SERIOUS WORK

HOW TO FACILITATE MEETINGS &

WORKSHOPS USING THE
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® METHOD

APPLICATIONS INCLUDE:
GOAL SETTING
TEAM BUILDING
IDEA GENERATION
VALUES & BEHAVIOURS
SHARED VISION
SEAN BLAIR, MARKO RILLO & PARTNERS
SERIOUS WORK SERIOUS WORK
SERIOUS WORK SERIOUS WORK
SERIOUS WORK SERIOUS WORK
Copyright Information
Copyright © 2016 by Sean Blair and Marko Rillo. All rights reserved.

Self published by
ProMeet, an independent imprint.

Edition
1.2. December 2016.

SERIOUS WORK
LEGO® Copyright
LEGO® and LEGO® Serious Play® are trademarks of the LEGO Group 2015.
This book is not approved, authorised or endorsed by the LEGO Group. LEGO®, the LEGO® logo, the
Brick®, Knob® configuration and the Minifigure® are trademarks of the LEGO Group. 2015. HOW TO FACILITATE MEETINGS & WORKSHOPS
LEGO® Serious Play® trademark guidelines:
www.lego.com/en-us/seriousplay/trademark-guidelines
USING THE LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® METHOD
with conscious incompetence
This book uses and builds on the LEGO® Serious Play® Open Source Guide made available by the
LEGO Group under a Creative Commons licence (‘Attribution Share Alike' see creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-sa/3.0/ for licence details). Written, & designed by
SEAN BLAIR
Disclaimer
MARKO RILLO
Although the authors have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct
at the time of going to print, the authors do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party With help from
for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions
OUR PARTNERS
result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

ISBN Information Production: SEAN BLAIR

Publisher: PROMEET
Printed Book: 978-0-9956647-0-8 | eBook: 978-0-9956647-1-5

Connect
 @SeriousWrk | [email protected]

8 9
Camilla Nørgaard Jensen Dieter Reuther Kristina Nyzell
USA/Denmark USA Sweden

Partners
SeriousWork is co-authored by nine partners
who wrote Part 6 of this book.

Mercedes Hoss Kim Pong Lim Patrizia Bertini

Germany Singapore Italy

Eli de Friend Maria Stashenko Oliver Knapman

10 11
Switzerland Russia China
Contents 204. Part 6: Practical tips
Partner stories:
14. Foreword 206. Scholar of Serious Play
16. Preface 208. Mastering the Flow
20. Acknowledgements 210. Three Short Cases. Nine Big Benefits
22. Introduction 212. My Path, Passion and Commitment
30. Part 1: The facilitative mindset of the participatory leader 214. Building Culture in Asia
33. Participatory leadership: A leadership paradigm for a complex world 216. Fertile and Rewarding Workshops
42. Part 2: Outcomes not meetings 218. A Useful Lesson
44. The importance of outcome orientation and objective setting 220. Inside the Minds of Others
46. Planning, preparing and designing meetings/workshops 222. Play. With LEGO® Serious Play®
58. Part 3: Beginning with LEGO® Serious Play® 224. How to manage time and cut out waffle
60. Brief overview of LEGO® Serious Play® 225. Learn from our mistakes
74. The Bricks - how to get them 228. How to make LEGO® serious movies
82. Part 4: LEGO® Serious Play® skills build 230. Part 7: Become a virtuoso practitioner
84. The LEGO® Serious Play® build 234. Why the other subtitle is 'with conscious
92. Four facilitator fundamentals incompetence...'

112 Part 5: Workshop applications and case studies 236. Three ways to learn more

114. 5.1 A goal setting workshop 237. MeetUps

120. 5.2 A team build workshop - FutureLearn 242. Learn the skills you need

142. 5.3 An ideas workshop - Telia Telco 245. The community

158. 5.4 A shared team vision workshop - IHG 247. Final word

182. 5.5 A values & behaviours workshop - Manifesto

Foreword They started understanding consequences
of their aspirations. They became able
A message from the future to see and understand systems.

It was an unlikely tale. LEGO - the company who As LEGO® Serious Play® became a widely
saved the World! Really, it was that awesome! used and legitimate tool, more people could
explore purpose, vision and plans systemically.
No one predicted it, no one saw it, not even
the people who pioneered the method. And And the models spoke back, not literally of
no one could have been more surprised than course, but people were wholly able to explore
the executives who ran this toy company. the full pictures of each other’s perspective
By early 2018 they had mastered selling and how they influenced each other.
LEGO® theme kits to children all over the Models of interconnected systems showed
world. That’s what LEGO was famous for. consequences that had been impossible to
But then a decision made at the LEGO observe before. This enabled human to human
Group some 20 years earlier started to have and heart to heart exchange on root causes.
unexpected and positive consequences. Intangible ideas, attitudes, influences and
The insane idea that Johan Roos and Bart beliefs took form in LEGO® models and
Victor had in 1996 began to help people see, became part of the language and method
communicate and understand in new ways. of cutting edge of modern planning.

Hundreds of thousands of people started LEGO® Serious Play® became as common

using LEGO® Serious Play®. A combination as marker pens and flipcharts. Bricks were
of LEGO® Serious Play® with the wisdom of found at offices of executives and leaders,
higher level human-to-human communication coaches and consultants, teachers and
processes, and insights unlocked through trainers, administrators and policy makers,
advances in brain science was powerful. researchers and scientists, therapists and
thinkers, innovators and engineers. Everybody
People finally had purposeful conversations. who needed to think-together had them.
Leaders engaged their teams in a truly
participatory way. Everybody started telling The early pioneers of '96 created LEGO®
stories that had deeper meaning. They could Serious Play®. The group that followed
reflect deeper thoughts and beliefs. They used developed it. Then it was made Open
colourful metaphors to engage emotionally. Source and a new wave of thousands
of practitioners took it to a whole new
level. Who saw that one coming?
14
Preface sponsored a company under the auspices
of LEGO® called Executive Discovery.
2016. LEGO® Serious Play® is thriving. Bart Victor led the product development
How is it that a child’s toy has become and commercialization process of Serious
a serious strategy tool used by some of Play at Executive Discovery. He invited
the world's best known organisations? Robert Rasmussen from LEGO® and
And what might be the relevance Professor Dave Owens from Vanderbilt
of this method in your work? University to help bring the first product to
market. The first "LEGO® Serious Play®"
This practical book is intended application was called Real-Time Strategy. The book aims to help you understand what
for people who run meetings:
leaders, managers, facilitators and LEGO® Serious Play® was developed into LEGO® Serious Play® is and how it works.
coaches, who are seeking ways to a consulting method used by companies
help teams work-together well. including Daimler Chrysler, Roche, SABMiller,
Tupperware, Nokia and Orange.
We hope it helps you journey
A very brief history of LEGO® Serious Play®
At the same time, Johan Roos and Kjeld
towards unconscious competence in
The serious play story began in 1996 when
1 Kirk Kristiansen established the research using LEGO® Serious Play®.
Institute for Management Development (IMD) effort at the aptly named 'Imagination
professors Johan Roos and Bart Victor created Lab', a Swiss think tank that between
2001-2006 produced 74 research papers,
Our purpose in writing.
the "serious play" concept and process as a
way to enable managers to describe, create and many journal articles and 4 books.
To help further legitimise a brilliant
and powerful method.
challenge their views of their business. LEGO
joined the story during an IMD program for The result of 15 years development?
the top 300 leaders in the LEGO® Company. A powerful method to solve problems,
explore ideas and achieve objectives based
Roos and Victor presented their early ideas on management theory2 using a toy.
in a short article published by IMD in 1998
entitled "In Search for Original Strategies: In 2010 LEGO® made the method open source.
How About Some Serious Play?" This decision created a community of practice
and today, unleashed, today we find the
Presented with the findings of the work method thriving in a wide range of applications.
at IMD, LEGO® CEO Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen
1. More: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Serious_Play 2. Constructivism (Piaget 1951). Constructionism
(Harel & Papert 1991). Complex adaptive system theory
(Holland 1995). Autopoietic corporate epistemology
16 (von Krogh & Roos 1994; 1995) 17
Authors The brief story of this book
Sean met Marko virtually though the
SeriousPlayPro website when he asked
for advice in running his first large LEGO®
Serious Play® workshop for 320 people.
To my family, This book is
thanks for all your dedicated to We met in person in 2015 at a LEGO®
love and support. Kersti and Grete Serious Play® facilitators conference
Elise.
For my son Bob in Billund and discussed the lack of
- with love.
writing about LEGO® Serious Play®.
 Sean Blair  Marko Rillo Both Marko and Sean had been thinking
about how to legitimise LEGO® Serious
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sean-blair https://ee.linkedin.com/in/markorillo
Play® and help it become a more
Sean is the founder of a ProMeet, an Marko's passion for and early adoption of widely accepted and used tool.
international professional facilitation business. LEGO® Serious Play® led him to establish
Despite there being an excellent Open Source
He facilitates learning, growth and change in the SeriousPlayPro community website
Guide, and a good book on the history,
meetings, workshops, conferences, including that now has over 2000 members.
territory and theory of LEGO® Serious
with LEGO® Serious Play® all over the world.
Marko first heard about LEGO® Serious Play®, there was no book that explained
Sean is one of the LEGO® Serious Play® Play® at a conference with serious play the LEGO® Serious Play® process.
community's most active practitioners. He set guru Professor Johan Roos in 2005 and
So we agreed to write Serious Work, a how-to
up the first LEGO® Serious Play® MeetUp began experimenting with the method.
book with supporting resources to help people
group in London. There are now over 40
In 2007 he started his doctoral studies at understand the LEGO® Serious Play® basics.
LEGO® Serious Play® MeetUp groups globally.
the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland
To use LEGO® Serious Play® on
Described as a systems innovator and 'itinerant where a former Imagination Lab research
important assignments we firmly
provocateur', he imagines a better world. fellow professor Claus D. Jacobs became
recommend using a trained facilitator or
Unwittingly this annoys traditionalists. one of his academic mentors.
attending a training programme first!
Sean is part of the leadership team of EMENA Marko participated in one of the last LEGO®
We imagine readers might use this book
International Association of Facilitators Serious Play® certification training sessions
as a step before training, or as a guide to
(IAF), an organisation that promotes the that was provided directly under the auspices
try the basics with Build Level 1: Individual
power of facilitation. He is an IAF Certified™ of the LEGO® Corporation. He has facilitated at
Model building in low risk workshops.
Professional Facilitator and a winner of tiny start-ups and international multinationals,
an IAF 'Facilitation Impact Award'. he has also helped create a vision for a country. We hope this book helps you begin to discover
the incredible power of LEGO® Serious Play®.
18 19
Acknowledgements We also want to say thank you to the following
people and organisations for help in the
Customers We are grateful to the LEGO® artist Sean
Kenney for allowing us to reproduce a photo
We thank all our customers. The biggest
Isaac Newton famously once said, 'If I have creation of the book: of one of his LEGO® Polar Bear sculptures.
learning for any facilitator happens at meetings.
seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders Thanks also to Michi Yahata from Sean's studio.
Thanks to our generous case study clients We are enormously grateful for the faith you
of giants', we are not claiming to see much have put in us at every LEGO® Serious Play® Helpers, testers and proof readers
further, but we can only produce this book, The core part of this book is part 5. This is meeting and workshop you have allowed us to
thanks to those brilliant people who invented where we use real life examples to help you We are fortunate to have help proof reading
facilitate.
and developed this method. understand the practical aspects of facilitating and testing the ideas in this book. The book is
LEGO® Serious Play® meetings and Photos considerably better thanks to Caroline Jessop,
We would like to acknowledge and thank all Paul Brown, Tammy Seibert, Kersti Peenema
workshops.
who created and championed LEGO® Serious During many workshops over the years we and Madis Talmar. Thank you.
Play® for making this book possible. A book of this kind would not be possible took photos during meetings and workshops to
without the generosity of our case study clients record for our clients what happened. Partners who contributed to the book
We especially acknowledge and thank our
in allowing us to share the stories and photos of
teachers Robert Rasmussen, Per Kristiansen When we took them, we did not imagine We are very grateful to have partners who have
LEGO® Serious Play®. A big thank you too:
and Jacqueline Lloyd Smith. They taught us writing a book, yet LEGO® is such a visual shared their experience, advice, stories and
LEGO® Serious Play® and have our deep tool and we are grateful to be able to produce insight. This book is very much the better with
respect for being the early pioneers of teaching a book with colourful photos of people doing your brilliant contributions. Thanks for believing
the method. serious work with LEGO® at our workshops. in us. Let's create the future of LEGO® Serious
Play® together!
We have both had the privilege to talk to Thanks especially to Julien Carlier, Mieke
hundreds of LEGO® Serious Play® facilitators - Barbé, Agnieszka Ziemiańska, David Lardier, Production advice and help
creative individuals and members of the global Karin Krogh, Thomas Vig, Hans Ravnkjær
Serious Play Pro community. The discussions Thanks to Dan Start for his excellent publishing
Larsen, Valérie Guillet, Anette Palm, Janet
over the years have provided us with many advice and Paul Siodmok for helping design a
Skorepa, Deborah Sexton, Richard Tyrie,
opportunities to learn. Thank you to everyone lovely book cover.
Federico Toja, Serge Radovcic, Axel Pawlik,
who've posted questions, case studies and Jochem de Ruig, Kaveh Ranjbar, Paul Rendek,
comments. Andrew de la Haye, Dr Marianne Guldbrandsen,
Milad Ahmed, Richard Ball, Christina Lindeberg,
LEGO® Foundation Especially: Karl Anton and the IPTV team from David Dawson, James O'Halloran, Louise
When we had the idea for this book, the first Telia Telco. Peter Brenner, Edward Bignold and Prideaux, Linda Drew, Karen Brown, Elizabeth
person we contacted was Jette Orduna at the the team at IGH. Jim Bowes and the Manifesto Rouse, Lawrence Zeegen, Laura Gander-Howe,
LEGO® Foundation. We are grateful to her and Digital team. Rita Fevereiro and the team at Anna-Liisa Reinson, Inga Keldo, Kaspar Kalve
the LEGO® Foundation for giving us permission FutureLearn. and Justin Buck.
to write this book.

20 21
Introduction It therefore seems paradoxical that LEGO®
bricks, a product conceived as a children’s
toy can, enable teams to communicate more
The objective of this book is to In writing this book, we also had a
powerfully and explore complex organisational
enable you to understand how to greater purpose: To help legitimise issues and unintended consequences especially
facilitate LEGO® Serious Play® a brilliant and powerful method. at build level three.
based meetings and workshops. Legitimise LEGO® Serious Play®
It was written to be a practical ‘how to’ book, and In buying this book and using LEGO® Serious
offer you case studies, step-by-step guides and Play® to understand your work challenges
templates from a range of common build level LEGO® Serious Play® Three Build Levels you’re also helping legitimise a process tool
one applications that you can adapt to your own kit you’ll wish you’d known about years ago.
needs. Thank you for joining our quest.
It is intended for leaders, managers, facilitators, BUILD LEVEL 3 LEGO® Serious Play® in brief
coaches and business development
professionals who are seeking ways to help System models LEGO® Serious Play® was first created in the
teams work well together. mid-1990’s by Professors Johan Roos and Bart
BUILD LEVEL 2 Victor ‘as way to enable managers to describe,
To become an effective and professional create and challenge their views of their
facilitator of LEGO® Serious Play®, requires Shared models business’.
learning by doing, attending a training
programme is the only way to master the skills Today, the LEGO® Serious Play® method has
shown in this book. BUILD LEVEL 1 been used all over the world by organisations
But our hope is this book gives you enough Individual including:
knowledge to learn about or try basic LEGO® models Airbus, Fujitsu, Toyota, Coca-Cola, Fedex,
Serious Play® techniques: to facilitate goal Google, MasterCard, Microsoft, NASA, Nissan,
setting, ideas workshops, and explore team Pfizer, Proctor & Gamble, Target, Telia Telco,
life through vision, values and behaviours Models of a 'Simple Guiding Principle' Unilever, Waitrose and the World Bank Group;
workshops. and a value created at a workshop for the reputable universities including Harvard, MIT,
We live in a complex and challenging time where London digital agency “Manifesto.” Cambridge, IMD and Oxford; International
technological, environmental, social and political organizations, including the EU, UNESCO,
This book's primary focus is Build Workshop outputs like these created by UNDP; Government ministries and agencies in:
change demand that we better understand
system consequences of our decisions.
Level 1: Individual Model Building. participants bring ideas to life. See Part Denmark, Estonia, Turkey and United Kingdom,
5.5 to read about and see the process to name a few!
22 that resulted in these. models. 23
What is LEGO® Serious Play®? individuals or teams achieve objectives and
create outcomes.
If you ask different people what LEGO® Serious
Play® is you might well get different answers. LEGO® Serious Play® is a Framework
The reason? Because it's many things in the
As a framework or philosophy LEGO® Serious
same package.
Play® is a participatory mode of leadership that
LEGO® Serious Play® is a Method is democratic, all-inclusive, playful, goal-driven
and constructive.
It is a systematic method that enables people
to use LEGO® bricks to solve problems, explore LEGO® Serious Play® is a Product line
ideas and achieve objectives.
It is also patented and trademarked product
LEGO® Serious Play® is a Process line of LEGO® corporation. LEGO® and its
subsidiary Executive Discovery patented

SERIOUS WORK
It is a structured process where participants LEGO® Serious Play® in early 2001 as
proceed through a series of steps to think, “a program, method and materials for
build, tell a story, reflect and refine, to develop a enhancing creative thinking, communication,
shared understanding on the issue at hand. decision-making and strategic planning.” (U.S.
Patent no. 20020103774-A1)
LEGO® Serious Play® is a Communication
tool or language LEGO® Serious Play® is a Meeting tool

LEGO® Serious Play® enables three modes While some applications might need a five day
of communication: visual, auditory and LEGO® Serious Play® workshop we also have
kinaesthetic. The models enable enhanced witnessed its power to activate people in small
expression, deeper listening and better and large groups, in brief interventions of just
memory. 10 minutes to workshop over several days.

