LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®
Models, metaphors and imagination at work
A passionate and practical process for building confidence, commitment and insight.
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is an innovative, experiential process designed to enhance business performance. Based on research that shows this kind of hands-on, minds-on learning produces a deeper, more meaningful understanding of the world and its possibilities, it is an efficient, practical and effective process that works for everyone within an organisation. Participants come away with skills to communicate more effectively, to engage their imaginations more readily, and to approach their work with increased confidence, commitment and insight.
The hand is connected to the brain
When personal desire drives you to learn something using your hands, a complicated process takes over that generates a powerful emotional charge. Using your hands “releases” thoughts that are stuck in your head. What you learn while creating 3-D — even 4-D — metaphors sinks much deeper into your mind than what you would learn through mere words or two-dimensional imagery. Thoughts that are “built” tend to be expressed in greater detail and are more easily understood.
Constructing and communicating through LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® allows you to address complex issues in an engaging way, where ideas and scenarios are expressed and explored through the shared language of metaphors. The 3-D landscape you build using LEGO® bricks provides valuable insight into how your company works and how it connects to the outside world.
It’s play with a purpose
The purpose of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is to explore the relationships and connections between people and their world, to observe the dynamics both internal and external, to explore various hypothetical scenarios, and to gain awareness of the possibilities. Building landscape models with LEGO® bricks, giving them meaning through story-making, and playing out possible scenarios deepens understanding, sharpens insight and socially bonds the group who plays together.
Why does work need play?
- ›Play helps release thoughts that are locked in the head and the heart.
- ›You see things differently — ideas come to life with more concrete detail than ideas expressed through just talking.
- ›Discussion during play happens on a more level playing field.
- ›The group at play thrives only when everybody participates, so frustrations are reduced and team coherence and direction are more solid.
- ›Play lets you experiment, explore and take risks with ideas without fearing real-life consequences.
- ›You generate a wider and more imaginative range of possibilities than in a traditional business meeting.
- ›People at play are more present, more engaged, more passionate and better performers.
Why does play work?
- ›Play is special: if it’s routine, it’s not play.
- ›Play is voluntary: it can’t be coerced or mandated.
- ›Play is imaginative: you can suspend the rules of the real world.
- ›Play isn’t explicitly productive: direct consequences don’t matter.
- ›Play is unlimited and delimited: it exists for its own sake and is different from work.
- ›Play happens at an agreed location — but it can be anywhere.
- ›Play has its own rules: it is not constrained by the rules of work.
For more information
To find out more about how Insight Factory can help your organisation utilise LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, please contact us.