful, immediate bloom of intentionality. The simulation didn’t preach; it simply offered a mirror, and our colleagues responded by choosing a path toward purposeful love within their teams.

This is the true alchemy of the Crossroads. It doesn’t just change individual behaviour; it inspires systemic change.

Experience the simulation at:typebot.co/wp-crossroad

  • The Shift in Service: The participants committed to enacting Micro-Affirmations, pledging to be “more intentional about amplifying others’ voices” and to actively “acknowledge others’ contributions”. This is the quiet alchemy of creating safety.
  • The Courage to Tend: The reflection inspired a commitment to Psychological Safety. Colleagues vowed to “regularly check in” and to actively “encourage all meeting members to voice their opinions” regardless of seniority.

  • The Wider Vision: The experience inspired a larger identity, leading to proposals to review organisational policies and processes, such as scholarship selection, to address unconscious bias. The small, intimate moment of the simulation had unlocked a vision for systemic, wide-ranging grace.

The colleagues’ responses were mirrors held up gently, showing us ourselves without judgment.

 

The Quiet Alchemy of Connection

The ‘Workplace Crossroads’ is a prototype, yes, but more truthfully, it is a universal blueprint. It is a container ready to hold any urgent learning, from ethics to leadership.

This chatbot remains deliberately unfinished. Its power lies not in being perfect, but in being open like a door left ajar with soft light spilling out.

I extend this intimate invitation to you, fellow traveller: My journey of letting go and finding simplicity has led me here. Now, I need you.

Join me in co-creating and expanding this model. Let’s infuse this tool with your local wisdom, language, and cultural context, making this powerful learning accessible to every heart across the SEAMEO region. Inclusion is not a mandate to be obeyed; it is a skill to be practised. It is a quiet, continuous journey home.

The wisdom we collectively unearthed is this: Policies set the path. Perceptions move the people. The map is only useful if the traveller is truly present.

Will you walk the path with me?

The ‘Workplace Crossroads’ is a universal blueprint from the SEAMEO Gender Working Group, ready for regional adaptation.

Dr. Chew Cheng Hoon is a public health medicine physician from SEAMEO TROPMED Malaysia and a member of SEAMEO’s Gender Working Group. Her work explores how digital simulations can transform abstract concepts of inclusion into felt experiences. She believes the most powerful transformations happen when we create spaces where people can try, stumble, and grow without judgment.