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TMost of us were taught that play is what you earn once the serious work is finished. Vanya Boardman spent more than twenty years inside that arrangement, then built a company on the opposite idea. In this episode of I Know I Belong When…, Vanya joins host, Christopher Bylone, for a conversation about psychological safety, honest voices, and what it costs an organization when nobody in the meeting says the true thing.
Vanya is the co-founder of PlayInnové, where she facilitates experiential leadership sessions using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, watercolor, and deliberately ridiculous challenges. Before that, she led teams and operations across financial services, telecom, health tech, and real estate. Her moment of knowing she belonged arrived early in a startup job, when she gave her new CEO an answer he had not asked for and learned that her honest voice was why she was valued. Her moment of knowing she did not belong came at a company that recruited her to build culture and then closed the door on every idea she offered.
This is a conversation about building belonging in everyday life as much as at work. Vanya talks about her name, the Russian folklore character she shares it with, and the quiet math of deciding whether to correct someone in a room of forty people. She talks about a French mother, an Argentinian husband, and a World Cup loyalty system that keeps the family group chat busy.
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Must-hear insights & key moments
Why "why did you do it this way" puts a person on defense, and the single question that opens dialogue instead
The retention curve Vanya cites for how adults learn, and why hands-on work outperforms slides
Employee number 29, a T-shirt design, and the ten minutes that told her she was valued
Sixteen cubicles removed for an open play space, and the patent count that more than tripled in the years that followed
"I went to Harvard, so I know better," and how quickly she recognized the room was not built for her input
The participant who announced he hated public speaking and then stole the session
Her three-minute practice for the end of any meeting, and why the leader must be absent while the team writes
Vanya’s standout quotes:
"play is a signal that it's okay to explore, it's okay to experiment and try something different"
"She's telling you it's great, but I'm telling you the truth."
"my voice was valued, and being valued, seen, and heard, it makes you wanna stay somewhere"
"Knowing your why is very different than asking why."
"You've actually alienated them because they're in a defensive mode."
"Diversity of thought is what makes teams really, really innovative."
"It's when you're trying not to be your authentic self that it doesn't hit as hard"
"I can take up space without taking it away from somebody else"
Why this episode matters
Psychological safety gets discussed as a climate that appears on its own. Vanya describes it as something people build on purpose, through invitation, play, and the willingness to hear an answer a leader did not order. Her story shows what changes when a person knows their honest voice is wanted, and what an organization forfeits when it is not. For anyone practicing strategic inclusion or creating belonging at work, this is a practical account of how an inclusive culture gets made.
Who should listen
This one reaches past the conference room. It is for anyone working out who they are after a career pivot, for people building a home or chosen family across cultures and languages, and for anyone whose name gets mispronounced where correcting it is complicated. It is for facilitators, educators, and community builders who gather people who do not yet know each other. It is for HR leaders, people managers, and inclusion practitioners putting authentic leadership and human-centered innovation into practice. And it is for anyone searching for language to name a sense of belonging in their own life.