Shared model building allow teams to LEGO® Serious Play® - a process

understand each others interpretation and
create deeper shared meaning of key ideas. to enhance innovation and
performance.
LEGO® Serious Play® is a Service
Based on research3 which shows that this kind
It is a service provided by trained facilitators, of ‘hands-on, minds-on’ learning produces a
trainers or coaches who use LEGO® bricks
hand in hand with other material tools to help 3. See: Kristiansen & Rasmussen (2014) Building Better
Business using the LEGO® Serious Play® Method. 25
deeper, more meaningful understanding of the When we give shape and form to our leadership as an enlightened and effective
world and its possibilities, the LEGO® Serious imagination, by constructing and externalizing mode of leadership that today’s times require.
Play® methodology deepens the reflection concepts we make our ideas tangible and
process and enables effective communication, shareable. Adopt the idea that facilitation
for everyone in your organization. is a mindset of a participatory
This helps us reflect better on our own ideas, as
The process of making something, which is well as enabling others to reflect with us.
leadership, to enable yourself to lead
then discussed, leads to more valuable, more clever people working on complex
insightful and more honest discussions. To make an analogy, LEGO® challenges.
The creative process of making something Serious Play® is a bit like making Because participatory leaders use time working
prompts the brain to work in a different way, 3D prints of your own thoughts. together to get the very best out of participants,
unlocking new perspectives. this inevitably suggests they have a facilitative
The models allow others to see your mindset.
When participants construct an thoughts and ask questions about
object to represent what they think This is an important idea that supports the
them. LEGO® Serious Play® method which likewise
is important about the issue at hand, values input from every person, encourages
LEGO® Serious Play® creates an engaging
before discussion, the downsides of diverse and creative thinking and allows
hands-on environment, where the activity is
positional power are removed and perceived as meaningful, one’s abilities are in participants to understand ideas systemically.
this allows people to focus on the balance with the challenge at hand, and one
We hope you’ll see that despite its name,
ideas, not the personalities. has the tools to express and communicate
LEGO® Serious Play®, is more than just a fad
emerging knowledge.
This is not like the typical discussions that occur cheered for by a bunch of LEGO® enthusiasts,
at work, where a dominant personality identifies The organization and scope of the book but a way to be a participatory leader.
the ‘key issues’ at the start, and then the rest of Next we cover ‘facilitation fundamentals’
the conversation follows from there. As a ‘how to’ book, we don’t cover the history
of LEGO® Serious Play® or the theoretical and and signpost you to the core competency
In LEGO® Serious Play®, everyone builds, and scientific ideas that underpin LEGO® Serious framework promoted by the International
everyone shares, resulting in more democratic Play®4. Association of Facilitators.
meetings, enabling equal 'air time' from all In part 2 we cover the vital step in planning
participants. In part 1, the facilitative mindset of the
participatory leader: any meeting or workshop: objective setting.
Indeed, the process of building and Getting clear on the outcomes and objectives
collaborating often produces insights which We introduce the idea of participatory
for your meeting.
simply would not have appeared in regular
discussions. 4. See 'Building Better Business Using The LEGO® Serious
Play® method' by Rasmussen & Kristiansen. 27
This may sound obvious, but as professional Part 5 takes you through five common
facilitators, this is the stage where we often add workshop applications.
real value, and it’s the stage that determines
much of the process to be used in meetings. In each we offer you a sample workshop plan,
taken from a real past project. We give you
Because objectives trump agendas, we hope detailed facilitation instructions about how
you might never use a traditional agenda again, we prepared, ran and followed up from the
and instead use objectives to drive meetings. workshops.

In part 3 we introduce you to the core We offer you these case studies so you can see
LEGO® Serious Play® ideas and etiquette how these ideas were applied in practice and
that underpin all meetings and workshops. what outputs and outcomes were created. You
you can download and adapt our templates for
Then we talk about bricks and offer you ideas your own use.
about where and how to get them, as well as
give you ideas about what kind of volume and In Part 6 our partners share stories, advice

SERIOUS WORK
what sort you might need, to get the best out of and experience from running hundreds of
participants in different kinds of workshop. LEGO® Serious Play® workshops.

In part 4 we show you how to give your Then we offer you ideas about how to manage
workshop participants the three basic time, mistakes to watch for and how to make
LEGO® Serious Play® skills. LEGO® Serious Movies.

We describe how to give workshop participants In part 7 we offer you ideas about how
technical building skills, use of metaphors and to become a virtuoso practitioner and
story telling skills using LEGO® models. Then explain why reading a book will make you
we'll show you how to help participants share consciously incompetent.
and listen better than in traditional meetings.
We set out three ways you can develop your
These skills will free your meeting participants skills and signpost you to a growing community
up from concerns or worries about not having of LEGO® Serious Play® facilitators.
used LEGO® before (or for many years)
and enable them to express ideas, concepts, We think the book makes most sense if
feelings, facts, reflections and insights read in the order outlined, there are some
powerfully using just a few bricks. concepts introduced in earlier chapters that are
referenced in later chapters.

28
Part 1

The facilitative mindset

of participatory leaders SERIOUS WORK

30
The facilitative mindset of participatory leaders Participatory Lets be honest, if you have ever encountered
a meeting where your participation was not
PARTICIPATORY LEADERSHIP - A LEADERSHIP PARADIGM FOR A COMPLEX WORLD Leadership welcomed (or facilitated) it wasn't because you
didn't have a contribution to make, but because
your contribution was just not that important in
This chapter: the mind of the meeting leader.
The participatory leadership paradigm Advocates that participatory You could say they weren't a participatory
leadership is a smart way to lead
is based on respect and engagement.
leader.
clever people in a complex world
Participate
It constructively focuses energy in Suggests that a facilitative A better way. Participatory leadership is a smart
every human to human encounter. mindset is the way of a
participative leader
way to lead clever people in complex times of
unprecedented and accelerating change.

A more advanced, more democratic and Proposes that LEGO® Serious

The pace of change has sky-rocketed in the
last decade and is set to accelerate further.
more effective model of leadership, it Play® is one way that
participatory leaders can facilitate
Change driven by technological innovation, the
growth and changing nature of globalisation,

harnesses diversity, builds community, and teams to think and work together
environmental pressures and the changing
social expectations and attitudes, towards

creates shared responsibility for action. Don't participate?!

politics, society and culture.
This means that no single leader or manager

It deepens individual and collective learning What is the point of having a meeting
where people do not, or are not 'allowed' to,
alone is able to resolve all the issues that their
organizations face. They need to engage their

yielding real development and growth. participate? teams and involve people and partners, inside
and outside their organisations.
Many professional people have
In other words, they need to facilitate the
experienced ‘meeting agony’, participation of teams of bright people in service
where what people really think is of meaningful and shared objectives.
not welcome or where 20% of the However, there is a participation problem that
people do 80% of the talking. is all too frequent in contemporary leadership
culture. Whilst some leaders might say they
Have you been there? You know what we’re
32 saying? 33
welcome honest discussion, a real, and often Occasional interaction between the
unconscious, 'action strategy'5 instead seeks
few occurs, but the ratio between
control and protection: fear of loosing control or
looking silly. active and passive participants is
heavily tilted towards the latter. No
Management academics Argyris and Schön6
one is really listening, seeking to
suggest that while the leaders verbal ‘espoused
theory’, says they want to engage others, their understand others perspectives or
actual actions or ‘theory in use’ attempts to views.
‘control and protect’.
There are good reasons why organization
So on one hand, contemporary leaders are researchers have labelled meetings as the
often expected to be clear, powerful and gravest source of inefficiency in teams today.
decisive. On the other hand, because of
Most of us have received no formal training on
complexities of today's world, they need
how to run or participate in a meeting. Often
to involve many people and have honest
meeting objectives are unclear and sometimes
discussion about unknowns.
the participants might not suit the aims of the
Some leaders struggle to combine these two meeting. Frequently 'rules of behaviour' are
paradoxical aims well, and some cultures value left to individual interpretation at worst, toxic or
or nurture 'over confidence' and the appearance punitive cultures bring out the worst in people.
of control, over a wiser and more democratic
Meeting process is often unclear, with
path of joint inquiry and true participation.
'discussion' the default (and very poor) mode
Meeting agony: A leader gathers of exchange. Ladies and gentlemen, this is
meeting agony, and sadly most of us have
a meeting. A few people talk a experienced it. This can be avoided by using the
lot. Some daydream about more principles of participatory leadership.
pressing matters.
Some have their noses deep in their The LEGO® Serious Play®
mobile devices. philosophy is fundamentally
based on participatory leadership.
5. An 'action strategy'. The motives, values or reasons that drive
the way we act. For instance, if I were motivated by wanting to Whilst this is not a book about leadership, we
improve my performance, I'd seek and welcome feedback. If I would briefly like to advocate why LEGO®
were motivated by wanting to look good, I may control or limit Serious Play® helps to address these all too
the scope for negative feedback.
common pitfalls.
6. Argyris & Schon, 1974, Theory in Practice 35
LEGO® Serious Play® is a democratic and LEGO® Serious Play® is Serious Work While being overly dominant in discussions
participative methodology that allows all leaders sadly, unintentionally and sometimes
Some of us are judgemental. People might
meeting participants to first think actively unbeknown to themselves silence others and
hear the phrase ' LEGO® Serious Play®' and
alone, then tell a story of their thoughts, keep information hidden.
think here comes the latest management fad.
before collectively reflecting upon the shared
'Uh-huh, oh-oh, OK'. And quite understandably Taking the lead, controlling the situation, having
meanings of all points of view.
that’s what some participants body language a confident assertive and clear point-of-view
At the higher build levels LEGO® Serious says at the beginning of some workshops we are often thought of as good qualities of an
Play® creates landscapes of all the 'agents' or run. excellent leader.
factors that need to be taken into account.
And whilst the occasional participant struggles However, these behaviours can also be
The methodology allows groups to explore with the process, the vast majority of sceptical accompanied with negative perceptions of
unintended consequences and recognize participants revise their view after experiencing being judgemental, pushy or opinionated.
patterns to make it easier to decide upon the power of LEGO® Serious Play®.
courses of action and understand appropriate
So one of the limits affecting this tool is an The role that facilitative leaders
guiding principles.
understandable judgemental perception of its takes is different.
All this from a product that was conceived of as name.
a toy, and has jumped a 'use category'. This mode of leadership usually assumes
Yes the process uses LEGO® bricks. inquiry and exploration based behaviours.
To make an analogy its a bit like the world wide
web, a product initially devised to facilitate Yes the process can be intensely Instead of telling what to do, they facilitate
sharing and update information among and utterly absorbing for the understanding about the subject-at-hand and
researchers. allow people to find the best ways to adapt to
PLAYer, and for sure its focused on the situations.
Who could have imagined in 1989 a geekey serious organisational concerns.
academic information exchange being used as Instead of commanding they share information
it is today? But this is not 'corporate TOY-Play', this really is and nourish learning between team members.
Serious Work, hence the name of this book.
Just like the world wide web is no longer used Instead of providing courses of action they
only by academics, the bricks have also found encourage and support learning of their
their way to serious work A facilitative mindset is the way of colleagues.
a participative leader Instead of pacing people along the
A product designed for one purpose:
The days are gone when one person controlled predetermined path they give them time
play, has found another powerful to reflect and come up with their approach
the flow of information. As Argyris and
and very serious purpose in work. Schön suggested, this behaviour may occur themselves.
unconsciously or involuntarily.
36 37
Participatory, or facilitative leaders • Leaders don’t have all the answers. Success have proven to work to in peer reviewed competencies, for as you'll see these are
create conditions that allow all learning requires all voices. certification procedures. qualities that, by our definition, participatory
styles: activists, reflectors, theorists and leaders also have:
• People want to contribute, participate and As the IAF is a well kept secret, it's worth
pragmatists7 to engage harmoniously with the
take ownership. setting out briefly a summary of the six IAF six core competencies framework8
subject-at-hand alone and as a group.
• Allowing everyone to contribute creates a According to IAF, professional facilitators:
This is the skill that can be learnt, most readily
more sustainable business. When you facilitate - don’t participate!
if the desire to learn is also underpinned by a A. Create collaborative relationships
genuinely held value: • Often, teams work sub-optimally, leaving
One tension inherent in the idea of Develop working partnerships and design and
team knowledge untapped.
The core value underpinning a participatory leadership is the facilitation customise applications to meet client (or team)
facilitative mindset is to really want • We live in a complex adaptive world, and of something you have a strongly held needs.
need to see systemically. opinion or emotional investment in. It is
authentic, group wide participation. hard to both facilitate a group process at
B. Plan appropriate group processes
Those five beliefs were established in the early
the same time as advocating your own Select clear methods and processes and
To care about and be interested years of the development of LEGO® Serious
strongly held view. prepare time and space to support group
in what everyone really thinks, no Play®, by the team at LEGO®, during the
process.
matter the emotion of the person development of the LEGO® Serious Play® Of course the obvious risk is to pretend
methodology. to facilitate, but actually manipulate the C. Create and sustain a participatory
with a view or the diversity in a
process to ensure the group accepts environment
group. They also happen to deeply resonate with our
YOUR IDEA.
beliefs about participative leadership. Demonstrate effective participatory and
And as it happens, LEGO® Serious Play®
The very definition of opinionated, interpersonal communication skills.
turns out to be rather brilliant at enabling No. Let's not 'touch base'
participation. "characterized by conceited Honour and recognise diversity, ensuring
There is no shortage of 'buzz phrases': assertiveness and dogmatism," suggests inclusiveness, manage group conflict and evoke
fashionable but often meaningless 'turns of
LEGO® Serious Play® is one way there is little point in trying to facilitate a group creativity.
phrase' in business. participatory processes if one cared little
that participatory leaders can for others views or perspectives. D. Guide groups to appropriate and useful
To try to ensure 'participatory leadership' does
facilitate teams to think and work not become another meaningless buzz phrase
outcomes
In circumstances like this external
together lets look practically at what it means day-to-day With clear methods and processes, group
facilitators, either external to the
in the actions of planning, leading or facilitating self-awareness about its task in order to
LEGO® Serious Play®, a participatory tool organisation, or just not in your team or
participatory meetings. achieve to consensus and desired outcomes.
department can be of great help.
LEGO® Serious Play® is based on five beliefs
The International Association of Facilitators
about leadership and organizations: They should ensure your strongly held
(IAF) has an excellent competency framework -
standards that Certified Professional Facilitators opinion is heard along with others, so you 8. This is an abbreviated version. See the full list at https://
7. Honey and Mumford, Learning Style Theory
can explore what each others ideas might www.iaf-world.org/site/professional/core-competencies
38 mean before seeking consensus. 39
E. Build and maintain professional knowledge Meeting Excellence Model Meeting Excellence Model: Core Principles of Excellent Meetings
Maintain a base of knowledge and know a Excellent meetings:
range of facilitation methods. Just like there is an excellent way to bake a The Meeting Excellence Model is based on
are Participative, the right people giving
soufflé, hit a golf ball or land an aeroplane, theoretical and practical research. These
F. Model positive professional attitude full intellectual, emotional and energetic
there is an excellent way to run a meeting. principles apply to almost all kinds of meetings.
engagement.
Practice self-assessment and self-awareness
and trust group potential and model neutrality. are Purposeful, they motivate people with a
compelling over arching purpose, and have
specific and clear objectives.
These are also six competencies of
participatory leaders have a Process designed to achieve the
meeting objectives, maximising energy and
And as we hope you'll see from this book, diversity.
LEGO® Serious Play®, with the addition of a
few additional ideas from the experiences of use Visibility, aligning the attention in the
professional facilitators, can be a method that meeting and creating clear actions and learning.
rather effortlessly embodies most of these
are Healthy, they build authentic respect for
competencies.
each other and deliver real learning individually
Used with clear objectives, LEGO® and collectively. This in turn creates an
energetic, vibrant culture.
Serious Play® is a way to improve
communication and collaboration If your meetings are not excellent, you might
allowing all to participate in the ask 'how could we use these values as design
principles for our future meetings?'
work. It brings energy and focus to
meetings and workshops.
Next, we focus on desired outcomes
LEGO® Serious Play® enables In part 2 we talk outcomes. Because that's
the great potential of the collective what working-together in meetings is all about.
untapped mind to create shared, Before we get into the nitty gritty of LEGO®
and sometimes unexpected, insight Serious Play®, in part 3, we'll briefly advocate
the importance of objective setting to plan
in service of realising desired
meetings that create the outcomes you want. These five principles, devised by author Sean Blair and inspired by facilitation industry best
outcomes.
practice, have proven robust in more than ten years worth of facilitation. You can think of these as
the core values a facilitator, or participative leader has when working with groups of people.
40 41
Part 2

Outcomes not meetings SERIOUS WORK

42 43
Outcomes not meetings Verbs. Not verbiage
The verb in the dictionary definition of agenda
The objective of this chapter is to is 'discuss'.
outline how to use clear objectives
This is a horribly unhelpful verb, because if you
when planning meetings to create
invite a group to 'discuss' then that is exactly
useful meeting outcomes. what they'll do.

