The LEGO® Serious Play® Experience
I was hearing great things from people who had participated in Lego Serious Play (LSP) sessions. What they were saying certainly whetted my appetite whilst a few colleagues overseas were having great success as LSP facilitators.
For these reasons, I thought I would become a Lego® Serious Play® Certified Change Facilitator. As a seasoned facilitator, this would add another valuable tool to my toolkit.
What I had not prepared myself for was the powerful impact it could have.
The certification process had certainly got me excited about the possibilities and opportunities to utilise LSP. Still, it was only after putting it into practice that I saw the magic play out. Now that I have delivered numerous LSP workshops, the results never cease to amaze me.
The process
Most LSP workshops have a similar process structure.
Stage 1: The Challenge
This is where I pose a building challenge to the workshop participants.
Stage 2: The Build
The participants build their own LEGO model in answer to the challenge.
Stage 3: The Story
The participants share the story of their build.
In action
I could write about the origins of LSP, its history and evolution, the learning sciences behind it, and the facilitation principles, but you can find out about those online yourself.
What I would like to do is take you on a journey through a LSP workshop, as if you were one of the participants.
Before I do that, I want to share a couple of principles with you.
Firstly, LSP rejects the idea that external experts must be brought into the organisation to identify problems and propose solutions. The opposite is true. The LSP methodology is built around the assumption that the answer is in the room.
Secondly, when LSP invites everyone in the room to think with their hands and build their ideas, everyone leans in and everyone has a voice. Everyone is the crew, and there are no passengers.
The invitation
There is an invitation in your inbox to attend a workshop that will explore “The Challenges of Working Together (in and across the teams) and How to Improve.” The 12 participants are your team, marketing, and the sales team.
Your colleagues are rolling their eyes as they read the invitation. “Another day spent looking at PowerPoint slides and writing on lots of sticky notes” is the shared sentiment. Unfortunately, you and your team have attended so many workshops over recent months that have delivered few results. There were no outcomes and no accountability for driving change.
Anyway, at least it will be a change of scenery!
The workshop
I have set up the room with one large table in the middle, big enough to accommodate everyone with space to work.
There are some questioning faces as they scan the room, and there is no projector, no laptop, no whiteboards, and no sticky notes on the table. I welcome you and the others to the workshop. I then go around the room and have everyone share their name and role quickly. In her introduction, Suzie from Sales, explains how she sits outside of the teams as her role is strategy generation and not direct selling.
I explain that we will explore a particular challenge as a group, and to do so, we will use LEGO Serious Play. I establish whether anyone has participated in a LSP workshop before, and in this instance, no one has. I provide a brief explanation of LSP, and then I get agreement on some ground rules.
Familiarisation
The challenge. I hand out a small calico bag containing LEGO pieces and a base plate, and give you the challenge to build a tower as tall as you can.
The build. You have 4 minutes and 12 seconds.
The story. Now you have familiarised yourself with the bricks, but LEGO Serious Play is about telling a story about what has been built.
Tell the story about how the build reflects your career, where the base is the start, and the top is today. Take a few minutes to think.
This is where I expect someone to object, saying, “But you didn't ask us to build a model about our career. You just asked us to build a tower.”
To date, no one has.
After a few minutes, I ask for a volunteer, and Mustaf from your team offers to go first and tell his story.
As we go around the room, participants use the change of colours in their tower to describe changes in roles or changes in companies. Gaps in the bricks are used to illustrate a career break to have children or for an extended period of travel. Your imagination has no bounds! You ask questions about each other’s build. There is laughter and reflection as each story is shared.
The towers are dismantled, and the bricks are returned to the bag.
Solo build
I hand out a larger bag of bricks.
I tell you that we are going to explore The Challenges of Working Together. Some of you were aware of the challenge because you had taken the time to read the email invitation, while others had not. There is playful criticism and teasing.
My instructions to you are to build what you believe are the challenges.
