There are usually three typical responses I get when I mention, in response to the question “what do you do?” and I’ve replied, “I’m a LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator.”

There’s the person who thinks they’ve experienced LEGO Serious Play: “Oh, yeah – I’ve done that – we had to build a bridge in a team session.”

There’s the person who knows they’ve experienced LEGO Serious Play: “It was great – I didn’t know it could do that.”

There’s the person who doesn’t know what I’m talking about: “Oh; what’s that? – tell me about it.”

I usually begin with…

“Have you ever been in a meeting or a workshop where you’ve sat through seemingly endless PowerPoint slides so crammed with words that you don’t have time to read them before the next one comes up, or the presenter simply reads them word for word?”

“Have you ever been in a meeting or a workshop where the person controlling the meeting – the one holding the pen at the flip chart – already knows all of the answers so what’s the point in trying to suggest an alternative idea?”

“Perhaps there’s been a time when one or two people dominate the conversation while others don’t contribute. Maybe they are in the wrong meeting or simply worried their voice won’t be heard. Either way, what’s the point?”

…I then go on to explain…

“It’s a methodology that ensures democracy in the room by giving everyone an equal voice and meaning no-one person can monopolise the discussion?”

“I always start with understanding what the type of outcome is expected of the workshop and design it around those principles. Each and every workshop has a bespoke design.”

“We get started with a warm-up exercise just to make sure everyone is comfortable with the bricks and then get into the workshop proper. I ask a series of questions and everyone builds their own three-dimensional model to answer each question. Then each person describes their model and, here’s the clever bit, if there are any questions they’re directed through the model; ‘why are all the bricks blue’; ‘what’s the importance of that piece?’ All of a sudden the meeting has been de-personalised; it’s become open and honest.”

“This thinking with your hands to build 3D models unlocks hidden knowledge and delivers better results. It produces more concrete ideas because everyone has time to build their answers and input before conversation and knowledge sharing begin.”

It’s at this point I either show some photographs of models or, better still, the models themselves.

“This one is from a workshop where communication across a team of more than 100 colleagues wasn’t working. There was already a weekly newsletter, monthly meetings and the Director’s Blog. We asked How do you want to receive communications?”

“Here’s one of the ideas that was adopted. Communications are delivered at three levels: a headline that may inspire the reader to read a single paragraph that summarises the item, or a full article that is of great interest to the reader. It was all about the need to know.”

I finish with…

“The best way to understand LEGO Serious Play is to experience it, so if you have an hour spare then I’m more than happy to do you a hands-on demo. You’ll see it’s outrageously versatile.”

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