Everyone hates having a meeting: How a duck can make them better

LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is a method used by facilitator Matthias Renner and his company Brickolution in group workshops for companies. The aim is for participants to solve complex problems in a playful way using Lego bricks. In the workshops, participants are given tasks, such as building a tower or an obstacle they encounter in their job. The building process allows for individual creativity and expression while working towards a common goal. 

The workshop starts with the task of building a duck out of only six Lego bricks, which makes it clear that each model is unique, just like each participant. The process of building with LEGO and sharing the story of the model helps people to remove the hierarchies that often exist in meetings so that all voices can be heard.

The seminar ends with a discussion about the different models built, leaving the interpretation of the models to the builders. The concept of LEGO SERIOUS PLAY offers a unique and fun way to address important workplace issues while encouraging teamwork and creativity.

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In such a workshop, the goal is to work together on a task via various subtasks and to arrive at a solution that all participants support and that is consistently implemented after the workshop. The facilitator (the person who leads through the workshop) has to keep each individual in the flow all the time. Because it is when we are in flow that we forget about time and space and are able to best utilize all of our knowledge and potential.

In order for the flow state to last throughout the workshop, the participants must not get bored. This means that the challenges must become more and more difficult with each subtask. At the same time, however, everyone must be able to trust that they are capable of mastering the tasks set for them. This confidence is acquired in what is known as skills building.

What is Skills Building?

Skills Building is the start of every LSP workshop. In some groups, participants may have just learned that they will be working with LEGO SERIOUS PLAY that day. In other groups, it may have been known before the workshop. In either case, participants can be categorized into three groups:

• Participants who are looking forward to the workshop and the method and are excited about what will happen.
• Participants who are more anxious. They may have never built with LEGO bricks before, think they are not creative enough, or think their opinions will not be taken seriously or will be overruled.
• Participants who are rather bored. Perhaps playing is childish to them or they don’t see a connection to their organization or professional environment. In any case, it feels like a waste of time to them. (see also this blog post).

The goal is to get these three groups on the same page during Skills Building. They are taught how the method works and are told that everyone is creative, heard equally, and each and every opinion and knowledge is relevant. If an attempt were made to save time at this point, different starting conditions for the workshop would automatically result. Participants would not feel comfortable using the method and the potential could never be fully realized.

What do participants learn in Skills Building?

Skills Building consists of a sequence of questions that are worked on by the participants, one after the other. The goal is by no means to jointly develop the big solution to the workshop’s target question. Rather, it is to experience the use of the method and to learn how to express oneself with the stones. If you compare an LSP workshop with a marathon, than the Skills Building is the training phase for the marathon including the warm-up before and the gathering together at the starting line. Without training and not being warmed up, a group can try to run a marathon, but they will never finish.

Skills building begins with the development of technical skills, the actual building with LEGO bricks. For some, the last time they built with LEGO was a long time ago. For others, it may be the first time they have held bricks in their hands. For this reason, a model from the real world is chosen at the beginning that everyone knows and that can be built by each participant without difficulty.

In the next step, the use of metaphors is specifically practiced. Through the use of metaphors, complex facts can be represented with the help of a few stones and additional emotions can be conveyed. With the help of the stones, a 3D print of one’s own thoughts is created, so to speak. Finally, the participants experience that different opinions can exist when answering the same question, each of them equally justified, equally valuable and all of them are given the same space.

Conclusion

During the skills building the participants experience

• how easy it is to build with LEGO.
• how LEGO bricks can be used to build three-dimensional models of their own thoughts.
• that they can think with the help of their hands.
• how they can express themselves with the help of metaphors.
• that they can express their views on a topic without being judged by the others.
• that everyone is 100% involved in the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY workshop.

After these approximately 45-60 minutes, all participants have the courage and confidence to tackle the rest of the workshop together. Everyone is so comfortable with the method that they all share their opinion with the others and are curious to see what the other answers are to the same question. There is openness and genuine communication between the participants, which in turn is the basis for successful collaboration and mutual learning. When is your next LEGO SERIOUS PLAY workshop?

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In a LEGO SERIOUS PLAY (LSP) workshop this is completely different. During the workshop it is ensured that everyone has time to think for themselves. The aim is to get the knowledge and opinion of each team member out of their head and onto the table. Everyone has time to think – without outside influence. The different opinions should stand for themselves openly and uninfluenced.

How to reduce the influence of others?

