Markel helps shape neurodiversity-themed board game for Dive In Festival

At this year’s Dive In Festival, attendees won’t simply sit back and listen. Instead they’ll play their way into someone else’s lived experience.

The global festival promotes diversity, equity and inclusion within the insurance industry, helping workplaces become fairer, more welcoming and supportive for everyone. For 2025, Markel has co-created a board game that draws on the “spoon theory” of energy levels to simulate how colleagues with non-apparent disabilities navigate an ordinary working day. The goal is to build empathy through interaction rather than passive observation.

“If I can stand up and talk about my issues and encourage one person every time, then I’ve accomplished my goals.”

The idea came from Tyler Ellis (pictured left), regulatory compliance specialist, regulatory operations, at Markel, who is visually impaired. “It was my own lived experience that inspired the idea,” he told Intelligent Insurer. “I often wondered how we don’t know what’s going on with other people; what their energy or ability levels may be. That got me thinking about a workday in the life of someone else.”

Alongside Tyler, Ron Slone (pictured right), senior investigator, special investigations unit and a veteran living with a traumatic brain injury, will act as one of the contestants during the Dive In session. He said his motivation stems from a deep commitment to breaking stigma. “If I can stand up and talk about my issues and encourage one person every time I speak to seek treatment, then I’ve accomplished my goals.”

At the centre of the game is spoon theory, a metaphor originally coined to explain the finite energy resources of those with chronic illness. “It was a way to describe these energy levels in a tangible way, thinking about starting the day with a certain amount of spoons, and as your day progresses, your energy, or reserve of spoons, may deplete,” Tyler said. “It’s transcended into neurodiversity and non-visible disabilities as well, so we built it into the game with a spoon meter.”

For Slone, this format offers a more immersive way of building understanding than the traditional panel set-up. “I’ll be sharing my experiences and how my work day differs from somebody that doesn’t suffer from non-visible injuries. I’m not looking for sympathy, but I want to illustrate how these scenarios play out differently for people like me.”

Tyler agreed. “At Dive In, we wanted to do something a little different. It would’ve been a lot easier to just do a panel discussion. But we wanted something more engaging, where the audience feels they’re sitting with someone and going through their day. That helps drive empathy.”

The project has been collaborative, involving external partners from Aon and Willis Towers Watson. “We couldn’t have done it without them,” Tyler admitted. “They’re bringing unique perspectives to the game. And our committee is made up of colleagues from Aon, WTW and Brown & Brown. It has been great to see how seamless it is to work with external partners.”

One of the most powerful elements, they believe, comes from relatable, but revealing, workplace scenarios. Tyler explained their “meeting cards”, a game mechanic similar to Monopoly’s chance cards. “Everyone has meetings, but everyone interacts with them differently. Hearing how our players engage with the same type of meeting in different ways really resonates. It shows that while we all face similar work situations, people experience them very differently.”

“No one’s looking for sympathy. We’re looking for empathy.”

Slone added his own striking example: “One scenario started with me arriving at my desk to find a balloon I’m expected to pop at a team-building setting. What wasn’t anticipated was my reaction to unexpected loud noises. In the military, a chair collapsing once triggered an automatic dive for cover because I thought it was a mortar. So people popping balloons around me could affect my mental health.”

That kind of unexpected outcome is what makes this game so powerful. Both men stressed that misconceptions remained a barrier. Tyler highlighted the tendency to polarise narratives: “You either hear about superstars who did something in spite of their ability levels, or people who are disengaged. In reality, most of us are just individual contributors trying to do good work. No one’s looking for sympathy. We’re looking for empathy.”

Slone was equally clear and said he wanted to quash the misconception that people with non-visible injuries can’t function as well as their co-workers. “I perform my job duties just as well, if not better, than my colleagues,” he stated.

He explained that though he sometimes needed to “step away and perform a task that has helped me deal with post-traumatic stress”, it didn’t make him any less capable.

Looking ahead, Tyler sees potential for the format to grow. “Honestly, we just thought the game was a cool idea. But people are saying it’s a new model to deliver these conversations. Maybe this is one way to make information more intimate and engaging, and that increases empathy.”

Slone concluded: “It fosters a way to convey issues that may not be expected. That’s what makes it so important.”

Dive In Festival takes place between September 16 and 18.

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