All things Lego® SeriousPlay®

We know much more than we think we know. Tapping into the minds and hearts of participants, using the power of Storytelling and metaphors and ensuring 100% engagement. In this blog we introduce the wonderful Lego® SeriousPlay® method and share some useful information for anyone interested in applying it.

#engagement #storytelling #facilitation

A participant explaining his creation to his colleagues.

What is it for? For who?

Why is it so powerful?

Key theories & concepts

How it works

The core process

Your next Workshop with Lego® SeriousPlay®

Strategic Creative Facilitation with Sparks

What is it for? For who?

Think of People and Team development, Innovation and Strategy, Coaching and Counseling.

Lego® Serious Play® ('LSP') is an innovative & experiential method for strategic decision-making and problem-solving in complex environments, designed to enhance team development, personal transformation and business performance. Its goal is fostering creative thinking and solutions by building experiential metaphors of personal/group identities, aspirations and experiences using Lego® bricks as a catalyst.

Thinking together alone - participants processing their answers by building models that will eventually be shared.

Why is it so powerful?

Lego® Serious Play® is a lean forward, hands on technique, where everyone is involved, enabling 100% participation and 100% buy-in through visual and physical co-creation.

It is based on a set of basic principles:

> Everyone has a voice: everyone within a group or an organisation can contribute to the discussion and help generate solutions.

> Think with your hands: bypass the biased thinking by “doing” first, trusting your hands-brain connection, then reflecting & sharing, in order to enhance understanding and creativity.

> The answer is in the system: leverage complexity through an eco-systemic approach, since no one in the group has the answer to the challenge (neither the facilitator nor the group’s leader).

> There is no ONE right answer: diverge, without boundaries, through different views and perceptions, and then converge to shared values and guiding principles.

Individual models also can be merged into shared models - this is particularly interesting for fostering alignment shared responsibility.

Key theories & concepts

The Lego® Serious Play® method is underpinned by some key theories and concepts that make it remarkably powerful:

> The concept of play.

> Storytelling and the use of

metaphors, which are both key components of play.

> Constructivism (Piaget, 1936) and its extended version developed by Papert (1986), constructionism. These theories state that learning is more effective when people construct something tangible in the real world. > The interconnection between the brain and the hands.

> The flow model (Csíkszentmihályi, 1975) shows how the mental state of a person engaged in a specific activity can change depending on the challenge level and skill level. During a LSP workshop participants often reach the optimal level of engagement when they are in a ‘hands on’ process: this is what Csikszentmihalyi calls ‘flow’.

How it works

A Lego® Serious Play® workshop is a structured process where participants are asked to use Lego® bricks to build models representing their thoughts, reflections and ideas.

> Normally, a Lego® Serious Play® workshop is at the same time closely regulated and tailor-made. Trust in the process should always coexist with a strong value and purpose driven facilitation.

> That’s why the workshop should be led by a certified and experienced facilitator always, who has the task to design the best possible experience together with the sponsor, and then to guide participants through the activities.

Our certified LSP facilitator Helene introducing the challenges.

The core process

The core process consists of 4 fundamental steps:

> Posing a question: The facilitator gives a specific challenge to all participants.

> Build metaphorical models: Participants build their answer to the challenge using Lego® bricks. While building their models, participants assign a meaning to them and develop a story covering the meaning.

> Sharing: Participants share their stories with the other participants and listen to the others’ stories.

> Reflection: The facilitator encourages participants to reflect on what they have heard and seen in the models.

Sharing is caring - a participant shares the story of her team creation with the audience.

Your next Workshop with Lego® SeriousPlay®

Diversity enriches the Perspective. Collaboration makes it flourish.

From small to big groups (45+ participants), from 3hrs to full day experiences, we have successfully designed and facilitated wonderful Values & Visioning sessions, creative mind-storms and Impact Analysis for our clients so far. If we triggered your curiosity, here is our LSP Workshop Brochure with more information on a typical process and standard pricing indications.

Strategic Creative Facilitation with SPARKS

As part of the Values Driven Journey and in context of the bigger picture, which we wrapped up in the Contextscanner©, we offer great tools to facilitate individuals, teams and organisations with fun team building experiences, in depth sense making on elemental themes like Values & Visioning and Impact Analysis, and playful but serious approaches to tackle strategic topics and agendas for future fitness.

Strategy nurtures creativity and vice versa and creativity influences the attitude we take towards events.

We invite you to connect to learn more about our pool of certified facilitators and your options.

Best wishes,

SPARKS