As a child, who didn’t play with LEGO?
Certainly, LEGO bricks can be seen as the common denominator of play for many generations on our planet. Not only very young children are proficient with them. Adults re-gained the childhood pleasure when Mindstorms, the computer-controlled bricks, came to the market.
Accompanied by growing acceptance, LEGO bricks entered the serious world of adulthood play and it was only a matter of time before they would be seen in the business world.
This has been a reality for a few years: LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) are more and more visible as a strategy methodology and a business venture.
The first time I came across LSP was when one of my LinkedIn contacts, Lucio Corsaro – General Manager at Medi-Pragma –, published an article on a workshop held with the asthma patient association in a method of qualitative market research for insight generation (see: Insights generation with LEGO® Serious Play®).
The description of what happened, the dynamics, and the outcomes of the session were so exciting for me that I started searching around to find out more about LSP.
What I found was impressive: a facilitated thinking, communication, and problem-solving technique with the ideal combination of emotions, people-orientation, fun, focus, commitment, and measurable results.
The basic concept leverages everybody’s ability to imagine, describe and understand a specific situation. It counts on the fact that by actively using our hands while learning, we all activate higher levels of insight, inspiration and imagination.
Why do we need something like this – “play” in our business world?
Techniques used in strategy building sessions, for example, often have unimaginative and poor results. What about a more vibrant strategy development framework?
Traditional ways of communication in the business world (e.g. meetings, workshops) rarely offer everybody an opportunity to speak up . What about leveling the session, while engaging full attention and participation?
Classical meeting setups are often perceived as boring routines where excitement, engagement, creativity, and commitment are left behind. What about a session where participants cannot wait to be there and are eager to literally “play out” the next big thing together?
“I want to learn this method” I told myself, and booked a facilitator’s certification training.
To be continued.
