LEGO Serious Play

The basics
LEGO Serious Play: what is it?
LEGO Serious Play: how does it work?
LEGO Serious Play: why does it work?
WE DON’T STOP PLAYING BECAUSE WE GROW OLD
WE GROW OLD BECAUSE WE STOP PLAYING
LEGO Serious Play: what is it?

LEGO Serious Play (LSP) is a facilitated thinking,

communication and problem solving technique for
use with individuals, teams and organisations.

It draws on extensive research from the fields of

business, organization development,
psychology and learning, and is based on the
concept of “hand knowledge”.
LEGO Serious Play: hand knowledge?

If someone asks you a question …

… and you answer verbally, you activate your short

& long term memory (= +- 13% of your brain)

… and you start building with your hands,

80% of your brain is activated.

Darwin proved that.

LEGO Serious Play: what is it?

LEGO Serious Play is a ideal way

to help individuals, teams and organisations
get a clear view of:
1/ their current situation,
2/ their aspirations and goals,
3/ the way to get there.
LEGO Serious Play: constructionism

LEGO Serious Play is based on the ideas of Seymour Papert, which

built in turn on the Constructivist theories of his colleague Jean Piaget.

Papert argued that learning happens

exceptionally well when people are engaged
in constructing a product, something external
to themselves such as a sand castle, a
machine, a computer program or a book.
LEGO Serious Play

Play is unique because it produces benefits that span multiple

functional domains including: physical, emotional, mental, and
social.

Play is defined as a limited, structured and

voluntary activity that involves the imaginary.

It’s an activity limited in time & space, often structured by

rules, conventions or agreements among the players,
uncoerced by authority figures, and drawing on elements of
fantasy & creative imagination.
LEGO Serious Play: imagination

Throughout history, the term "imagination" has been given

many different cultural and linguistic connotations.

While all share the basic idea that humans have a unique
ability to "form images" or to "imagine" something, the variety
of uses of the term "imagination" implies not one, but at
least three meanings:
1/ to describe something,
2/ to create something,
3/ to challenge something.
LEGO Serious Play: imagination

From the point of view of LEGO Serious Play,

it is the interplay between these three kinds of
imagination that make up strategic imagination
– the source of original strategies in companies.
LEGO Serious Play: strategic imagination

What Napoleon did with tin soldiers,

we do with LEGO bricks.
Also …
CREATIVITY IS
INTELLIGENCE HAVING FUN.
- Einstein
LEGO Serious Play: how does it work?
LEGO Serious Play: visual storytelling

Storytelling is an age-old tool because it is a memorable

method of communicating what has happened or what is
currently happening.

Storytelling with LEGO models makes a situation come alive

before it occurs in real life and allows you to test what might
happen if you make certain decisions.
It is the next best thing to actually “doing” in the real world -
but without the threat of those annoying real life
consequences.
LEGO Serious Play: The 4 core steps

Step 1: Facilitator poses the question

Participants are asked to build and create stories in response
to a question. The question should be clear, yet very open-
ended.
LEGO Serious Play: The 4 core steps

Step 2: Individuals build a model

Each participant builds his or her own 3-D model in response
to the question that has been posed. Participants work with
the special set of LEGO bricks designed to inspire the use of
metaphors and story making.
LEGO Serious Play: The 4 core steps

Step 3: Individuals tell their story

Each participant shares his or her model’s meaning and story
with the rest of the team. It is absolutely critical that every
person shares their story. This enables 100% participation
during the session which builds commitment to shared
action.
LEGO Serious Play: The 4 core steps

Step 4: Questions and reflections

The facilitator and participants crystallize key insights, and
ask clarification questions of the models. The facilitator sums
up surprises and connections.
LEGO Serious Play: use of metaphors

Metaphors can serve as powerful tools leading us to think about our

realities in new or different ways. By unleashing our imaginations to
describe the world as we see it, metaphors help us form entirely
new descriptions that might challenge assumptions and beliefs,
revealing new possibilities.

By drawing on more of our senses, metaphors also help us convey

complex ideas that may be difficult to communicate with words.
LEGO Serious Play: why does it work?
LEGO Serious Play: flow

When you go through the LEGO Serious Play workshops,

you will experience what some call a “roller coaster ride”.

You will feel varying comfort levels as you move through the
process and the challenges. The processes are designed
deliberately this way so as to greatly increase the chances that
real changes and long term learning will take place, along with a
deep feeling of accomplishment.
LEGO Serious Play: flow
This roller coaster is best
described by the “Flow Model”,
modified from work done by
Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi in 1991.
A PICTURE IS WORTH
A 1000 WORDS.
- Napoleon
LEGO Serious Play: 100% participation
f.e.
A manager has a meeting with his team of 10 people. He has a problem and
asks the team for possible solutions. The first person ("Mr Loud") brings up an
idea. The second person ("Mrs MBA") adds or adjusts that idea.
The third person ("Mr Popular") fills in the last details of the idea. "Do we all
agree?" asks the manager. Everybody nodds. The tenth person ("Mr I need
some time to think things through") also has a great idea, possibly the perfect
solution for the problem, but by now, he doesn't dare to say it anymore,
because it's completely different from the idea, everybody just agreed on.

With LEGO Serious Play the manager will get

access to all ideas in the group. Because everyone
has to build a model and share the story.
LEGO Serious Play: 100% openness

Even though your idea didn’t make it.

You have said it.
People heard it.
Some agreed.
Most rejected.
You saw the strenghts and flaws of your idea.
You get that you might be wrong.
LEGO Serious Play: 100% respect

Rule 1: You can not alter the model of someone else

Rule 2: You communicate through the model, not to the

person who build the model

Rule 3: You listen to every story

LEGO Serious Play: QUESTIONS?

els@agileagency.be
PEOPLE DO BUSINESS WITH OTHER PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY CHOOSE TO,
NOT BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO.
AND THERE ARE ALWAYS OTHER PEOPLE DOING EXACTLY THE SAME THING,

BUT IT’S THE PERSONAL CONNECTION, THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.

- Els Meyvaert
The Agile Agency

Els Meyvaert
Weibeemd 1
3020 Herent
BE0560.905.963

0476 999 539

els@agileagency.be
www.agileagency.be

@agileagency_be