Begin with the end in mind This is the problem of agenda driven
Let's be honest. No one wants a meeting or
meetings...
workshop. What people really want is an Some will discuss what they think, others will
outcome. This chapter makes the case that the share how they feel... Some might be seeking
planning stage of workshops is key to having new information about the agenda item... One
ProMeet
effective meetings. might be wanting to make a decision...
Find additional leadership and facilitation tools, resources and
Objectives. Not agendas Another might be expressing support for LEGO® Serious Play® case studies (some reproduced in detail in
the item, others might have questions or
The Oxford dictionary suggests the word reservations, or be pursuing their own 'agenda'
this book thanks to the generosity of ProMeet's clients) at
'agenda' has two meanings: to 'put the boot in'.
www.ProMeet.co.uk
noun. 1. a list of items to be discussed at And before you know it you have lots of people
a formal meeting. talking at cross purposes.
2. the underlying intentions or motives
Nightmare.
of a particular person or group.
These two meanings are problematic for having A better idea is to convert every
effective meetings for two reasons. agenda item to an objective with a
1. "Discuss" a "list of items" is not a good way to thoughtfully selected verb.
have a productive meeting, and...
This will help align group focus on
2. Unexpressed or hidden underlying
all doing the same thing at the same
intentions or motives do not make for a healthy
meeting culture. time.

44
Verbs determine process The ProMeet method card on the next page ProMeet Objective Setting Method Card
describes how to write good objectives.
Download this Method Card @ www.serious.global/downloads
Thoughtful selection of a verb also helps
determine the process at any given part of the
meeting. The ProMeet Objectives Logic Use this Method Card as you plan your meetings. Convert every agenda item into an objective.

Create clear and productive meetings by to

'Decide verb?' - That needs a decision process.
establishing a clear objectives logic or hierarchy. Method Card MEETING METHOD CARD

'Create verb?' - That needs a creative process. Clear Objectives Objectives

01: Objectives at the level of purpose
'Plan verb?' - That needs a planning process, Organisations mission, vision or purpose Verb, not verbiage DESCRIPTION
If there is only one thing to get right, it’s the verb Clear objectives are the reason for meeting. ideally specific meeting
and so on. objectives should connect obviously to the organisations purpose
and strategic objectives.
02: Objectives at the level of strategy Good, attention directing verbs...
TRY THIS: With a forthcoming Organisations strategic objectives Identifying Planning Analyse
Well thought through objectives are more than half the work of
planning an effective meeting. A clear objective implies the process
meeting, try and convert every Identify, Scan,
Determine
Plan, Set, Deliver,
Establish
Analyse, Segment
Synthesise
design that follows. Good objectives are stretching but achievable.

agenda item into an objective. This 02: Objectives at the level of the meeting Understanding Creating Learn
HOW?
1. Invest time ahead of your meeting to get really clear on the meeting
preparation step will force you to Clear, specific objectives the meeting is to Understand, Review,
Update, Assess,
Create, Develop,
Build, Produce,
Learn, Assimilate,
Study, Understand,
objectives. Consider establishing an objectives logic (see model below).

think about what you want to have achieve Share, Outline, Design, Make Examine 2. Consider consulting with other key meeting stakeholders to get really
clear on the point of the meeting.
Acknowledge,

happen with each agenda item. See Report, Recognise Agreeing

Agree, Decide,
Cultural
Enable, Enthuse,
3. Use the list of good verbs on the opposite page to make sure you

Overcome meeting agony have sharp meeting objectives.

an example, page 49. Determine, Secure,
Commit, Confirm
Maximise, Enrol,
Unblock 4. Consider circulating them ahead of the meeting, in place of the more
traditional ‘agenda’.
Having asked thousands of people what is their
Clear objectives are the reason for meeting Weak verbs...
version of 'meeting agony and ecstasy' we Discuss, talk, ponder, ‘catch up’, exchange, chat, debate Objectives Logic: Making meeting meaningful

Ideally, specific meeting objectives should know that for many agony is when the purpose 01: Objectives at the level of purpose

connect obviously to the organisations purpose of a meeting is not clear. Organisations mission, vision or purpose

and strategic objectives. 02: Objectives at the level of strategy

Overcome this agony by using objectives, and Organisations strategic objectives

Well thought through objectives are more than banish agendas, in either sense of the word. 02: Objectives at the level of the meeting
Clear, specific objectives the meeting is to achieve
half the work of planning an effective meeting.
Accordingly, and like the example on page 49,
A clear objective implies the process design that MEETING METHOD CARD © ProMeet www.meeting-facilitation.co.uk
for any kind of meeting or workshop (regardless July 2016
follows.
of the methodology - LEGO® or no LEGO®)
Good objectives are stretching but achievable. it is usually a wise idea to develop a clear
When people are clear what is trying to be objectives logic. A note on downloads: Many of the ideas in the book are supported with a set of
achieved, meetings work better. document templates and PDF's that you can download, use and adapt for your own
needs. They are freely available at www.serious.global/downloads. You'll need to
46 register an account first, then download all the assets referred to in this book. 47
Begin by getting clear on the overarching Live Event Kick Off | 11/12 June 2015 | The Hawkwood Hotel | v6.0 SERIOUS WORK
objectives those at the level of purpose/
vision or strategy, then establish the specific
objectives of each session and 'agenda' item. Live Event Kick Off Workshop
A common objectives framework uses the
SMART acronym. Making every objective O1: Overarching Objectives
fulfil criteria of being Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. 1. To energise & inspire the delivery team to begin the new cycle feeling excited & motivated.
2. To develop ideas to make excellence - better.
Unfortunately this can make them also sound
complicated. Our approach to objective setting These two overarching objectives will be met through delivering six sessions.
is simpler and in line with everyday speak.
O2: Session Objectives
Allow preparation time Session 1: To understand and enlarge the wellspring of inspiration the team can draw from.
The example objectives on page 49 is from Session 2: To strengthen the Live Event team.
a real two day workshop for 30 people who Session 3: To develop shared understanding of our collective aspiration/vision for Live Event.
flew in from different countries, and who did Session 4: To explore and generate ideas to improve participant experience.
not spend much time working physically in the Session 5: To attend to project hot topics and plan actions to address needs and concerns.
same room. Session 6: To plan actions and share learning from our workshop.

O3: Meeting Objectives - Session 1: Inspiration

A costly and important meeting, it took some
To identify, share and celebrate what we are proud of.
time and care to prepare the objectives and the To understand and map the wellspring of inspiration of extraordinary face to face events, and life changing technologies.
workshop plan (or facilitation notes as we call To mine inspirational moments from other successful events (e.g. Glastonbury, Formula 1, Olympic finals, Burning Man etc.)
them. You can see five examples in part 5).
O3: Meeting Objectives - Session 2: Team Life
A smaller meeting with less people demands To appreciate and acknowledge the strengths our team has.
To share what is needed to be even more effective team members.
less preparation time, but we'd still advocate To understand what helps and hinders us from being a high performing and inspired team.
using the objectives logic to ensure that
participants are clear how what happens in the O3: Meeting Objectives - Session 3: Live Event Futures:
meeting connects to and supports a shared set To explore the aspirational identity of Live Event Futures, and create a shared mental model/vision of what we want to become.
To identify the ‘agents’ or factors that impact or are impacted upon by Live Event Futures, and explore risks and opportunities.
of common organisational goals. To create new pre event and post event service/value opportunities.
Smaller meetings with just a few participants
Etc.
with an hour or less is still worth preparing a set
of objectives for.
49
Plan for outcomes . Five great questions to ask when What each of these questions is
you're planning a meeting: seeking to clarify or establish:
When planning important meetings, a good Alternatively use A6 Post-It Notes (105mm x
preparation task is to ask key stakeholders 148mm) or 4x6 inches (102mm x 152mm). It is
these five questions. It can be done efficiently also possible to cut A4 paper into 4 quadrants.
by giving participants a set of pre-printed A6 Q1. By the end of the meeting, Q1. Above all, what key outcome
gridcards, a marker pen and three minutes.
what is the best outcome you'd should this meeting or workshop
hope for? create?
Q2. What are the Business Q2. Context. Establish the Business
Objectives this meeting must or Strategic Objectives the meeting
serve? must serve.
By the end of the meeting, what would be the
best outcome you'd hope for? Q3. Imagine the meeting has been Q3. Understand what Change
wildly successful, what will have Objectives this meeting needs to
changed for the better? serve.

What are the business objectives must this

Q4. Suppose we look at the Q4. Understand what the purpose
meeting serve? meeting as a step in a larger the meeting or workshop is in
initiative, what’s the ultimate goal? service of.
Imagine the work has been wildly successful,
what will have changed for the better?
Q5. Is there anything else you’d Q5. Understand if there are any
like the meeting to achieve? other opportunities for the meeting
to provide value.
Suppose we look at the meeting as a step in
a larger initiative, what’s the ultimate goal?

Is there anything else you’d like the meeting

to achieve? See how these ideas were used in preparation for a half-day workshop with
Manifesto Digital in the case study shown in part 5.5 on page 182 >>>

Download these cards from www.serious.global/downloads

50 51
Manifesto Digital | 14th Aug 2015 | Timing 1:00 - 12:30 | Hoxton Arches | v2.0 SERIOUS WORK Manifesto Digital | 14th Aug 2015 | Timing 1:00 - 12:30 | Hoxton Arches | v2.0 SERIOUS WORK

Example of how the planning questions were used to prepare the Manifesto team workshop... ... And how the answers to the questions were translated into a set of workshop objectives.

Manifesto Digital  | 14th Aug 2015 | Timing 1:00 ­ 12:30  | Hoxton Arches | v2.0

At our meeting you suggested: Manifesto workshop

Overarching Objectives
To build a stronger team with shared values and agreed
behaviours: “A new manifesto for Manifesto Digital”

Workshop Objectives
To share workshop objectives
To assess current level of team development
To build basic LEGO® Serious Play Skills
To share the 2017 Manifesto Vision with the team
To agree a lexicon for the workshop
To identify the core values of Manifesto
To identify the core positive behaviours Manifesto needs
To identify the core negative behaviours Manifesto does not need
To identify the Manifesto Simple Guiding Principles
To clarify what will happen next with this work.
To record the models in photos (Sean - over lunch)

52 53
Facilitation notes are both a
planning tool and a facilitator’s
roadmap.
Introducing facilitation notes Once the meeting objectives
are clear, plan the step-by-step
process and prepare your notes.

55
SERIOUS WORK
Plan successful meeting with facilitation notes
Manifesto Digital | 14th Aug 2015 | Timing 1:00 - 12:30 | Hoxton Arches | v2.0

Overarching Objective
To build a stronger team with shared values and agreed behaviours: 'A new manifesto for Manifesto.'
Plan for success
Overarching Objective: The
Time Session Objective Process/Notes After you have defined the objectives of
objective the entire workshop is in
8:00 Set Up To get the room Sean to set the room up to support the needs of service of. Getting this clear before your meeting, invest time planning for
ready to support the the workshop. Set up to include: defining the session objectives and how those objectives will be met.
needs of the partici- process is key (see Part 2).
pants and the • Screen/Computer/Speakers Download, edit or make your own
workshop. • 4 tables of 5/6 people version of our 'facilitation notes' template
• Tables for bricks to design the process by which you'll
• Tables for completed models In some cultures time is a flexible lead or facilitate the group to achieve the
concept. Add time at the beginning desired outcomes.
if you are in a country or culture
9:30 Arrival 9:00 for 9:30 start where things tend to start late. There is much equipment and logistics
involved in a LEGO® Serious Play®
10:00 Welcome & To share the Jim to welcome meeting. Think of facilitation notes as
Objectives workshop objectives Set the scene - run though objectives. a planning tool or roadmap so you can
Session name: In organisations that
need 'agendas,' when circulating have your attention on the people, not
10:05 LEGO® To build basic 1. Technical - Build a model of a Tower before the meeting, use the first the process, during the meeting.
Serious Play® LEGO® Serious > Reflection: Use your model to tell your story
three columns (Time, Session and
Skills Build Play® Skills Music - Snap out of it
Objective). Don't circulate your
2. Metaphors: Explain this! - use slides
notes.
> Reflection: You can make a brick mean
anything
Technical ‘fancy’ builds are not needed. Listen The objective for every session. A
with your eyes! clear objective implies the required
process.
3. Story telling: Build a model of your dream
holiday
> Reflection: Trust and think with your hands,
Tell the story of the model, not the one in your Process column: A check list as you
head prepare. Notes when you facilitate.
Music - Love Vibration
57
Part 3

Beginning with LEGO®

Serious Play® SERIOUS WORK

58
Beginning with For transparency, some sections of the guide
appear below, with edits, to take into account
LEGO® Serious Play® Open Source Guide
LEGO© Serious Play© our experiences.

What LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is, and what

The objectives of this chapter are: LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is not The excellent LEGO®
To introduce you to the core ideas According to the Open Source Guide: Serious Play® Open
that underpin LEGO® Serious Source made available by
Play®
The LEGO® Serious Play® methodology offers
a sophisticated means for a group to share Open-source/ the LEGO®Group under
ideas, assumptions and understandings; to <Introduction to a Creative Commons
To provide information about engage in rich dialogue to work out meaningful LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®>
licence ‘Attribution Share
which types of bricks are the best, solutions to real problems.
Alike’.
where to get them and how to A LEGO® Serious Play® workshop typically
store them takes a day or, at its shortest, a workshop takes
For licence details:
three or four hours. Unsurprisingly, as time is
tight in business, and everywhere else, efforts http://creativecommons.org/
A brief overview of Lego© Serious Play
have been made to reduce the length of time licenses/by-sa/3.0/
In 2010 the LEGO Group created LEGO® that LEGO® Serious Play® takes.
Serious Play® Open Source and in doing
If a facilitator was to leave out the skills-building
so, kindly gifted the world a brilliant process.
exercises and leap straight into a complex task
Thanks LEGO®! Creative Commons Licence
and encourage participants to race through it,
The idea LEGO® had was to make the basic this would simply not be effective.
principles and philosophy freely available and
People using LEGO® Serious Play® methods View a copy of the Open
support people wanting to use the process.
have to recognise that the strengths of the Source guide here:
LEGO® produced an excellent Open Source process lie in its cycles of building, reflection, serious.global/downloads
guide that gives an overview of the process and collaborative learning. It is a facilitated
and how to use it. The creative common licence process, used for particular purposes. Therefore,
kindly allows everyone to share and adapt the LEGO® Serious Play® is not a fun ice-breaker
ideas and processes, provided credit is given, exercise to start off a meeting.
a link to the licence is shared and changes are
LEGO® Serious Play® is not a tool for building
indicated.
organisational diagrams or for planning physical
60 61
environments (such as buildings or work
spaces). Whilst you can use LEGO® bricks for
These processes are best summarised as: Facilitators LEGO® Serious Play® Process
these purposes, it is not LEGO® Serious Play®. 1. Set the Challenge > 2. Build > 3. Share

The Core of LEGO® Serious Play® 1. Context > 2. Build > 3. Reflect > 4. Integrate

Rasmussen & Kristiansen (2014) suggest a

LEGO® Serious Play® is a method
4-step "Core LEGO® Serious Play® process"
that enables constructive reflection 1. Posing the question > 2. Construction > 3. Preparation Stage Workshop stage
and dialogue. Sharing > 4. Reflection

During a structured process, participants use Our experience had led us to conclude
LEGO® bricks to create models that express that LEGO® Serious Play® meetings and
their thoughts, reflections and ideas. workshops are most effective when following a
Establish Develop Set Build Share Reflect
six step process. Alternatively, you might think
The 2010 Open Source Guide expressed a objectives Questions challenges Models Meaning
of it as a two + four step process.
hope that the growing community of LEGO®
Serious Play® facilitators would develop new Two vital steps take place in the preparation
applications for LEGO® Serious Play®. phase, and then there is a four step process
during a workshop with participants, which is
The community has realised this aspiration. often repeated many times. A brief description
There are a hundred case studies of LEGO® of what happens in each step: Workshop Developing The facilitator Participants Participants Groups
Serious Play® on the seriousplaypro.com process the right build sets a build build LEGO® share the reflect on
website, demonstrating it in use in a very wide Phase 1: Establish objectives design questions question or models story of their what they
range of applications, from anti-bullying and
should is key. challenge. representing own models, have created
bible study, to business model canvas, service Considering the purpose of the workshop in
advance and developing a clear set of meeting
always be Even subtle their collectively and seek
design and change management.
or workshop objectives, as outlined in Part 2 of in service of changes in reflections on the group deeper layers
a clear and nuance can the building explore the of insight.
Process Steps this book, is a prerequisite for any successful
relevant set have a big challenge. model and its
meeting or workshop.
At the heart of LEGO® Serious Play® is a of objectives. impact. meaning.
simple but powerful process that facilitators Phase 2: Develop questions
use. Slightly confusingly, the Open Source
Considering the purpose of the workshop in
Guide offers both a three step and four step
advance, the facilitator then formulates each This Process model has been created by the authors as developments of those made available by the LEGO®
process that underpins the LEGO® Serious Group under a Creative Commons licence (‘Attribution Share Alike’: see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
building challenge in a way that will help
Play® method. by-sa/3.0/ for licence details). Feel free to share and use under the same licence. Enjoy!
release insight, open reflection and dialogue,
and achieve the objectives.
62 63
The facilitator’s choice and formulation of Practice a build question
the building task or question is crucial for Learning from mistakes: A lesson from Learning from Marko's mistakes. Not
participants’ experience of the process. Sean establishing clear build questions In Marko's situation, assuming he hadn't bored
proves confusing. the bananas out of people for an hour before
We suggest that a good core question fulfils "I recall a workshop where one of the hand, what would have been a better build
four criteria: objectives was to help the group think Before being trained to facilitate LEGO®
question to ask?
creatively and outside of an inward Serious Play®, my very first attempt was
- It has to be familiar and understandable for looking culture. a Values Workshop. The client suggested Jot below, or in a note book, better values build
ALL participants; that I introduce the theory about values questions. Marko's answers below.
We wanted participants to imagine before the workshop began.
- It needs to be important and engaging for ALL
participants;
new possibilities that might arise from
partnering with a completely new kind of To address this request, I gave a 1-hour
extensively prepared lecture on the

organisation.
- It requires a combination of systematic and theory on what makes good values,
creative thinking; I instructed participants to "Build a model including numerous case studies of the
of a new stakeholder; an unusual and values agreed at similar firms.
- It ideally fosters different points of view
mutually beneficial alliance partner
among participants. After a long one-way lecture I finally
who has an interest in providing an asked the team: "Now build good values
As we hope the brief story opposite shows, opportunity to engage with our clients." with LEGO® bricks!"
developing effective build questions is
Looking back, this is not a great build The session that followed was
important. Even subtle changes in nuance
question. It is complicated and unclear. disorganized. Some tried to replicate
can make a big difference to what people
understand and what they then build. what they had heard in the lecture.
After the allotted build time was over, I
Others decided to build ideal values based
invited participants to share the stories on their personal experience. Yet another
Phase 3: Set Challenges
more focused and objective oriented.
of what they had built. One participant group thought that it would be best if
more creative and fun, but at the same time
During the workshop, the facilitator issues began by saying she had found it hard they built the values of their organization.
Both of those building tasks would have been
the building challenge to the participants, the and had got rather caught up with the Yes, lots of time and energy got wasted in
word 'unusual'.
others."
building time is made clear, and the facilitator this confusion. animal. Build this metaphor and explain it to
asks participants to build a model with their
What I had meant to ask people to think Based on this experience I learned
would be represented with a metaphor of an
LEGO® bricks that expresses their thoughts on,
of was new stakeholders, not unusual
"Imagine that the best values in your ideal team
or response to the building challenge. two lessons. First, beginning a LEGO®
stakeholders. My use of the word Serious Play® Workshop with too or
After offering the challenge, the facilitator unusual had really thrown at least this much theory constrains thinking.
gives examples to explain what they want one participant and perhaps others. have witnessed in your team."
Second, abstract "Build something"
participants to explore in their building.
For instance: "Build the best behaviours that you
Getting the build questions right is very questions that don't support clear
64 important. objectives create confusion. 65
Phase 4: Building curious and explore in more detail what the LEGO® Serious Play® Participant Process SERIOUS WORK
narrator expresses through the model.
In the building phase, participants build their Download this A3 Board @ www.serious.global/downloads
response to the building challenge with LEGO® The facilitator might ask questions during
bricks. While building their models, participants sharing with the purpose of getting participants
assign meaning and narrative to their models to reflect and share more about their thoughts
by means of metaphors, figures of speech, and and ideas with each other.
narratives.
Everybody shares what is on their minds
During building, individual participants reflect and everybody is listened to. This is a very
and gain a clearer and more detailed insight important purpose of LEGO® Serious Play®
into their own reflections and thoughts. The - to give everybody a chance to hear each
building process both inspires and supports the others’ points of view. When this happens,
reflective process, and participants are given a participatory leadership is alive and well.
chance to think with their hands.
Finally, sharing helps everyone feel ownership
When participants use their hands to build for the ideas expressed and take responsibility
three-dimensional models of their reflections for the ideas generated. It is more likely that the Challenge Build Share Reflect
and ideas,it gives them easier access to the actions will follow.
knowledge and experience that is stored in their
minds and catalyses new trains of thought. Phase 6: Reflecting

Phase 5: Sharing After everyone has shared the story of

their model and their individual insights, the
Next, participants share their stories with each facilitator asks the group to collectively reflect,
other and assign mutual meanings to them. for example on what patterns have been seen,
what differences exist or what is the meta-story
It's vital that each participant shares the in the room now?
story about their model. One at a time, each
participant shares the significance and story Participants' understanding of the process
that they have assigned to their own model.
The sharing might be a reflective process as During workshops, participants are not
when people share their models, they explore concerned with the preparation phase. It can
their own expressions more closely. be useful to explain the process to participants, This Process model has been created by the authors as developments of those made available by the LEGO®
typically during the skills build, in which case Group under a Creative Commons licence (‘Attribution Share Alike’: see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-sa/3.0/ for licence details). Feel free to share and use under the same licence. Enjoy!
Those listening also have an opportunity to be show participants the simpler four step process
model opposite on an A3 board or slide.
Board 1
66
LEGO® Serious Play® Etiquette SERIOUS WORK Participant Etiquette Tell the story of the model. It's vital that
participants learn to communicate, share, and
Download this A3 Board @ www.serious.global/downloads
Another useful idea in the LEGO® Open Source describe through the model, using the model.
Guide that we have developed is participant If the participant says that a model represents
etiquette. something specific, then that is what it is!

Facilitators will find it helpful to make Sometimes participants build a model, then
A facilitator sets the question/challenge, determines time lines & guides participants aware of the code of behaviour during the share they ignore it or pay scant
early on. In part 4 we suggest that facilitators attention to it and tell a story from inside their
inform participants about etiquette during the mind. With nothing but words to hold onto, its
the process. skills build. amazing how quickly group attention drifts.

With small groups its more intimate to print the The challenge for the facilitator is to help those
Your LEGO® model is your answer to the question/challenge. boards onto A3 card and use those as a visual who do this to come back to the model and tell
aid. With large groups use a projected slide. the model’s story.

There are no wrong answers. The facilitator poses the building challenges, Listen with your eyes. Encourage participants
sets the building time and guides the process. to look at the model that is being shared and
use their visual senses to grasp and understand
The LEGO® model IS your answer to the
Think with your hands. Trust your hands. building challenge, and...
even more of what the other participants are
describing.
There are no wrong answers. There is no right
Tell the story of the model. Everyone builds, everyone shares.
or no wrong way to build. What the model
During the discussion that follows participants
looks like is not the most important thing. Invite
are free to ask questions about each others’
participants not to judge their own models or
Listen with your eyes, as well as your ears. more importantly, each others models.
models and stories.

Think with your hands: Tell participants 'If Discourage people from expressing opinions
Everyone builds, everyone tells. you get stuck after a challenge is set, trust about or interpreting each others’ models or
your hands and just start building.' Encourage stories. Allow participants to ask questions
participants to let their hands do the thinking. about the model and the story - not about the
person. The focus must be on the model and
What counts is the meaning in the model and the story around the model rather than on the
only the person who built the model knows person describing the model.
what it means.
Board 2
69
LEGO® Serious Play® - Build Levels LEGO® Serious Play® - Build Levels SERIOUS WORK

L3: Interact with

dynamic systems.
BUILD LEVEL 3
Understand how
There are three levels of building in System Models
Build System Models to understand the
factors influence
each other. Explore

LEGO® Serious Play®

risks, opportunities
forces, dynamics and impacts of/in systems. and unintended
consequences of
different scenarios and
BUILD LEVEL 2 strategies on shared
visions.
Shared Models
Level 1: Individual models is the Build Shared Models to create a mutual L2: Explore how others

foundation level. Shared models

understanding on topics of common interest. see the same ideas
differently. Then create
shared understanding
and system models are built from BUILD LEVEL 1
Individual models
and common meaning.

individual models. Build alone and share to

make '3D prints of thoughts'
L1: Learn enhanced
communication. Use
that others are able to see, auditory, visual and
understand and question kinaesthetic modes

This book primarily focusses on to help create common

meaning.
to express your
thoughts and feelings

the facilitation of level one.

and understand the
thoughts and feelings
of others.

Build Level 3 is not 'better' than Build Level 1. Level 1 is the foundation level and
has huge power both alone and when combined with Build Levels 2 and 3. Board 3
LEGO® Serious Play® - Typical Applications & Build Levels Applications LEGO® Serious Play® Level Build
Download this A3 Board @ www.serious.global/downloads Level 1 can be used in any meeting
LEGO® Serious Play® is just a tool. We think where you want everyone's input,
of it a bit like any other meeting tool, such as
a flipchart and marker. Seen in this way the
where diverse thinking is welcome
applications for LEGO® Serious Play® are as and where it is good to reflect before
Scenarios wide (wider actually!) as the humble pen and talking
paper.
BUILD LEVEL 3 Level 1 (individual model building) is THE

Strategy System Models In organisational life there are common foundation build level. Even complex system
applications, some of which we cover in this models like the one shown below start from
book. being built as Level One models.

Vision

BUILD LEVEL 2
Innovation Shared Models

Team Building

Idea Development BUILD LEVEL 1

Individual Models
Values & Behaviours

Coaching

Board 4
A team using LEGO® Serious Play® to explore scenarios at Build Level 3 - System Models
The Bricks Australia Germany Poland Whilst Minifigures® can be seen as gender
Austria Hungary Portugal neutral, we have added a range of LEGO®
The aim of this section is to Belgium Ireland Spain Friends® characters to our sets to provide a
provide information about which Canada Italy Sweden better balance of gender and diversity.
type of bricks are best, where to Czech Rep. South Korea Switzerland
Denmark Luxembourg United Kingdom
get them and how to store them. Finland Netherlands United States
France New Zealand
The bricks can be purchased at the LEGO®
Shop: shop.lego.com If you don't live in a country that LEGO® ship
LEGO® sell four LEGO® Serious Play® kits at too, there are some alternatives.
its online store. These are special collections
of bricks thoughtfully and carefully designed Bricklink
to help participants use metaphors and build Bricklink is the world's largest online
simple models that can express complex ideas. marketplace to buy and sell LEGO® parts, It
stocks Minifigures® and sets, both new or
LEGO® Friends® sets also contain animal,
The brick selections in these kits are excellent. used. LEGO® Serious Play® kits are available
flower and plant bricks that are a useful addition
The kits contain bricks that you might not at Bricklink. www.bricklink.com
to LEGO® Serious Play® brick sets.
commonly find in children’s LEGO® boxes,
such as: money, ladders, meteors, plain Assemble your own kits
eBay is a good source of bricks.
Minifigures®, jet engines, flowers, pillars, While LEGO® Serious Play® standard kits are
plants, rotors and string. Whilst these bricks Another option is to buy bricks on eBay, which
good, they are certainly not the only source of
are not rare they enable a vast range of uses in is less costly than buying new bricks. Try the
bricks. If you can't get LEGO® Serious Play®
LEGO® Serious Play®. search term 'Bulk LEGO Bricks.' Typically 1kg of
kits in your country we suggest you make your
bricks cost £25.
Should you rummage in your children’s LEGO® own.
boxes to try to assemble a kit, you might find Avoid buying second hand 'themed sets' unless
If LEGO® is available in local toy shops you can
character Minifigures® such as Batman, Bart you want a santa, a Wookie or R2D2 to become
assemble your own kits by combining different
Simpson, a cheerleader, or an evil henchman. a central part of the stories your workshop
kinds of LEGO® sets. Classic®, City®, Friends®
It is hard for participants to use these bricks as participants share (trust us, you don't want
and LEGO® DUPLO® bricks are the best sets
they are already loaded with meaning. that.)
to use. What story does this simple model
Countries LEGO® ship to We have bought additional base plates using LEGO® Serious Play® Starter
Marko's article on 'do-it-yourself' LEGO® kit bricks say to you?
The online LEGO® Shop shop.lego.com and Minifigures® from eBay to pad out the
Serious Play® kits might be helpful:
delivers to the following countries: Landscape and Identity kits. These second
seriousplaypro.com/bricks/diy/
hand bricks have worked out well.
74 75
Brief description of 4 kits Starter Kit - Reference: 2000414 Identity & Landscape - Reference: 2000430 Connections Kit - Reference: 2000431

Windows Exploration Bags - Reference:

2000409

Photo © LEGO Group Photo © LEGO Group

Photo © LEGO Group

Contains: 48 bricks Contains: 219 bricks Contains: 2631 bricks Contains: 2455 bricks

See the inventory: See the inventory: See the inventory: See the inventory:
seriousplaypro.com/bricks/web seriousplaypro.com/bricks/starter-kit seriousplaypro.com/bricks/identity-kit seriousplaypro.com/bricks/connections-kit

Good for: Skills building, coaching and Good for: Your first workshops, coaching, Good for: Build Levels 2 & 3 Workshops. Good for: System models at Build Level 3.
short workshops of up to half a day. shared model building and general use.
Includes: Large special mix of LEGO® bricks Includes: Extensive selection of connecting
Includes: A small selection of standard bricks in Includes: Selection of standard LEGO® bricks combined with LEGO® DUPLO® bricks, elements such as spiral tubes, ladders, fences,
multiple colours and shapes. combined with a few LEGO® DUPLO® bricks. including animals. bridges and strings.
Also contains special elements such as wheels,
Small selection of special elements and a tires, windows, trees, two Minifigures®, Extensive selection of special elements such as Extensive selection of connectors making it
Minifigure®. tubes, globes and small base plates, Includes wheels, tires, windows, trees, 90 Minifigures®, possible to build a large interconnected LEGO®
an 'imaginopedia' booklet with simple model sticks, globes, spiral tubes, ladders and fences. model.
building instructions for LEGO® skills building.
Large selection of base plates and three orange Ten identical bags containing specially chosen
The next two kits are for Build Levels 2 and plastic sorting trays. bricks that can be used for focused building
3, and are for use in applications beyond the exercises, such as "Pencil case," "Letter dog," or
scope of this book. We suggest that you don't other exercises.
buy these kits without training first!
76 77
Bricks to begin
Learning from experience: Sean's big
As a very first step we'd suggest buying one brickbox
starter kit to try some of the exercises yourself.
I ran a large 3 hour workshop for 150
people. I gave each participant a brand
new Windows kit and eventually they
worked in groups of 4 to build shared
models.

