How playing with LEGO can enable a shared vision for your team

I came across the concept of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® last year for the first time when I joined a Meetup group at The App Business. I joined a small group of professionals from a range of industries: some already experts in this way of communicating and others completely new to it, myself included. 

I wasn’t quite sure what this entailed but I’ve always enjoyed playing with Lego – even as an adult, sometimes using my nieces as an excuse to build cool things – and I was curious to find out what could be so serious about playing with bricks.

The session started with an overview of what is LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and how it can be used for a number of situations including team-building activities.

It reminded me that my older sister, a Primary School teacher in South London, once shared some interesting exercises they do with students to help them learn maths. 

Source: www.scholastic.com

One of the first things that caught my attention was that LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® challenged the 20:80 meetings whereby a leader takes up 80% of the time talking about what he/she wishes to cover, leaving the remaining 20% for everyone else’s matters. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® adopts a 100:100 rule – also known as leaning forward - where everyone has the same amount of time to speak and share ideas making it a more effective and fair discussion.

I was excited to get started and learning how to communicate with others using lego bricks. Everyone had a small pack of bricks that they used to answer a number of questions such as a dream holiday, a professional skill or even a model of how they see themselves.

In just a couple of hours, I’ve learned a great deal about people I had never met. Even in the simplest task there was a flavour of someone’s personality, interests, and ways of thinking which were often surprising and delightful.

I enjoyed the session so much that I was determined to share this at work. As new members joined the Marketing Team at FutureLearn in the past couple of months, this felt like a great opportunity to organise a meaningful but fun team-building event.

I talked to Sean Blair, the same certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator that had run the free meetup group and together we planned a session for 11 people.

The purpose of the session was not only to bring the team together, and get to know each other individually as new members had just joined the team, but to collectively think about team values and what we want to achieve – a shared vision. We built individual and shared models and learned some interesting things about who we are and how we see the world. But, most importantly, we've learned that we certainly share the same values and drive and that we’re collectively excited about what FutureLearn still has to offer to the world of Education. 

Caption: An individual model built by someone else in my team about me

What I’ve learned about the power of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® as an effective communication tool:

#1 Everyone builds and everyone shares

For every challenge or question, everyone needs to build a model using Lego bricks. Sometimes there will be specific instructions, others it’s pretty much up to the person building the model. But the most important is that everyone builds something and shares what they’ve created.

#2 There are no wrong answers

No matter what you build, there is no right or wrong answer. It’s your creation, your ideas, and your view and so they’re all valuable and relevant.

#3 Sharing is mandatory but only to a certain point

Everyone needs to explain the models they’ve built but they can reserve the right to only explain it to a certain extend. Especially if they’ve built something personal they don’t feel comfortable explaining in detail. I’m not sure if we’re the odd team but everyone seemed pretty open and willing to share more about themselves which was both inspiring and fun.

#4 Creativity is enhanced by the use metaphors

I was astonished by the creativity of the team’s individual models. Not so much due to any one’s special expertise in Lego building but mainly because everyone was really engaged and used their imagination to explain concepts and thoughts that bricks alone wouldn’t be able to reflect.

#5 The power of listening and speaking with your eyes and hands

We were always encouraged to explain each model with our hands and pointing at the different elements as we told its story. This helped with bringing the story to life but also made it much more powerful as others also listened attentively and followed the model of the person sharing the story with their eyes as much as with their ears.

#6 The importance of building individually and together

I’ve enjoyed building my own individual models and see how far my creativity could go, as much as I’ve enjoyed listening to everyone else’s stories. I’ve learned more about the personal and professional selves of each member of the team and that, in it self, was a good outcome. But building a shared model, a common vision that we all can look forward to was by far the most enjoyable experience. It felt good as the team worked together and shared their concerns, aspirations and motivations. We’ve built a shared model of what we want to achieve by 2017. It includes a wheel, a dynamic bridge, warriors, a tiger, an elephant, and much more. But of course, these are all metaphors :-)

Have you ever tried LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®? What other models have you used? Tell your experience in the comments below.

Or if you'd like to give this a go, have a look at some of the free meetups coming up in London http://www.meetup.com/Lego-Serious-Play/