Have you ever had trouble solving workplace problems with your team? Lego© Serious Play© (LSP) is a facilitation process that helps team members communicate in a safe and creative manner, making this a tool with real value in any line of work. Sometimes the best solutions to problems are the ones you least expect, and that’s why in this article, we’ll do a deep dive into LSP. From what it is, why it’s beneficial, and how to go about using it yourself, you’ll learn all about this effective facilitation tool.
What’s Lego© Serious Play©?
Starting off with the basics, let’s define LSP. LSP is a systematic facilitation process that allows people to explore problems, facilitate communication, and unlock imagination and innovation through the use of Lego bricks.
Developed in the 1990s as a collaboration between Lego Group and professors Johan Roos and Bart Victor from IMD business school in Lausanne, LSP was born out of a dissatisfaction with the company’s strategy-building sessions at the time. Despite being a company which prided itself on imagination, these were fixated on the use of words, post-it notes, and whiteboards.
For those who are still unsure what happens during a LSP session, the process is relatively straightforward.
- Question
First it’s vital to understand the key question you want to ask the participants (i.e. “What do you see as your perfect working environment?).
- Build
From there, participants will get 2-5 minutes to build their Lego construction based on the question.
- Share
After building, every participant shares their build. They are given the space to talk about what they feel it means.
- Capture
Finally, participants take pictures from their build and write key messages (short sentence or a word) on a piece of paper. They will lay these messages next to their build.
→ Thanks to this creative facilitation process, individuals, teams, and organisations are able to have different ideas, conversations, and insights, which, in turn, allow for different courses of action to be taken.
Related: Read up on our Professional Skills Development services
A Lego© Serious Play© Workshop In Action
Despite the definition, it helps to have an idea of a LSP workshop in action to better understand what actually happens. Let’s do this through the question, What environment would you love to work in?
With such a question posed, let’s imagine a group begins using their Lego bricks to come up with their answer. As the LSP facilitator would have reminded them before beginning the process, it’s important to utilize metaphor and storytelling in building their solution.
At the end of the building process, everyone gets a turn to share the story of what they built, and through the interplay of talking and listening, various ideas and insights come to light.
For example, someone might have built a boat for their solution. During the sharing portion, they could explain that the boat represents their desire to work in an environment where everyone is in the same boat–Essentially, equal. This is just a glimpse into what’s possible with LSP.
What Are Lego© Serious Play’s© Benefits?
Everyone Gets A Say
One of the main concerns during workplace meetings and training sessions is the fact that when it comes to sharing ideas and talking, a few people normally dominate the conversation. Quieter, more introverted individuals rarely get a chance to voice their opinion, making for a workplace that is not as egalitarian as one might like to believe.
LSP takes care of this issue by ensuring everyone gets a say during the sharing portion of the facilitation session. Allowing individuals the opportunity to express the thought behind their Lego creation makes for a far more democratic environment. On top of this, with more individuals sharing their ideas, the likelihood of gathering useful information is much greater!
Use Your Hands!
When we were children we used our hands all the time to play, touch, and feel. The older we get, opportunities for this kind of exploration disappears. This is why LSP is considered such a creative approach to problem solving.
While some might wonder why it even matters to work with your hands, there are a number of reasons why it’s beneficial. According to articles like this one by Psychology Today, working with your hands does wonders for your brain. Furthermore, individuals like Wilder Penfield illustrated the connection between our brain and the rest of our body through the homunculus models. In them, the hands are disproportionately large given their strong connection to the brain. Tapping into that same mind-hand connection with LSP is an innovative means of facilitating workplace processes.
A Safe Form Of Self-Expression
Our final benefit has to do with LSP being a safe form of self-expression. The reason for this is because when you ‘build’ your solution to a question, you’re not explicitly stating what it is about an issue that bothers you.
More so than that, through metaphors and storytelling, you’re building a model or representation of your solution, which means you don’t have to reveal your deepest secrets, concerns about something. This allows individuals to get to the core of what they want to express, all the while safeguarding themselves from prying eyes.
What skills can you learn in the workplace? Read up on this post about Professional Skills: What They Are & Why They Matter
Why Did I Become An Advocate for Lego© Serious Play©?
Besides the benefits mentioned, there are a few reasons why I became an advocate for LSP.
- As a child, I used to play with Lego. When I heard about LSP in 2015 while I was working at Apple, I became fascinated by the idea. When I met another LSP facilitator earlier this year, that spark returned and I started to deep dive into the subject, from learning its methods and how to facilitate LSP sessions.
- I also became an advocate for LSP due its ability to address several issues I’ve come across through my years as a trainer. Chief among those is the fact that some individuals are quieter, and have a harder time expressing their thoughts. LSP has been a great tool in addressing this issue.
- Finally, I became an advocate for LSP because of how widespread its use is becoming. From multinational organizations like IKEA, Samsung, and Virgin Atlantic to educational organizations like Cambridge, Oxford, and RMIT University in Vietnam. It’s used in mergers & acquisitions, in professional sports, for prison inmates. The list goes on and on as its popularity spreads across the board.
What About Those Who Are Reluctant To Use Lego© Serious Play©?
Pushback is common whenever a new idea or solution is introduced, and this is no different with LSP. While I can understand the reluctance, first and foremost I believe in never knocking something until trying it. Besides that, whenever I use LSP, I also like to provide background into the subject for participants. On top of this, I find it useful to explain its wide-spread use in strategy building and organisation development projects for the last 20 years in companies like Lego, Google, Qantas, and more. This tends to alleviate any reluctance.
However, if resistance persists, I offer a 1-hour free demonstration so you can get a feel for it. We’ll do this during lunch so you won’t lose time and then you can get an idea of whether it might work for you.
How Can I Help?
With 20 years experience, including impactful roles at Google and Apple, I, Thijs van Loon, am here to help. My suite of services as a Skills Development Facilitator has been meticulously designed to propel your team to new heights.
One area of expertise is in Professional Skills Development, which can cover anything from sales training, team management, all the way to Lego© Serious Play©.
By leveraging training certifications from Google and Apple, in addition to my certifications in NLP and Psych-K, I offer tailored, practical solutions that deliver immediate results to your business. By working together, I can help you empower the individuals in your company and your business at large, whether in Vietnam, Singapore or other locations in Southeast Asia.