At the end of the workshop the new

bricks were really mixed up, so I put them
all in a big box.

A bit like making a big cake, I later added

SERIOUS WORK
12 starter kits to make a very big box of
Photo © LEGO Group
mixed LEGO® Serious Play® bricks.

For your first small workshop you can do a lot I now use these bricks for many half and
with one starter kit per participant, which for one day workshops. The day before a
6-8 people is not too big of an investment. workshop I use digital kitchen scales to
weigh and bag bricks in thick plastic zip
Alternatively you could buy two starter kits close bags.
and add one box of Classic LEGO® kits (which
are good value for money: LEGO® Creative For a Skills Build and simple exercises, a
Building Set Item: 10702), or some second table of 4 people would require 600g. For
hand bulk LEGO® from eBay (or even raid the Shared Model building, I might later give
LEGO® from any children in or close to your the table another bag of 800g of bricks.
family. Be sure to remove themed bricks first!.
If you store the bricks in pillowcases they
If you buy online, set up a LEGO® VIP Club seem to air and stay cleaner than storing
account first to collect LEGO® points/money. in plastic boxes.

Now we've set the scene and covered the basic This keeps a really great 'go-to' mix of
ideas, we will tell you how to facilitate a LEGO® bricks that suit many applications. It
Serious Play® Skills Build in part 4. means I can keep my Landscape and
Identity and Connections kits separate for
78 multi-day strategy workshops.
Put your bricks to work!

If you have some bricks (or when you get some) try this.

With a Window Exploration Kit, Starter Kit, or any random bricks

you may have to hand, take a few minutes and have some fun.

Build a model to show the kind of leader you like working

with. A person who gets the best out of you.

Interpret this build as you wish.

This ideal leader might be you. This leader may be somebody else you
know well. This could also be a hypothetical person that does not exist.

After you have built your model, summarise its

meaning with a couple of keywords.

Take a photo of your model and the keywords and share it with us.

Send your photo via Twitter to @SeriousWrk.

We would be glad to learn from you.

What kind of leadership qualities do you consider important?

80 81
Part 4

LEGO® Serious Play® ... & Four Fundamentals

skills build...
The absolutely, fundamentally
vital things that LEGO®
Serious Play® facilitators do.
82
LEGO® Serious Play® Some people come to a LEGO® Serious Play®
workshop feeling unsure or sceptical about

Skills Build being confronted with what looks like a kids toy
set. This can make them think negatively and
feel uncomfortable. Done well, the skills build
The objectives of this chapter are: will help even hardcore sceptics experience the
power of LEGO® Serious Play® and dissolve
To enable you to facilitate a the reticence that is visible if you have a room
LEGO® Serious Play® Skills Build full of people leaning back on their chairs, arms
crossed, looking bemused.
To understand how the LEGO®
Serious Play® Facilitation Learning from experience: Sean's story
Fundamentals achieve enhanced
I was facilitating a workshop to help
communication

SERIOUS WORK
develop a youth engagement strategy for
a UK charity.
Why a Skills Build?
At the outset I saw crossed arms and one
The LEGO® Serious Play® Skills Build is a or two people looked uncomfortable.
foundation component of the LEGO® Serious
Play® method. Don't even consider skipping it. After we completed the Skills Build I
Not ever. asked the group for reflections.

The Skills Build gives participants technical, One participant, who had not initially
metaphor and story telling skills, whilst enabling looked at ease, with a smile and a twinkle
them to use the bricks as adults engaged in in her eye, said, "You know what? This
LEGO® Serious Play® as opposed to children isn't as naff as I thought it would be."
involved in play. ('naff.' British slang, describing something
that is stupid, lame or unpalatable).
The Skills Build is also the time to
I loved that she said that and thanked
normalise how participants should
her for it. She said what others too had
use the bricks with the enhanced thought. Her experience of being really
communication that LEGO® Serious listened too in the Skills Build legitimised
Play® makes possible. the process in her mind. She was now
100% onboard with the process.
84 Skills build 1: The Tower
Two components The Skills Build typically has three exercises, A Windows Exploration Kit
and so the majority of the time is used for Perfect for the skills build, if you don't mind buying a box containing 100 bags
The Skills Build has two components. participants to tell the stories around their
models. What you ask participants to build and
1. Giving participants technical, metaphor and how tightly you control the 'share time' will
story telling skills. determine much of the total duration is spent
on a Skills Build.
2. Normalising the enhanced communication
that LEGO® Serious Play® makes possible. Group size
In this chapter, we'll give you a typical In your early days of practicing LEGO® Serious
workshop plan/set of facilitation notes that Play® aim for a smaller group size. The general
you can download and adapt for your own rule is one facilitator to a maximum group of 12
workshop. participants.
How long is a Skills Build? There are advanced techniques to facilitate
large groups but begin by learning to facilitate
For small groups of about 8 people allow
small groups of about six people.
40-60 minutes to deliver a Skills Build.
What bricks should I use?
Some facilitators allocate up to 90 minutes for
a Skills Build, but for short workshops that are The ideal set of bricks for the Skills Build are the
three to four hours in duration its hard to give Windows Exploration kits (art.2000409). The
about half the workshop time to the skills build small bags are not too expensive individually
when participants are rightly keen to explore and they contain a super mix of 48 bricks. The
their issues. Done well, a Skills Build can enable only downside is you have to buy them in
even large groups to successfully use LEGO® boxes of 100 bags.
Serious Play® in 30-40 minutes.

In Part 3,Beginning with LEGO® Serious

Play®, we outlined the LEGO® Serious Play®
process steps (page 67) that included a 'shared
meaning' stage. In this stage, participants tell
the stories of their models. Clearly it will take a
group of 10 people about twice as long to do
this as a group of 5 people.

86 87
An advantage of using these kits is that We sometimes point out the way in which Using Bricks as Metaphors
everyone has the same bricks. With care it is children use LEGO®, which is to try to build Helps participants tell rich stories with simple builds
also easy to ask participants to put the bricks models that look like an idea in their minds.
back afterwards into zip close bags for future The polar bear example opposite illustrates the
use. If you don't want to buy a box of 100 bags, point.
you have two options:
A LEGO® Serious Play® participant does not
Option 1. From a well mixed random selection need to build a model of a thing to be able to tell
of small to medium sized bricks, weigh out a story about the thing. They can use a brick as
about 80-100g and make individual bags. a metaphor.
How artist Sean Kenney represented Polar
bears in LEGO® (serious LEGO® skills!)
Option 2. Place a pile of small to medium sized We often use a simple game called 'explain this'
bricks in the middle of table in reach of all. As a (described in the facilitation notes that follow.) ©Sean Kenny 2016
rough guide aim for 100g of LEGO® bricks per The game forces participants to give their bricks
head. a meaning and quickly helps free participants
from feeling limited to using the bricks literally
Skills 1: Technical: Build a Tower (though literal meaning is useful too!)
The first Skills Build seeks to give participants
LEGO® Serious Play® goes beyond
the technical skills of connecting bricks.
using LEGO® bricks to build models
Be aware that older hands and eyes can find representing items or material How a child might represent a
the smaller LEGO® bricks fiddly. Pay extra objects in the real world. LEGO®
attention to the Technical Skills Build with older LEGO® Polar bear
groups.
Serious Play® can be used to create
models of your thoughts. Therefore,
A perfect first Skills Build task is to ask people to it helps to create solid 3D prints of
build a model of a tower. We all have a mental your ideas using metaphors.
model of what a tower might look like, and how
people interpret the build also helps us learn For instance, the polar bear could symbolise
something about how they think or perceive. something "strong, forceful and Nordic."

Skills 2: Metaphor: Explain this! It is up to the facilitator to help participants

come up with a meaning for the bricks that How a Polar bear could look or be represented
Learning to use bricks as metaphors liberates they used and convert it into an appropriate in a LEGO® Serious Play® Workshop
people to tell rich stories with simple builds. metaphor.

88 89
The examples opposite are from an
Marko's thematic "Explain this!" environmentally and socially minded group.
They had been asked to build 'agents' (factors
There are several ways to play "Explain that would impact or be impacted on by their
this!" The facilitation notes on page 104 vision) in a Build Level 3 system model.
invite participants to build random models
and explain that these mean something, These photos show differing levels of metaphor.
e.g. "marriage, weather or genetic In photo 1, the LEGO® DUPLO® bricks with
engineering." a white base plate on top symbolised rising
sea levels: a simple build of just a few bricks to
I also use the "Explain this!" task in a represent a big concept. Photo 2 looks like a
thematic way to help people think about palm tree, but in this build it represented climate
the concept they will be shortly working change. Photo 3 is more literal, representing
on. For example: bird flu. Photo 4 symbolised increasing diversity
in society.
- for a team building workshop I ask them
to use their random buildings to explain: Bricks as Metaphors: Bricks as Metaphors:
Skills 3: Story Telling
"team, colleague or friendship" 1. Rising Sea Levels 2. Climate Change
Story Telling helps create memories that stick.
- for a strategy workshop: "future, goal or Even months and years later participants
achievement" can remember what was said as workshop
participants used their models to tell rich and
- for an identity workshop: "my alter ego,
entertaining stories.
my deeper self, or when I was a child"
Story Telling using the models is the root of the
- for a product development workshop:
'enhanced communication' that LEGO® Serious
"client's wish or a cool new product"
Play® enables. This skill requires the story teller
- for an innovation workshop: "R&D or a to use the model and the listener to listen with
technology breakthrough" eyes and ears. There are four fundamentals you
must master.
It's great fun and effective. People realise
that they are able to take their random Four Facilitation Fundamentals
building and explain something about
the topic they know well. Thinking about The four facilitation fundamentals described
the upcoming concepts of the workshop next are vitally important conditions that you as
Bricks as Metaphors: Bricks as Metaphors: facilitator must help create. These are unique to
during a Skills Build will set a positive
3. Bird Flu 4. Increased Diversity LEGO® Serious Play®.
scene for the upcoming workshop. 91
Fundamental 1: Enable the Fundamental 2: Help
three modes of Enhanced participants tell the
Communication story of the model
People find communication is The most common pitfall of
more effective with LEGO® LEGO® Serious Play® is when
Serious Play® because it participants don't tell the story
facilitates auditory, visual and of the model they have created.
kinaesthetic communication.
The Skills Build is a vital stage to help
These three modes allow a speaker to participants understand the central
communicate more fully by 1) explaining importance of telling the story of the
the idea with words, 2) explaining what model and activating the three modes of
each brick in the model means and 3) communication.
moving and articulating the model,
From the very first warm up task, and
describing it from different perspectives.
during every round of sharing, bring
In LEGO® Serious Play® Workshops participants attention to the core ideas.
you lose visual and kinaesthetic
‘Tell the story of the model.’ ‘Touch
communication the moment a
and point.’ ‘Listen with your eyes.’ ‘Be
participant moves their attention away
curious about what each others models
from the bricks and starts to present
mean.’
a thought-based story. Then the
listeners visibly begin to zone out. Acknowledge participants who do these
things well to develop these group
Your job as a LEGO® Serious Play®
habits. Watch for people who build
Facilitator is to help people quickly
models and don't use them to tell the
learn how to use the bricks as an
story, help them focus!
enhanced form of communication
and help them constantly focus Politely but firmly establish this
their attention on bricks. practice during the Skills Build. It will
help a lot later.
Fundamental 3: Fundamental 4: Encourage
Establish listening with curiosity about the models
eyes as the norm
When speakers tell the story of
Listening is hard. In most their model and listeners listen
meetings people do not listen with their eyes, you'll enable
well. LEGO® Serious Play® can all participants to become
be a huge help in overcoming curious about the meaning.
this common problem. The models allow listeners to
Listening in LEGO® Serious Play® interrogate deeper layers of meaning.
Workshops is also more effective Remember the LEGO® Serious Play®
than traditional ‘speech only’ Etiquette and encourage participants
communication as the listener can to be curious about the models.
use their eyes as well as their ears
Deeper layers of meaning can be
to see and hear what's meant.
unveiled by asking questions such
Suggest that when this is happening as: 'Does the blue brick on the top
you'd expect to see every set of mean anything?' 'What does the
eyeballs in the room focussed on the flower on top of the flag mean?'
part of the model that is being explained.
Make it OK for there to be no
Encourage speakers not to make eye meaning to these parts if there is
to eye contact with others but instead none, but encourage speakers to
focus their own attention on the part express other meanings that their
of the model they are explaining. models might have. Don't allow
listeners to give new and different
As a facilitator, when you observe meanings to the speakers model.
a whole group listening with their
eyes, point out and reward the As a facilitator, your job is to help the
positive behaviour and ask what it group have a meaningful exchange.
was like for the speaker to be heard. Be curious and encourage curiosity.
Summary: LEGO® Serious Play® Facilitation Fundamentals

You'll enable three modes of

enhanced communication

The Skills Build is THE time and You'll help participants tell
place to embed the practices these the story of the model
facilitation fundamentals demand. You'll establish listening
with eyes as the norm
You'll encourage curiosity
about the models
Sharing Models: Enhanced Communication SERIOUS WORK Put your model centre stage. SERIOUS WORK
Download this A3 Board @ www.serious.global/downloads
The model at the centre of the stage
Imagine you're presenting your model (not in this workshop), but on a stage...

Be like a director, narrator or puppet master and have the model centre
stage as the total focus of the audience’s attention.

Don't look at the audience or make eye contact with them, as this
brings their attention away from the model and onto you, an invisible
director.

Focus your eyes totally on your model.

Tell the story of the model: Auditory, visual & kinaesthetic communication.

... like a puppet master, speak, show and animate your model. Bring it to
life.

... if you do this well the audience will have no choice but to listen with their
eyes and be curious about your model.

Board 5
Practice N.B.: The only time it is OK to skip Skills Build
is if you are working with a group where ALL
We strongly suggest that you practice this members have LEGO® Serious Play® skills.
Skills Build two or three times in a safe, low
risk environment before trying to facilitate any Learn from experience: Sean's story
important meeting or workshop. Download
the facilitation notes as a word document and I had been working with an organisation
edit them for your own needs ahead of the to help them improve their leadership
workshop. culture and meeting practices.

It is good practice to try and do the builds you At the outset we began with a LEGO®
will ask participants to perform ahead of the Serious Play® workshop that created a
workshop. You might learn something useful vision for their leadership team of seven
and further modify your plan ahead of the people. This of course had begun with a
workshop with participants. LEGO® Serious Play® Skills Build.