LSP is a process-based method. The process on which it is based is called the core process. This core process is divided into four steps:

1. Asking a question
2. Building
3. Sharing
4. Reflecting

The starting point is the question that a facilitator asks all participants of a workshop (the facilitator is the person who leads through the workshop). This question is worked on by all participants.

During the second step, (the building phase) the participants have time to reflect and build their answer in the form of a model. During this phase, there is maximum concentration. The participants engage with the question, thereby building knowledge and at the same time forming new connections in their brains.

In the third step, every participant explains the significance of their own model. This is more than a presentation. Here, the knowledge and personal view are shared. The others are thus offered access on different sensory levels: they listen with their ears as well as with their eyes and even grasp the answer. By addressing different senses, the explanations not only become more catchy, they can also be followed more closely on the basis of the model and thus become more firmly anchored.

In the fourth step, everyone has the opportunity to ask questions of understanding about the models. This is not to question the statement of the model (no, not even in jest!). Only questions about the bricks are allowed to ensure that everyone understands the meaning. Based on this, a reflection takes place, which makes it possible to put the answers to the question into a common context.

Summary

By using this core process:

• all participants get the opportunity to think about a question for themselves without being influenced by others.
• every individual is heard.
• each individual contributes equally to the discussion with his or her own knowledge and opinion.
• the exchange between the participants takes place without fear or apprehension of being judged.
• everyone can follow the thoughts of others more easily.
• the risk of misunderstandings is reduced.
• the understanding of each other in the team is increased.
• a team deals with difficult and complex issues in a constructive atmosphere.
• participants focus on the message and not on the messenger.
• everyone works together at eye level without anyone dominating the workshop.

Using the core process in combination with LEGO SERIOUS PLAY, meetings and workshops become more effective and efficient. Everyone is heard and contributes to a solution. The most surprising ideas and insights often do not come from the 20% of participants who have an opinion immediately. They usually come from the 80% who are a little more reserved. With LEGO SERIOUS PLAY, you help all participants contribute equally and get all ideas on the table. This creates mutual understanding and inspiration.

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In my workshops I’m applying the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®-method. With this method we play seriously and with a goal in mind to solve a challenge or problem. This way we reach goals faster and work out creative solutions the participants have not even thought of before.

However, when I talk about these workshops, I sometimes get incredulous looks or hear sentences like „I wouldn’t know how to explain to my colleagues that we „only“ play. And we do that with LEGO also.“ Among adults, playing is sometimes frowned on as purposeless, pointless and inefficient. I strongly oppose this view.

What does playing mean for adults?

Einstein said: „The original source of all technical achievements is the divine curiosity and the play instinct of the tinkering and brooding researcher…“

In daily routine, adults often focus on functioning and completing tasks within a short timeframe. But in addition to work we need play.

Through play we become more curious, more creative, use our imagination and try out new things. This also makes it easier for us to put ourselves in the shoes of others. We deal with our fellow players and thus promote social cohesion at the same time. Playing therefore also leads to an increase of our social skills. Cooperation only becomes tangible when people solve a task together. This can happen in a game or in real life.

During the game, we test different types of behaviour and discover that things become possible that we previously thought were difficult to solve. We face complex problems, fail without running risk and learn from our mistakes. We playfully develop strategies that help us in the real world.

Even with small successes in the game, our brain releases endorphins and gives us a feeling of happiness – no wonder that we prefer to play than to attend a meeting or training session.

No game without rules

Games are based on rules that create a safe space. This makes it easier for us to open up and to perceive our environment in a more comprehensive and complex way. It promotes our multidimensional thinking and expands our perception of our complex environment with all its influencing factors. We discover new solutions and possibly get to know unfamiliar ways of looking at things.

Conclusion

In brief, whenever we play,

• we approach questions with an open mind and try out new things.
• we stimulate curiosity, creativity and imagination.
• we think multi-dimensionally and take a more comprehensive view of our environment.
• we discover new qualities.
• we test and fail, from which we can learn.
• we develop strategies and more and more creative solutions that we can implement in the real world.
• we deal with ourselves and our fellow players.
• we increase social cohesion and our social competence.

So as adults we should dispose of the courage to play more again. Especially for topics such as change management, team, leadership and organizational or strategic development, playing is perfectly suited.

Let’s play together again and more – because there is hardly a more exciting, free, challenging and effective way to solve tasks. And it’s fun too!

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