LEGO® Serious Play® – why do we love the method?
The LEGO® Serious Play® method is a unique and innovative approach to problem solving, team building and organizational development. The method is used by innovative organizations worldwide.
The LEGO® Serious Play® process is based on the idea that using LEGO® bricks to build models can help people think more creatively, communicate better, and solve complex problems.
By engaging in hands-on activities with LEGO® bricks, participants are able to explore their ideas from multiple perspectives and gain deeper insights into their challenges.
The LEGO® Serious Play® method has been used by top companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google to foster collaboration and creativity among their teams.
Let’s explore how the LEGO® Serious Play® method works in practice and why it is becoming increasingly popular in the business world.
What is LEGO Serious Play?
LEGO® Serious Play® is a creative problem-solving methodology that uses LEGO® bricks to help people build models with LEGO® bricks to explore their ideas from multiple perspectives and gain deeper insights into their challenges.
During a LEGO® Serious Play® session, participants are encouraged to build models with LEGO® bricks that represent their thoughts, points of view, perspectives and ideas. Through this process, they are able to explore different solutions to their problems in an interactive way.
By engaging in hands-on activities with LEGO® bricks, participants can gain new perspectives on their challenges and come up with innovative solutions.
People (including me!) love the LEGO® Serious Play® process because it is an engaging and creative way to explore ideas and solve problems. The hands-on nature of the process encourages participants to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions.
Additionally, it helps foster collaboration among teams by allowing them to work together on a common goal. When there is a common understanding of everyone’s views, this leads to far better decision making. No more making assumptions that might in fact not be accurate or a true reflection of what team members have in mind.
Finally, the use of LEGO® bricks makes the process fun and enjoyable for everyone involved, which helps create a positive atmosphere that encourages creativity and innovation.
When you play, you go back to a time when you had joy – and you are able to bring this sense of fun into the room to work through challenges, conflicts and other issues facing teams. This sense of fun does in fact become ‘hard fun’ and the serious part of the play emerges as discussions become deeper and more insightful.
Benefits of LEGO® Serious Play®:
LEGO® Serious Play® has a number of benefits for businesses as an incredibly versatile and powerful tool:
- It encourages collaboration and creativity among team members, as they are able to explore their ideas from multiple perspectives. This helps them come up with innovative solutions to their problems. Ideas emerge through play that might never have been put forward or even considered.
- It allows participants to gain deeper insights into their challenges, as they are able to explore different solutions in an interactive way. When 100% of the people in the room have a voice – and not just the loudmouths or more assertive participants – you are truly hearing from all team members.
- By using LEGO® bricks, participants can express themselves in a creative manner and have fun while doing so. The sessions start off on a light note but can become really serious as people express their true thoughts, hopes and insights. There’s no hiding behind a phone or a device in the session – everyone is totally engaged and involved.
- LEGO® Serious Play® also helps to foster a sense of ownership and responsibility among team members. By engaging in hands-on activities with LEGO® bricks, participants are able to take ownership of their ideas and feel more invested in the process. Once you have invested your energy into creating your model, you also tell the story to others around the table and therefore become more committed to what you have built and expressed.
- Teams are able to share their ideas and build on each other’s models. This helps create an atmosphere of trust and respect that is essential for successful problem solving. Trust is after all at the foundation of all strong and productive teams and an essential part of team development.
- The process is flexible in that companies and teams can adapt the way in which they apply the LEGO® Serious Play® process to suit the outcomes that they want to achieve. As long as they maintain the key principles, they can adapt the way in which a session moves along depending on the outcomes that they would like to achieve.
How Does the LEGO® Serious Play® Process Work?
A session based on the LEGO® Serious Play® process requires planning – it’s not a ‘think on your feet’ design. As a trained facilitator, you spend time planning what challenge questions you will ask to ensure that the session moves towards its intended purpose.
During a LEGO® Serious Play® session, participants are encouraged to build models with LEGO® bricks that represent their thoughts and ideas. The facilitator then guides the group through a series of activities designed to help them gain deeper insights into their challenges.
The key is that each individual in the session builds their own model. This isn’t a group activity initially and any other use of LEGO® might work really effectively – but it isn’t classified as being part of the LEGO® Serious Play® process. There is no group build for example of a plane or a building to test communication skills.
When participants get their hands on the bricks, they often surprise themselves with what emerges in their models and in the stories that they talk about what they built.
Sessions always follow a certain set of key principles. For example:
- Everyone builds their own models and expresses to the others around the table what they built. There are no observers: everyone is involved.
- The models do not have to look as if they come straight out of a competition using LEGO® bricks. After all, it’s not about the model. It’s about the story that people tell of their model that really matters.
- No one comments on the structure of another person’s model. Yes, they can ask questions for clarification purposes. But they cannot make assumptions about what other people have built. It’s after all, not their story to tell.
Examples of Companies Using the LEGO® Serious Play® method
The LEGO® Serious Play® process has been used in a variety of industries such as healthcare, education, and finance.
For example, here are ways in which the core concept of the method are adapted to different contexts:
- Top medical organizations have used the LEGO® Serious Play® process to help medical professionals better understand patient needs and develop innovative solutions for healthcare challenges. They use it as part of an experiential process that is closely aligned to design thinking.
- Many well-known business schools and universities globally use this structured process to help their students in different ways. It could be to assist them in setting their career direction or uncover what the obstacles would be to them completing their degree. The method is perfect to identify different aspects of student engagement.
- Global companies such as Coca Cola have used this powerful tool as part of change management initiatives. It’s an impactful way of understanding what is really going for those you are affected by the changes: what are they thinking and feeling, and can they see a positive road ahead?
- Agile teams use the process as a way of kick-starting projects when team members need to know each other’s strengths and quickly form a strong team. They also use the method when they hold stand-up meetings and retrospectives.
- Public and private sector organizations who have teams that aren’t engaged or lack motivation also use the method as a way of re-energizing the team. The LEGO® Serious Play® method works to bring everyone onto the same ‘page’ and set up a climate of trust and communication.
Why should you be trained as a facilitator?
It does all hinge on having a facilitator who is qualified or certificated in using the LEGO® Serious Play® method.
A facilitator who has a strong background in the theory and practice of the process is able to guide the conversation to ensure that everyone stays in flow in a psychological safe environment to be able to express themselves openly.
A trained facilitator also has the skills to set up active engagement of all participants and use this creative method to its full potential. They include all workshop participants to bring out the best in them and achieve the workshop outcomes.
Want to be trained so that you can apply the LEGO® Serious Play® process in the work you do? Have a look at the online options available through Play4Business:
Online self-paced or Online self-paced + Live Classes
For more information about the LEGO® Serious Play® process, here are some useful links for you:
Stuart Brown: Play is more than just fun | TED Talk – Insights into the value of hard fun and play in an organisational context.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the secret to happiness | TED Talk
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow is central to the understanding of the benefits that the LEGO® Serious Play® method can bring.
Why More Companies Are Putting Lego Bricks in the Office – WSJ
Great article in the Wall Street Journal about why organizations are using the methodology to take them to the next level.