Some months later they were reviewing

Perfect practice makes perfect their business plan. Written on the
front page of the draft plan were their
There is a subtlety to facilitating in a way that
'organisational values.' The values were
controls but doesn't feel controlling. If you'd like
not those that I had seen in action and so
to master these skills consider practice based
I challenged the group, and they agreed
peer learning by attending a training course.
that they were not accurate.
See Part 7 of this book to assess which types of
training will give you the skills you need. I had some LEGO® kits in my bag so I
suggested a 2 minute individual build of
Facilitation notes the key value they felt they needed to
deliver in the business plan.
The facilitation notes and narrative in the
pages that follow describe a typical LEGO® After each person had built and told the
Serious Play® Skills Build. The timings have story of their models (I summarised the
been optimised for a group of 6 people and the key ideas on cards at the same time), I
workshop should take up to an hour. You might gave each of them three bricks to vote
get other ideas or see these ideas bought to life for the values they thought were the
in the five facilitation notes in Part 5. strongest. The whole intervention took
less than 10 minutes and an agreed set of
100 the right values had been established. 101
LEGO® Serious Play® Skills Build | 1 August 2016 | Timing 14:00 - 15:00 | Venue: Room 4 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Objective A 'standard' set of facilitation notes
To give participants LEGO® Serious Play® skills - allow 60 minutes
for a Skills Build with a small group of
about six people.
Time Session Objective Process/Notes
30 mins Set Up To get the room Equipment:
ready to deliver the Allow time to set up the room. Make
The workshop - Facilitation notes sure the tables are clear of anything
timing - LEGO® Bricks - comfortably accessible, either apart from bricks, as this helps
here is in bags, in a pile, in a horseshoe shape or in a people to see the small models.
based circle
on 6 - Timer or stopwatch (use a phone app)
people - 'Explain this' cards (www.serious.global/
Music. Consider creating a playlist of
downloads)
tracks lasting 2-3 minutes that work
- A3 Explainer Boards (www.serious.global/
downloads)
well for some of the build tasks. We
- Optional music
use a bluetooth speaker with an
iPad.
1 min Welcome To make participants A 'from the heart' welcome that is right for the Music seems to help participants
feel comfortable and culture of the group concentrate on the build task and
legitimise any you can use short tracks as a
scepticism Sometimes it is useful to explicitly 'make it OK' countdown. You can, for example,
for participants to feel unsure or even sceptical say 'You've got until Elvis finishes
about being confronted with LEGO® singing to complete your model...' This Skills Build used a mix of
LEGO® Serious Play® Windows
Ask people to trust the process and have an Kits and Starter Kits that were
open mind about LEGO® Serious Play® for the spread out in a horseshoe within
next hour In almost all cases, the Skills Build arms reach for each of the 12
is the first part of a workshop to
explore a particular issue.
2 mins Objectives To clarify the Begin by establishing the workshop objectives
workshop objectives and workshop plan or roadmap Good practice would be to ensure Download this workshop plan &
people arrive with an understanding template:
that LEGO® Serious Play® will be a
process tool used in the workshop. www.serious.global/downloads.
102 103
LEGO® Serious Play® Skills Build | 1 August 2016 | Timing 14:00 - 15:00 | Venue: Room 4 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Objective
The first task - to build people’s technical skills.
To give participants LEGO® Serious Play® skills

Time Session Objective Process/Notes

The first task is intended to get participants comfortable with connecting
c.12 Skills 1: To give participants 1. Challenge: Frame the task. The first task is the bricks, following the core process and learning how to use the models in
mins Technical technical skills and simple; to get used to connecting the bricks. 'enhanced communication.' Usually, some participants are familiar with LEGO®
confidence to use and others have not used LEGO® for a while, if ever.
Tower Build the bricks TASK: "You have 2 minutes to Build a Tower".
(1 min Start timer and or play music
frame
Music: Elvis v JXL, A Little Less Conversation
2 min Elvis is entirely optional. LEGO® Serious Play® Core Process SERIOUS WORK

build + 2. Build: After 1 minute say to the participants:

'You have 60 seconds remaining'.
2 min Challenge Build Share Reflect
boards After 2 minutes ask if anyone needs more time Start the share step by showing LEGO® Serious Play® Etiquette SERIOUS WORK

and invite people to stop building. participants the A3 'Core Process' A facilitator sets the question/challenge, time lines & guides the process.
1 min Tower Share and 'Etiquette' boards. These will Your model is your answer to the question/challenge.

share 3. Share: Tell participants: 'It's hard to listen help participants to understand the There are no wrong answers.

each) to what others are saying if you are still four steps of the core process and
These Core Process and Build Levels models have been created by the authors as developments of those made available by the

Think with your hands. Trust your hands.

LEGO Group under a Creative Commons licence (‘Attribution Share Alike’: see http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ for
licence details. Feel free to share and use under the same licence. Enjoy!
Board 1

building, so are you all ready to hear each locate the current task within this
Tell the story of the model.

other's stories?'
Listen with your eyes, as well as your ears.

and etiquette. Everyone builds, everyone tells.

> Facilitator Instructions: DOWNLOAD THIS A3 BOARD @ WWW.SERIOUS.GLOBAL/BOARDS

1. Encourage people to tell the story of the

model; pick it up, point to and touch each part.
Begin to embed the 'Facilitation
Tower Reflect 2. Encourage all to listen with eyes and ears. If you use Windows Exploration
Fundamentals' and encourage
participants to use the Enhanced Kits (see Part 3), ask people to only
4. Reflect: 'What reflections do you have?' use the black base plate and green
You might want to offer these additional Communication techniques.
Acknowledge and encourage the and orange bricks (photo page 85).
reflections: Simple build. Every model is
person telling the story of the Limited brick choice helps show
different. No wrong answers.
model. Ask people who don't use that the same bricks produce very
their models what their specific different results.
104
LEGO® Serious Play® Skills Build | 1 August 2016 | Timing 14:00 - 15:00 | Venue: Room 4 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Objective
To give participants LEGO® Serious Play® skills
The second task - to teach people how to use bricks as metaphors

Time Session Objective Process/Notes Please imagine the 5 brick model you have
built is a representation of…

c.10 Skills 2: To enable 1. Challenge: Frame the task. The second Invite people to recycle their Space Travel www.serious.global/downloads
mins Metaphor participants to Skills Build helps us learn how to use the towers before you begin this task.
Explain this!
use the bricks as bricks as metaphors. You can think of it as a
Explain This! metaphors game called Explain This!
(1 min
frame To begin let me set the challenge Explain how children often use LEGO. They try to build models that look like
ideas in their mind. Find a single white 4x2 brick and explain that you could use
1 min 2. Build TASK: "You have 30 seconds to this brick to represent a Polar Bear (see page 89).
build + connect 5 bricks together in a random
and meaningless way. Any bricks, any You don't need to build a model of a bear because you can use a white brick
2 min connections, just a random 5 brick model." as a metaphor for a bear. Equally you could use the same brick to mean 'Good
explain Health,' 'Cake' or 'Democracy'. This is using the brick as a metaphor.
Start timer
30 secs
share When everyone has a 5 brick model explain
each) how the bricks can be used as metaphors Give each participant a card. The card has a word or two with an object, concept
or idea written on it. The participant has to tell the other participants what the
Introduce 'Explain This!' concept is, then explain the concept on the card using the model they have built.
Depending upon what the model looks like and how agile their imaginations are,
3. Share: One by one, give people a card and some participants will find 'Explain This!' easier, some will find it harder. That's
Please imagine the 5 brick model you have
built is a representation of…
invite them to explain their models OK.
Space Travel
> Facilitator: Validate the stories people tell If anyone gets totally stuck you can ask if there is someone in the group who is
Explain this! willing to try and explain the concept with the model either they have built or
4. Reflect: 'What reflections do you have?' using the model of the person who's stuck. Alternatively, you can step in and
explain the model.
Offer additional reflection:
You can make a brick mean anything It gets easier as you go on as people learn how to play the game. To finish,
compliment the participants by reflecting that anybody could speak about
anything in front of a group without any preparation.
106
LEGO® Serious Play® Skills Build | 1 August 2016 | Timing 14:00 - 15:00 | Venue: Room 4 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Objective The final task - to teach people how to use models to tell stories and embed the
To give participants LEGO® Serious Play® skills Four Facilitation Fundamentals.
Time Session Objective Process/Notes
Set a build task that gets the group in the mood for what will follow.
c.20 Skills 3: To enable 1. Challenge: Frame the task. The final Skills
mins Story Telling participants to Build helps us learn how to use our models to Question/Task Design. You have choices in this task. You can ask participants
use models to tell tell stories to build a model to tell a story about, for example, a dream holiday, a nightmare
stories and embed boss, a hidden skill I have, what I'm most proud of achieving personally or
(1 min the enhanced 2. Build TASK: "You have 3 minutes to build a professionally etc.
frame communication model to tell a story about...”
techniques You might not choose the 'nightmare boss' task if the room has bosses in it, but
3 min Start timer and/or play music if you want the group to work with critical insight you could, for instance, ask
build + people to build a model of a nightmare neighbour.
Music: Pharrell Williams - Happy.
2 min If the last thing you want is to unleash a group's critical power, then you might
explain Count down... 2 mins remaining... 1 min focus on positive things, such as dream team members or things I am proud to
remaining... does anyone need more time? have achieved etc.
1-2
mins 3. Share: Ask people to share the stories
share about their models This is another opportunity to try and embed the Facilitation Fundamentals
each) and Enhanced Communication techniques. By this stage you will know which
> Facilitator Instructions: participants naturally model the appropriate behaviours according to LEGO®
Encourage people to be curious about each Serious Play® etiquette.
others models
Consider asking someone who has this skill to begin. After they have told the
4. Reflect: “What reflections do you have?” story of their model bring the group's attention to what happened and say that's
Trust and think with your hands; tell the story of how it should be done.
the model
> Be interested in each others models If someone does not tell the story of their model/use the techniques you have
introduced, watch the attention of the group drift. Without highlighting that the
5 mins Reflections To invite participants After the final Skills Build, ask people what person was wrong, point out what happened.
to share reflections reflections they have. What do they think about
from the Skills Build LEGO® Serious Play® now? What worked well
Be curious about the models and encourage others to ask what different bricks
or was hard? or relationships between bricks might mean.
Part 5

5.1 Goal setting workshop

5.2 Team build - FutureLearn
Workshop applications
5.3 Ideas workshop - Telia Telco
and case studies 5.4 Values & behaviours - Manifesto
5.5 Shared vision - IHG

110
Workshop applications Use... but plan for your needs The case studies focus on Build Level 1 applications.
The objective of this chapter is As a point of emphasis, we don't
advocate that you should take these
to enable you to facilitate five
plans and run these workshops
common workshop applications. exactly as we did. We offer you
these resources to help you prepare Scenario
Build Level 1: Individual Model for and run your own workshops. BUILD LEVEL 3
Case Studies System models
To deliver a successful workshop, Strategy Build system models to understand the forces,
The case studies that follow are focussed on
Build Level 1, but the Shared Vision case study
firstly, and most importantly, use dynamics and impacts of and in systems
in part 5.4 gives you a very brief overview of our ideas about the preparation
Build Level 2: Shared Models. phase to establish an objectives Innovation
BUILD LEVEL 2
logic and translate your objectives
Our case studies start with a simple application
into a workshop plan. Shared models
and we then illustrate more complex
applications.
Vision Build shared models to create mutual
The vital preparation phase helps you develop understanding on topics of common interest
a shared understanding with key workshop
Case study structure stakeholders or clients on the objectives and
process to create the desired outcomes. Team Building
In each application we give you the background BUILD LEVEL 1
story, then offer you the workshop plan from Once clear meeting or workshop objectives Individual models
these projects that we have facilitated using
LEGO® Serious Play®. We have annotated the
have been established, you're ready for Step Values & Behaviours Build alone and share to
Two.
facilitation notes to describe how to prepare for, make '3D prints of thoughts'
that others are able to see,
run and follow on from these workshops. Prepare your facilitation notes as
your minute-by-minute guide to Idea Development understand and question to
We offer you these case studies so you can help create common meaning
see how these ideas were applied in practice use during the workshop.
and what outputs and outcomes were created.
You can download these facilitation notes at
Now lets look at how LEGO® Serious Play® Coaching
was used in five different workshops.
serious.global/downloads and edit and adapt
them for your own use.

112 113
Part 5.1 Goal Setting Workshop
1 person, 1 hour

Background
In this starter case study we share a
one-to-one goal setting workshop which is
a great first session to try with a friend or
workmate.

Your first LEGO® Serious Play® session

needs an informal setting and a friendly
counterpart. This way you feel relaxed and
can be at your best in a low-risk environment.
Ask a friend to be your “client,” reserve one

A Goal Setting Workshop hour and you are good to go.

Compared to other LEGO® Serious Play®

applications, one-to-one sessions pose modest
requirements for space. You could do it in an
office, a cafeteria or a hotel lobby. As long as
you and your client both feel comfortable,
any place will do. Just a small table where
you can stack some bricks is enough.

If the space allows, place the chairs

side-by-side or at an angle to allow you both
to interact with the landscape of LEGO®
models that will be built during the workshop.

Use a LEGO® Serious Play® Starter Kit and

have a notebook and pen to record key ideas.
Use clear handwriting, so when the session
is about to end, you can review the summary
114 of the notes together with the client. 115
Goal Setting Workshop | Feb 11st 2016 14:00 - 18:00 | Marko's Office | v1 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective
Set goals and create an action plan Before diving into the goal setting
session, have a brief discussion with
your client to establish the nature of
Time Session Objective Process/Notes the goal setting. Assess if the goal
5 mins Set up To set the room or Prepare: setting is personal, professional or
prior to arrival space up to best Table with two chairs side by side both.
of client support the needs of LEGO® bricks - preferably a LEGO® Serious
the session Play® Starter Kit
Clipboard, paper and pen for note-taking The Skills Build is like that for large
groups (read Part 4), and it can be
5 mins Skills Build - 1 To become familiar “Build a tower” handy to have the A3 boards to
with the bricks explain the LEGO® Serious Play®
process and etiquette.
5 mins Skills Build - 2 To introduce the Explain the principles of LEGO® Serious Play®
client to LEGO® and facilitate a simple Skills Build
Serious Play Metaphors are an important skill
"Take 3-4 bricks and build the first thing that for the client to develop. It frees
To build two skills, comes to your mind." them from feeling the need to build
develop story telling technically sophisticated models
and understand use “Now tell a story about what you just built.” and allows them to communicate
of metaphors complex ideas with simple or even
If the client has not used any metaphors, take single bricks.
turns to describe the model using the 'Explain
This!' cards (page 107) To explain, you could take a
white 2x2 stud brick and suggest
10 mins Building To identify and Now ask: “Build a model or models to show
that you could use this brick to
future goals explore goals your own important personal or professional express a polar bear (see page 89),
goal(s)” - 4 mins democracy (equal size studs), good
health or cake!
Ask the client to tell the story of their model and
You could also both play the
ask questions about it
'Explain-this!' game that is
explained in detail on page 107.
116
Goal Setting Workshop | Feb 11st 2016 14:00 - 18:00 | Marko's Office | v1 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective
Set goals and develop an action plan
You might place the Goal Model
at one end of the table and than
Time Session Objective Process/Notes ask the client to build a model or
10 mins Current To identify the “Build a model, or models, to show your models to tell a story about the
reality current reality of the current situation or reality in relation to your current reality of the clients world.
client goal."
Ask the client to position the
Once the build is finalised, reflect upon the current reality model(s) in relation
differences between the current reality and the to the Goal Model. This landscape
goal may reveal further data.

5 mins Blocks To identify blocks Ask the client to build 'roadblocks'

that may prevent Invite the client to build a model
the achievement of “Build a model to show what might be or models with the bricks. These
these goals stopping you from achieving your goal.” might represent external or internal
factors (attitudes, mindsets etc.) or
Reflect on the model with the client both. If needed, invite the client to
be super honest. The builds might
5 mins Action plan To plan actions Ask the client to build a simple action plan to get make the client feel vulnerable.
past the roadblocks

“Now build your actions that will lead you This is where the client can build
past the most difficult roadblocks.” an action plan of things they can
do to overcome the blocks and step
5 mins Reflection To reflect on insights Consider showing the client your notes closer to achieving the goal.
or meaning

10 mins Summarise To understand client Ask the client to reflect upon the value of the It can be useful to have some sticky Download this workshop plan &
and record feedback on the session. Invite the client to take photos of the notes, so the client can briefly template:
outcome of the models before they are broken up annotate the key ideas before
session photographing their models. www.serious.global/downloads
Part 5.2 Team Build
12 people, 4 hours
Thanks to Rita Fevereiro and the
team at FutureLearn for allowing
us to share this case study.

Background
A difficult aspect of working in teams is
communication. It can be hard to say what you
think or share your reality and the way you see
the world. People also struggle to be open to
hearing what others see, perceive or believe.

A Team Build Workshop What is an effective team?

