What is LEGO Serious Play
Dissatisfied with the results of internal strategy sessions, LEGO set out to improve their sets and build a methodology for workshop facilitation. It took over 20 iterations, and the result is LEGO Serious Play. It is an engaging way to unlock ideas, and collaborate on problems, by giving participants an equal share of voice in a safe environment.
The Benefits of Using LEGO
Our hands are controlled by the most number of neural networks in the brain. This is a museum exhibit showing the proportion of the brain that controls your hands, respective to other parts of the body. Fiddling with our hands actually gets our thought juices flowing.
LEGO Serious Play Ground Rules
There are several ground rules with LEGO Serious Play
- Firstly, there are no “correct” or “incorrect” models, only different perspectives.
- Participants ask questions about the models built, not about the people who built them.
- Everyone has a chance to explain their models and participate.
LEGO Serious Play and Modern Agile Values
LEGO Serious Play meshes perfectly with at least 2 Modern Agile Values – “Make People Awesome”, and “Make Safety a Prerequisite”. Through building models, participants get to express themselves, and listen to different perspectives, all in a safe environment. People get to learn from one another, and often integrate other perspectives into theirs through building group models.
Uses of LEGO Serious Play in Agile Workshops
We’ve used LEGO Serious Play for:
- Agile Team Lift-Offs
- Agile Project Inceptions
- Sprint Retrospectives
- Kicking off a Chapter
- Conflict Resolution
- Team Building
Examples of LEGO Serious Play Models
Project Inception
Strategy and Brainwriting
Scrum Training
Team Lift-Off
Chapter Kick-Off
Team Building
Want to know more?
We’d be very happy to run a LEGO Serious Play workshop for you. The agenda and activities are tailored to your needs. We use a bag of visual facilitation techniques combined with LEGO Serious Play, to bring out the best outcomes.