I give you a few minutes to find a suitable workspace, open the bag, and explore the LEGO pieces within. I provide a few instructions, such as you don't have to use all the bricks. When everyone is comfortable, I give you 6 minutes and 32 seconds to build a model of the challenges.
There is little hesitation. Everyone is leaning in and focusing on the task at hand.
Time is up, and I seek a volunteer. This time, Margaret from Sales offers to go first and describes the challenges she sees regarding the teams working together.
I ask questions about Margaret’s build, and so do you. There is robust discussion, and whilst some are seeking clarification, others are vehemently agreeing with Margaret’s observations.
Margaret nominates you to go next, and so the storytelling and discussion continue around the table. When it is Marco’s turn, he highlights the wall that seems to exist between the teams and flags that a challenge is not being invited to the marketing meetings to learn about the products and services being promoted. Fatimah from marketing explains that they know how busy salespeople are and that they don’t want to invite them to every meeting held. Marco requests that salespeople be invited to all meetings, and the salespeople can then decide whether to attend or not.
The team-building and mutual collaboration have commenced.
Before we break, a scribe is nominated and the team summarise the challenges that have been identified.
The builds are not dismantled, as you will use them for reference after lunch. They are placed on a table at the side of the room.
Group build
In returning to the workshop after lunch, there are gasps of glee as there is now a massive drawstring bag laid open, revealing an enormous pile of LEGO pieces. You can feel the anticipation and excitement rising.
The challenge I now give you is to build a model or models that show how you can improve working together based on the challenges you have identified. You are doing this as a group.
I tell you to spend a few minutes thinking about what you are going to build, and then I give you 40 minutes to construct the improvement model(s).
All hands are on deck. People are either rummaging through the LEGO or discussing what should be built, or both.
The two teams are working together as one and have decided to model the lifecycle of a product going to market, exploring how sales and marketing can work together more effectively during the process.
The only person not on their feet is Suzie from Sales, who is observing what is going on but not actively participating.
The model resembles a runway, with sales on one side and marketing on the other. A bridge has been built at the inception stage of the lifecycle.
Suzie turns to me and says I think we need more bridges. I look at her and say, “I think you do”, and nod to the large pile of LEGO that has now been moved to the top end of the table, making room for the builds. She is immediately on her feet and searching through the LEGO to find the pieces she needs for the bridge. She ends up building five bridges to connect the teams. Suzie is no longer positioning herself as an outsider but as an integral member of the team.
There is now no one sitting down. The noise in the room has risen dramatically as people shout at each other to find a particular piece of LEGO or share building ideas.
Dimitri has taken the initiative to use the summary of the identified challenges and verify that the model includes improvements to address each challenge. Without prompting, the unified team can identify not only what needs to be improved but also how it will be done and who is responsible for the task.
The build comes to an end, and this time, you volunteer to take the lead on telling the story about how the model reflects improvements in working together. Everyone contributes as you speak to all the builds on the table, and Fredrica captures the conversation.
There is a perpetual buzz in the room.
I ask everyone to complete a feedback form (yes, I’m old-fashioned), and you are using words such as amazing, fun, magic, listening, sharing, reflection, creative, innovative, collaboration, team, insightful, interactive, enjoyable together, accountability, team building, and excellent.
The outcome
A month after the workshop, I touched base with your manager and the manager of the other team.
They tell me that you and your colleagues have used the models (you took many photos) and the shared experience of the workshop as a reference point for ongoing discussions and decision-making. This has sustained the momentum and learning from the workshop.
The two teams now meet regularly to review the progress on the action plan from the workshop. There have been significant inroads made in the way teams work together. Communication and collaboration are thriving, and walls have come down.
I am asked if I will do another workshop for the same cohort, but this time, explore the challenge of differentiating a product or service in an already crowded market. I look forward to seeing you there.
Call to action
If you want to discuss running a LEGO Serious Play workshop in your organisation, get in touch for a no-obligation discussion.