An effective team:
• Is bound by shared and meaningful purpose
• Is focused on shared goals
• Operates with shared values
• Communicates fluently
• Has trust in each other
• Learns to improve constantly (through
feedback)

Team building is an ongoing process that helps

groups evolve into a cohesive unit. When team
members share expectations for accomplishing
group tasks, trust and support one another and
120
respect one another’s individual differences, a
healthy team culture grows.
To create a stronger team with a clear
picture of our team vision and understand Room set up
the positive and negative behaviours It's wise to check the room to be booked before For a workshop of this scale and complexity,
Team building with LEGO® Serious Play®: needed to realise our team vision. the workshop in person or online to make sure allow an hour to set up. Usually this involves
• Builds trust it is big enough and has the furniture you need. moving tables and chairs from a classic board
The preparation A LEGO® Serious Play® Workshop for 12 meeting set-up to a more intimate set-up with
• Enhances openness participants needs a room that 20-30 people tables to create a main table for group work, a
• Improves communication This objective was translated into a draft might typically use. If you combine several table with no chairs for Shared Model building
workshop plan in the form of a set of facilitation tables, use tablecloths to ensure that bricks do and spare tables for bricks.
• Respects differences notes which are reproduced in full in the not fall between them.
pages that follow. Rita and I reviewed the
• Increases creativity
draft plan to ensure it fitted her expectations
• Shares expectations for accomplishing and we made minor adjustments to it. Black iPad for 1 of 4
group tasks tablecloth. music & tables for
This case study focusses using LEGO® 3x4 chairs. timekeeping bricks
Serious Play® to improve communication, give
Background feedback, create openness and build trust.
Shared Model Assortment Tray 1 of Assorted
In this case study we show how a team In this case study, we don't Building of mixed Facilitation 4 sorted Base
used LEGO® Serious Play® to build
go into detail about the Vision Table bricks Notes: bricks Plates
trust, understand hidden strengths
and give feedback to each other. and Behaviours components
of the workshop, as those
The workshop also helped them build a shared
are covered in detail in Parts
team vision, identify negative behaviours that
they wished to move away from and positive 5.4 and 5.5 of this book.
behaviours they wished to see more of. Often in the on-going process of team
The brief building, groups might start with a 2
hour LEGO® Serious Play® Workshop
Rita was unusually clear in her brief and to learn the LEGO® Serious Play® skills
provided a focussed set of objectives she and focus on building trust, opening
wanted the workshop to achieve. We agreed communication and respecting differences.
an overarching objective for the workshop:
Team vision, values and behaviours
can follow in later workshops.

122
FutureLearn | Team Building Workshop | Jan 21st 2016 14:00 - 18:00 | Rm 1 - Open University NW1 8NP | v3.0 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective
To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and to understand the positive These notes were used in the
and negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision. workshop. The notes were refined
based on three iterations between
the client and facilitator before the
Time Session Objective Process/Notes workshop began.
60 mins Set up To get the room Sean to set the room up to support the needs of
ready to support the the workshop. Set up to include: Download these notes and use YOUR
needs of the partici- • Table for team to work on objectives and desired outcomes to
pants and the work- • 2-3 Tables for LEGO® bricks edit the plan to suit your needs.
shop • Table for Shared and Final models,
INCLUDING Feedback models
• Video gear
• Tripod, camera and boom mic for recording
stories A short introduction from the project
• Name badges sponsor can be included (5 minutes
• Music is perfect) to thank participants for
coming, state the objectives and
5 mins Welcome & To clarify the Rita + Head of Marketing to cover welcome &
introduce the facilitator.
objectives workshop objectives objectives Beware of long (anything over 10
minutes) monologues from the boss
• Introduce Sean
at the outset.
5 mins Workshop To give participants Sean to give a brief overview of the workshop The message that long opening
overview an understanding of speeches give (in addition to the
the shape and flow LEGO® Serious Play® Team Build Workshop content) can be interpreted as:
of the workshop Enjoy and find beneficial 'What the senior people think
Respect the tables. Keep free of everything is more important than what
except bricks/gridcards participants think' and 'this is a top
Skill build down, non-participatory meeting,'
so 'being passive is OK.' Download this workshop plan &
template:
Of course this is the very opposite of
participatory leadership. www.serious.global/downloads
124
FutureLearn | Team Building Workshop | Jan 21st 2016 14:00 - 18:00 | Rm 1 - Open University NW1 8NP | v3.0 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective
To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and an understanding of positive
and negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision.
A classic LEGO® Serious Play®
Skills Build. See Part 4 for a detailed
Time Session Objective Process/Notes plan about how to facilitate this
40 mins Skills build To give participants 1. Technical - Build a Tower | 2 mins + 10 mins component.
LEGO® Serious share
Play® skills Music - Snap out of it
Allow more time than this in your
first workshops.
(Technical, metaphor 2. Metaphors - Explain this! | 30 seconds + 10
and story telling) mins share

3. Story telling - Build a model of your Dream During each round of sharing, bring
Holiday | 2 mins + 10 mins share participant attention back to the
core ideas in the models they build.
Music - Happy
Use prompts like:
Windows Kits. Then bag up
‘Tell the story of the model.’ ‘Touch
Boards: Etiquette, Core Process and point.’ ‘Listen with your eyes.’
‘Be curious about what each others
10 mins Effective To clarify the HANDOUT: Gridcard models mean.’
teams workshop objectives
Acknowledge participants who do
What are two key qualities of effective teams?
these things well to try to develop
Bullet point a couple of words, not a paragraph.
these group habits. Watch for
What key thing is needed to build an effective
people who build models and don't
team? use them to tell the story, and Participants during the skills
politely help them focus. build. Each was given a Windows
Reflection on Teams: Are those the qualities and Exploration Kit to use, but you could
It can be helpful to use the A3 use any selection of bricks.
things needed to build effective teams?
boards to remind participants
of the Etiquette and Facilitation + See ‘The bricks - how to get them’ in Part
Fundamentals. 3.
126
FutureLearn | Team Building Workshop | Jan 21st 2016 14:00 - 18:00 | Rm 1 - Open University NW1 8NP | v3.0 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective
To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and understand the positive and
negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision.
The Landscape and Identity kit
contains a wide range of bricks,
Time Session Objective Process/Notes from LEGO® DUPLO® bricks
30 mins My identity To share with each Introduce participants to the LEGO® Landscape (which will connect to LEGO® when
other how we see & Identity kit you know how), to technical bricks
ourselves at work such as hinges, swivels, animals
today Build a model to show your core identity. and insects, skeletons and gold
Show who you are as you see yourself today bars.
Build models of
individual team Think about your values, competencies and It's worth a brief introduction to
members as they see what really matters to you these bricks as well as offering
themselves today technical support should people
5 mins build struggle to make the connections
10 mins share they want.

> Facilitator Instructions:

Think of these models as solid thought. Like 3D
prints of your mind. Imagination made tangible. You could frame this task in the
following way: 'How you see
Music - Snap out of it yourself might not be how others
see you. Use this task to build a
Share 1-2 mins each model to show who you really are
at your core. Your core identity if
15 mins Break
you like.'
Take any questions for clarification
before the build starts.
If you see anyone not building after
20 seconds, remind the group of the
etiquette and to 'trust your hands.'
Just start building.
128
FutureLearn | Team Building Workshop | Jan 21st 2016 14:00 - 18:00 | Rm 1 - Open University NW1 8NP | v3.0 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective
To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and to understand the positive
and negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision. This exercise used the Johari
Window concept. (If you are not
familiar with this, read more on
Time Session Objective Process/Notes the web.) The A3 Johari Window
20 mins Johari To share more of > Facilitator Instructions: overview boards are shown on the
Window 2 ourselves with each SLIDE: For small groups use Johari Window A3 next pages.
other boards (see page 132 of this book)
Trust The key idea is that teams with high
Use the Johari Introduce Johari Window Model trust are more effective. Each of
Window Model to the three 'knowing windows' is an
share more of Previous exercise helped you to show your opportunity to build trust.
ourselves with each public 'open room'
other (and build trust)
Before the workshop, try the Johari
Teams with high trust are more effective build challenges yourself. Build
models of you own public identity,
This exercise will help others to understand you then modify your model to show
better part of your hidden identity.

Modify your model to show something that

others don’t know about you
When asking people to share
This does not have to be a deeply personal something of their ‘hidden room’
secret (but feel free!). It might be something it is important to both give people
you’ve just never got round to sharing permission to express hidden
aspects of themselves as well as
Or perhaps something you wish other team making sure people feel safe and
members might know about you to make you are not ‘expected’ to reveal things
feel happier or better in this team they would rather not.
By sharing more with others about
3 min build + 10 mins share There are no right or wrong ourselves, the Johari Window
answers. Trust people to go as far exercises help build trust in teams.
as they wish to in their professional Teams with greater trust are more
or personal lives. effective.
130
Johari Window - Four Rooms SERIOUS WORK Johari Window - Build Trust SERIOUS WORK
Download this A3 Board @ www.serious.global/downloads Download this A3 Board @ www.serious.global/downloads

Ask - Constructive feedback increases self awareness

Tell - We can use the

Others - know

Disclose Johari window to

help build trust in
First are the Then there’s information teams.
things you Open 'Room' Blind 'Room' what others about Open 'Room' Blind 'Room'
know about know about yourself Teams with high trust
yourself and you, but you Blind 'Room'
My public self My blind spots are more effective.
My public self My blind spots
share don’t know
about yourself My blind spots The more others
understand you,

the more you open

Others - don't know

up to each other,
Next are the Then the
things you room of not the more rapport and
Hidden 'Room' Unknown 'Room' Hidden 'Room' Unknown 'Room' trust is developed.
know about knowing
yourself, but My hidden self Unconscious self My hidden self Unconscious self
choose not to As a result
relationships
share strengthen.

Self - know Self - don't know

Board 8 Board 9
FutureLearn | Team Building Workshop | Jan 21st 2016 14:00 - 18:00 | Rm 1 - Open University NW1 8NP | v3.0 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective
To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and understand the positive and
negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision.
Using the Johari Window to give
feedback.

Time Session Objective Process/Notes The task was framed as positive

feedback with the question asked
40 mins Johari To understand how The 'blind' room
being to ‘build a model to show a
Window - others see us
professional strength of...’ but we
how others SLIDE: For small groups use Johari Window A3
could have also offered feedback
see you Then offer feedback boards
to each other about
on perceptions of learning edges
how others in the Please build a model to show a key profes- or development needs. Decide
team see us sional strength of… (the name of the person before the workshop who is offering
on the slip of paper) feedback to whom.
It can be good to ask a person who
4 min build + 10 mins share + 10 mins handover
is not a close workmate (or does not
This might be something you think they are not get on!) to give positive feedback.
Prepare small slips of paper like this: This participant was seen by a
aware of, or could be more fully aware of. Or
member of his team as being a
a strength they have that they underplay. Be
creative, instrumental lynchpin.
generous - evoke the best (but not the really John, please build a model to show a
obvious) leadership strength that Karen has. Respect.

Summarise this person’s strengths in 3 or 4

words on a gridcard.
Ask everyone to keep the names
secret as they build and share the
Share stories of the models.
After all models have been shared,
Take Photos
ask each person in turn to say who
the model was of and invite the
Reflections
builder to give the model to the
person who is receiving feedback.
Keep the models if you want to
photograph people with them later.
134
Team Build FutureLearn | Team Building Workshop | Jan 21st 2016 14:00 - 18:00 | Rm 1 - Open University NW1 8NP | v3.0 SERIOUS WORK

Overarching Objective
The purpose of this part of the book To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and understand the positive and
was to enable you to understand negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision.
how a Team Build component of a
LEGO® Serious Play® Workshop
was facilitated. Time Session Objective Process/Notes
20 mins Team vision To build a model of See Part 5.4 of this book for a Shared Vision
In this workshop, after we had completed the
a vision the team case study
team building exercises, the group went on to
has for itself in 12
consider a vision for their team, as well as to months
identify the positive and negative behaviours
required to achieve the vision.
30 mins Shared Model To build a Shared See Part 5.4 of this book for a Shared Vision
In order to observe the progression, a Model of a vision the case study
shortened version of the facilitation notes for team has for itself in
the remainder of the workshop are shown on 12 months
page 137.
40 mins Positive and To identify the See Part 5.5 of this book for a Values and
Shared Vision negative behaviours that Behaviours case study
behaviours will help realise the
Part 5.4 of this book covers a Shared Vision in vision
a different workshop if you'd like to see that This participant was seen by a
application in action. member of her team as having a
cool head under pressure. Nice. 20 mins Reflections To share triple loop A reflect, write, share task on what participants
and learning learning from the have learnt during the workshop
Values and Behaviours
workshop
Part 5.5 of this book covers Values and
Behaviours in a different workshop if you'd like 60 mins Close Photograph models
to see that application in action.

Next, you can read a clients reflections and

learning having used LEGO® Serious Play® for
the first time in her work setting.

136 137
Workshop outputs
Identity and feedback models, a
shared team vision and positive
and negative behaviour models.

138 139
Workshop Learning was open and willing to share more about
themselves, which was both inspiring and fun.
worked together and shared their concerns,
aspirations and motivations. We’ve built a
It includes a wheel, a dynamic bridge, warriors,
a tiger, an elephant, and much more. But of
shared model of what we want to achieve by course, these are all metaphors :-)
What I’ve learned about the power of #4 Creativity is enhanced by the use of 2017.
LEGO® Serious Play® as an effective metaphors
communication tool. By Rita Fevereiro.
I was astonished by the creativity of the team’s
This has been reproduced from the article “The individual models. Not so much due to any
Workshop Client, written by Rita on LinkedIn one’s special expertise in building but because
Pulse. Read the full article: http://bit.ly/ everyone was really engaged and used their
Rita-Lego imagination to explain concepts and thoughts
#1 Everyone builds and everyone shares that bricks alone wouldn’t be able to reflect.

For every challenge or question, everyone #5 The power of listening and speaking with
needs to build a model using LEGO® bricks. your eyes and hands
Sometimes there will be specific instructions, We were always encouraged to explain each
others it’s pretty much up to the person model with our hands and point to the different
building the model. But the most important is elements as we told its story.
that everyone builds something and shares
what they’ve created. This helped with bringing the story to life, but
also made it much more powerful as others
#2 There are no wrong answers listened attentively and followed the model of
No matter what you build, there is no right or the person sharing the story with their eyes as
wrong answer. It’s your creation, your ideas and much as with their ears.
your view. Everything is valuable and relevant. #6 The importance of building individually
#3 Sharing is mandatory but only to a and together
certain point I’ve enjoyed building my own models and
Everyone needs to explain the models they’ve seeing how far my creativity could go as much
built but they can reserve the right to only as I’ve enjoyed listening to everyone else’s
explain it to a certain extent. Especially if stories. I’ve learnt more about the personal
they’ve built something personal that they and professional selves of each member of the
don’t feel comfortable explaining in detail. I’m team and that, in itself, was a good outcome.
not sure if we were an odd team but everyone Building a shared model, a common vision that
we all can look forward to, was by far the most
140 enjoyable experience. It felt good as the team
Part 5.3 Ideas Workshop
12 people, 4 hours
Thanks to Karl Anton and the
team at Telia for allowing us
to share this case study.

Background
In this case study we show how a cross
functional team at Telia used LEGO® Serious
Play® to develop new service ideas for a new
strategy in IPTV. IPTV is a television service
delivered via internet broadband wire.

An Ideas Workshop Telia is a large international

Telecommunications service provider. IPTV
related services are one of the most important
growth segments at Telia Telco. Karl Anton,
the chief of TV division at Telia, asked Marko to
facilitate an ideas workshop with the objective:

To create new product and service ideas for

Telia TV.

Brainstorming with Bricks

Most of us have participated in brainstorming

sessions and know the principles. Free your
mind. Be open. Don't criticise. Keep the pace.
The principles provide a safe environment to
come up with lots of ideas. LEGO® Serious
Play® is a good tool to help generate ideas.
142
A model from the 'Invent a bicycle' Skills Build The bricks create a playful mindset. The
atmosphere is open and critique-free. Room set up
A facilitator pacing through the tasks helps to The bricks should be spread out in a random Using four tables is an advanced LEGO®
achieve flow. Some builds use humour that, in manner to support idea generation. This allows Serious Play® technique. We suggest running
turn, fuels creativity and fun. participants to rummage through bricks and your first LEGO® Serious Play® ideation
build by quick association; whatever comes to session with 1 table and 4-6 participants.
LEGO® Serious Play® Ideas Workshops can their mind.
take different forms. You can run your session
with just a few people but the approach is so
universal that, with proper skill and preparation, Idea Builds at Random Flipchart to Facilitator table. Contains Food &
it can be scaled to larger groups. Be guided by the corner of bricks on record spare bricks, hand-outs, drinks next
three principles for this kind of workshop: every table all tables ideas iPad, music & slideset door
1. Pay attention to proper Skills Building

2. Keep the pace and flow

3. Make sure that all the ideas are captured

Skills Building for ideation

Ideation relies on associative thinking. People

need to be in a state of flow and therefore it is
very important that they feel really comfortable
with the bricks. Never cut or rush the Skills
Building of your Ideas Workshop.

The first skills building exercises are already

familiar from the previous chapters of the book.

To put people in the right mindset for Ideas

Workshops, however, the Skills Building also
needs to fuel creativity. We therefore suggest
to also use a fourth Skills Building task: “Invent
a bicycle." Read about this task in detail in the
facilitation notes that follow.
144
LEGO® Serious Play® Ideas Workshop Telia Telco | 24 November 2015 | 15:00-19:00 | Kamahouse Studio SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching objective:
Create new product and service ideas for Telia TV focussing on four strategic direction areas Download and edit these notes, but
use YOUR objective is to edit the plan
Time Session Objective Process/Notes to suit your needs.
Allow Set up To set the room Presentation slides
60 min up to best support Clock/timer
the needs of the Workbooks for every participant In this workshop Marko ran four
session Pens for every participant tables concurrently. Managing
Four tables, each with LEGO® bricks concurrent tables is a more
advanced skill. We strongly
5 min Welcome and To set the scene Karl Anton to introduce the ideas day – inform recommend you work with a single
Introduction for participants about the recent successes on the market and table until you have been trained
and introduce the the objective of the workshop or have successfully delivered this
facilitator workshop a few times.
40 min Introduction To give participants Skills 1: Build a Tower (2 minutes to build).
to LEGO® LEGO® Serious Sharing and reflection (8 minutes).
Serious Play® Play® Skills Use the A3 explainer boards to
Skills 2: Story: "Build myself" (1-minute build, 14 remind people of the etiquette
minutes for introductions). and enhanced communication the
process demands.
Build a model of yourself using bricks and
introduce your building to other participants,
stressing who are you and what is important
to you! A LEGO® Serious Play® Skills
Build,. See Part 4 for a detailed
Skills 3: Metaphor: “Explain this!” plan about how to facilitate this
Explain this! (1-minute build with just 5 bricks,
component.
10 minutes for explanation.) Everybody gets to This Skills Build included two
explain what their building means, e.g. “My TV
additional rounds within a story
Set,” “Dream Television Service,” “Our client,” or
telling round - 'Build Myself" and Download this workshop plan &
“Future of telecoms” etc.
"Invent a Bike" (described in detail template:
overleaf). Allow more time than this
in your first workshops. www.serious.global/downloads
146
LEGO® Serious Play® Ideas Workshop Telia Telco | 24 November 2015 | 15:00-19:00 | Kamahouse Studio SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching objective:
Create new product and service ideas for Telia TV’s four areas of strategic direction
Creative Thinking Skills Building exercise: “Invent a Bike”
Time Session Objective Process/Notes
This Skills Build is useful for ideas workshops, as it helps participants learn how
20 min Invent the To deepen the Facilitator: Build as many business ideas
to 'hand-storm' with short fast rounds of building.
bicycle skills and put the about bicycles as you can
participants into the Facilitator story: “You might have heard somebody say ‘Don’t invent a bicycle.’
ideation flow Build individually
Today we are going to do the opposite. You will have 10 minutes to invent and
Shout out your ideas build as many business ideas about bicycles as you can. Everybody in your
group builds individually. When you are done with your first building, just shout
Put the model in the centre of the table your business idea to the other members of your team, put it to the centre of
the table and start working on the next idea. The team that has the most ideas
Build the next idea wins!”
The team that has the most ideas wins! When participants start building, typically the first ideas are usually obvious,
such as a bike shop, service, rental, racing and repairs. Then they become more
10 minutes for building, 10 minutes for playful, such as pizza delivery with bikes, cycling APPs, bicycle museums or a
reflection of the ideas one-wheel bike circus.
20 min Build To build customer Focused idea generation for client segments And just before their building time is over, participants become really creative,
customer personae for four developing ideas such as bikes for pets, for interior decoration, electricity from
personae and client segments: Each table select a segment group treadmill bikes, bike-shaped pizza knives, conference biking, bicycle parades in
their needs Santa costumes, and so on.
1) Business Individual build. Create a persona and build
customers his or her TV and entertainment needs and Participants will have lots of fun and enjoy the task. Once participants are in a
2) Young customers desires state of flow, building a simple idea takes between 1 or 2 minutes. Therefore, a
3) Y-generation group of 3-5 participants is usually able to build around 8-16 funny ideas about
customers 3 mins, then share stories of personae: bicycles.
4) Elderly customers
Use the marker and write down the most Finish the exercise with a countdown from 5 to 1 and shout: “Now stop
important needs and desires of the customer building.” Ask participants to count their bicycle ideas and see who has got the
personae to sticky notes most ideas. Thereafter ask them to reflect upon the ideas they had and show the
results of the buildings to the rest of the group.
148
LEGO® Serious Play® Ideas Workshop Telia Telco | 24 November 2015 | 15:00-19:00 | Kamahouse Studio SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching objective:
Create new product and service ideas for Telia TV’s four areas of strategic direction
Frame the group share as an
opportunity for participants to
Time Session Objective Process/Notes
identify new needs for the personas
30 min Sharing To share ideas Share, listen and reflect they are working on.
personas and between groups
needs with People move between 4 tables and listen to the Encourage participants to use the
the other stories from other tables in relation to the four share as part of the idea generation
tables customer personas and their needs process. The needs they identify
here can be fuel for the “Ideas
+ Questions and reflections Session” next.

15 min Break
Before the key ideas session it
10 min Invent new To build product Facilitator: Build ideas for products and is wise to hold a brief break as
business or service ideas to services to meet the needs of your participant are usually tired.
ideas meet the needs of personas
your personas A break helps to crystallize
Build individually the stories and start the next
brainstorming phase with renewed
Shout out your ideas energy and a fresh start.
Put the models in the centre of the table

Build the next idea

Observe participants. Some might
get lost or stuck during the fast
paced exercise.
10 min Tables share To present the On each table/segment group, participants
and record business ideas share the business idea models Approach and support them quietly
that were built for by asking friendly questions to help
the needs of the 4 After everyone has shared, invite participants to them move forward.
customer personas summarise their business idea model on a grid-
card or sticky note. One per model
Participants during the session are
to share between each table group.
150
LEGO® Serious Play® Ideas Workshop Telia Telco | 24 November 2015 | 15:00-19:00 | Kamahouse Studio SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching objective:
Create new product and service ideas for Telia TV’s four areas of strategic direction
Sometimes idea generation gets
Time Session Objective Process/Notes very creative and the quality and
30 min Sharing ideas To share between Participants move between 4 tables and listen to
relevance of the ideas may vary.
with the other groups other stories about business ideas You might suggest that the
tables
participants first decide upon criteria
for voting. They might choose the
10 min Voting and To choose the Based on all ideas heard, the participants will
ideas that are most closely aligned
selection most useful walk around between the tables and “vote with
to the workshop objective.
and appropriate flags” to choose the ideas they support the most
business ideas
and solutions to Looking at results and reflection
meet the needs of Consider using a time box for action
customers planning such as the next 30 or 60
15 min Our action The chosen ideas On tables, take the best ideas and write 30/60 days. Or suggest highly short time
plan will be brought to day action plans. One per card of what actions box actions such as"What would
life or steps are needed to progress the ideas be the first things that you will do
during the next week?"

20 min Sharing the To share between People move between 4 tables and listen to the
personas groups action plan stories of others
The reflection phase is frequently
and solutions
overlooked or occasionally even
with the other
skipped when participants run out
tables
of time.
15 min Reflection & To share key Gridcard and share Asking participants what they have
Learning learning from the
learnt about themselves, their team
workshop
or the subject at hand is a great way
to finish any meeting. The learning
phase at the end of meetings can be
one of the most important parts of
the meeting.
152
Workshop Outputs
The workshop generated a lot of ideas! Of
these ideas,Telia are happy for us to share the
following..

Can you match the idea to the model?

Sustainable TV Channel
TV Gaming Solutions
Cat Video Channel
Fishing Web-Cam TV
Partnership with Large Conglomerate
Soap Opera Channel
Ultra Wide Screen TV with Award Winning
Augmented Reality
Workshop Outcomes LEGO® Serious Play® created an
environment that opened everybody up
in such an effective way.
So, what happened next?
Shortly after our LEGO® Serious Play®
11 months later, our client Karl workshop we organised a follow-up
Anton, Chief of the Telia TV team event where we visited start-ups and
reflects on the outcomes of the learned how they put their ideas into
practice. These two events together
Ideation Workshop
helped us develop our ideas into
When we first contemplated a LEGO® a strategy that included a clearly
Serious Play® workshop, our aim was to formulated roadmap on which services
try something unconventional. A typical to focus on and how to move ahead with
strategy might be 25 pages of Power them.
Point slides that someone has drafted.
Our strategy therefore became wider
We wanted to do something outside the
and clearer than our previous strategies
box.
and interestingly, it now includes some
The LEGO® Serious Play® session with playful elements.
Marko was one the most extraordinary
My colleagues have discussed the
workshops that we have had at Telia.
workshop several times. If I had to select
The most unexpected aspect was just one word that we have used the
getting to know our team members most, it would be “fun.”
from a different perspective. We have
Even though we were doing serious
some colleagues who are mostly doing
work it didn't feel like work because
technical or administrative work. I was
LEGO® Serious Play® made us enjoy it.
positively surprised that everybody
came up with so many creative ideas. Karl Anton.
Tallinn
Our day-to-day jobs don't give all of us October, 2016
much opportunity to show our creative
side.

156 157
Part 5.4 Shared Vision
11 people. 2 hours.
(Part of a 6-hour workshop)
Thanks to Peter Brennan, Vice
President of Hotel Operations
and Performance Support
Europe at InterContinental
Hotels Group, for allowing us
to share this case study.

Background

A Shared Vision Workshop In this case study we show how a newly

merged team used LEGO® Serious Play®,
Build Level 2, to create a shared vision for the
team they aspired to 'become famous' for.

Two teams become one

As part of the ongoing process of change,

two teams at IHG had merged. This workshop
was the first time the new team had worked
together in the new arrangement.

The workshop was six hours in total and was

designed in service of the following objective:

To establish a vibrant culture for the

new Operations Support Division Team
through agreeing the vision, values
and behaviours of (what will become)
158 our famously successful team.
This case study will focus on the two-hour
shared vision element of the six-hour workshop.

Briefing and method selection

After the client had briefed the assignment, we

clarified our understanding of the workshop
objectives and offered two process options;
one using LEGO® Serious Play®, the other
using more traditional workshop tools.

The client thought that LEGO® Serious

Play® was a good choice for this kind of
workshop, so we completed the workshop
design using the facilitation notes format that
you'll see reproduced in the pages below.

A brief overview of shared

model building
This case study is not intended
to do more than illuminate the
very basic principles of LEGO®
Serious Play® Build Level 2:
Shared Model Building.
Think of this section as a 'peek
under the bonnet' rather than 'a
set of full engineering drawings.'
Our hope is that you'll learn enough
about Shared Model Building to
want to know more. This facilitation One way of organising the smaller bricks. The containers (bought
a at DIY store) have snap close lids and are more portable than the
skill is truly best learnt though doing. orange trays LEGO® provides with the Landscape and Identity kit.
Room set up and kit ProMeet Wallchart
Check the room is big enough Table 1 for bricks
Prior to the workshop, check that the intended Camera and tripod
room is big enough for the activities. Ideally it Facilitation notes and iPad
would be best to do a site visit, review a floor
plan or observe photos of the room online.

Read about what can happen when a room is Table 2 for building
too small in Part 6, page 225.
Bluetooth speaker for music
Move the furniture - create zones Gridcards or sticky notes
Allow an hour to set the room up. This mainly
involves moving tables and chairs from a board
meeting set up to create three different zones.
Table 3 for Shared Model Building
Zone 1: Gear Story telling stick (a LEGO® ladder)
Spare tables for bricks and other workshop Shared Model
equipment such as pens, cameras and sticky
notes. What's happening in the stop frame
video?
Zone 2: Group Work Select the right bricks
Each of the planned activities begins at:
You'll want tables with chairs for group work, For this workshop I used Windows Exploration
+ 3 seconds: Shared model building
individual model building and sharing. kits for the Skills Build. Participants bagged
these bricks into zip close bags after the Skills + 8 seconds: Telling the story of the
Zone 3: Shared Model Building Build was complete. model
+ 19 seconds: Scales of agreement
A table with no chairs for Shared Model A slightly enhanced Landscape and Identity This photo is taken from a video
+ 20 seconds: Lunch
Building. Shared Model Building is an active kit was used for the vision and exercises that taken of the whole workshop.
+ 24 seconds: Values
task that is best done standing up. followed. Watch a 75 second stop frame
+ 33 seconds: Positive & negative
movie of the entire workshop. behaviours
http://bit.ly/seriouswork-vision + 53 seconds: Action planning
162 + 65 seconds: Learning
IHG | 26th June 2015 | Timing 9:00 - 16:00 | Venue: Wallace Space Covent Garden | v9.0 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective The facilitation notes that were used
To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and understand the positive and in the workshop. The notes had been
negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision.
refined between the facilitator and
client through nine iterations. You
Time Session Objective Process/Notes may download the notes and adapt
60 mins Set up To get the room ready Sean to set the room up to support the needs of
them to your needs.
to support the needs the workshop. Set up to include: Feel free to download and use these
of the participants notes as a basis to work from, but
and the workshop • Wallchart on blank wall with task headers
use your objectives and customise
• Round or square table for team to work on
• Tables for LEGO® bricks
the plan to suit the needs of your
• Table for shared and final models
workshop.
• Video the day
• Tripod, camera and boom mic for recording
stories
• Name badges

Arrival 9:00 for 9:30 start

10 mins Welcome & To clarify the Peter to cover:

Objectives workshop objectives • Welcome
• Overarching workshop objective
• Workshop overview (but NOT current reality)
• Introduce Sean

10 mins Famously To give the Gridcard Task: Complete the sentence. "The
successful workshop a famously successful IHG ops support team I’d
teams participative and like to belong to would… " No wrong answers. This workshop began with a simple
upbeat beginning Be honest 'Think, write, share' warm up task
to get everyone thinking about the
Share. Post to wallchart workshop question and to normalise Download this workshop plan &
an equal and participative workshop template
culture. www.serious.global/downloads
164
IHG | 26th June 2015 | Timing 9:00 - 16:00 | Venue: Wallace Space Covent Garden | v9.0 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective
To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and understand the positive and
After the skills build, the Window
negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision.
Kits were bagged up and put away.
Sean then introduced participants
Time Session Objective Process/Notes to the Landscape and Identity bricks
10 mins Current reality To establish the Peter to share pre-prepared gridcards that had been set out on a separate
facts about the table.
current reality that
the new ops teams
must work with The task was framed using an
innovation game: 'Cover Story.'
50 mins LEGO® Se- To give participants Participants were asked to imagine
rious Play® three LEGO® A standard Skills Build - see Part 4 of that in 12 months time, their team
Skills Build Serious Play® skills this book for detailed instructions. had made the cover of a famous
magazine.
50 mins Individual To create a Shared Task Frame: It’s June 2016. Your team has Then, working alone, they were
Visions Vision for the made the cover of Fast Company asked to use the bricks to build
leading to Operations Support models of what their team had
Shared Vision Division Task 1: Working Alone. become famous for.
Build a model to show what your team is
Define what Vision definition for famous for. What will you have done to become Four minutes were given to build.
Operations workshop: Vision famous? Make your model illustrate the nature Music helps people concentrate
Support will for our team in of that success using metaphors) and encourages people not to have
be famous for 12 months time. discussions at this point in the
(our vision) A desirable and Music process.
appealing picture of When complete, write the headline of your cover
a future state I asked participants to write a cover
story on a gridcard
story headline to summarise their
Task 2: Share
model.
Everyone to share the story of their models Use the A3 explainer boards to
Encourage active listening remind people of the etiquette and
enhanced communication that the
process demands.
166
IHG | 26th June 2015 | Timing 9:00 - 16:00 | Venue: Wallace Space Covent Garden | v9.0 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective
To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and understand the positive and
Shared Model Building - in brief.
negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision.
Build Level 2: Shared Model Building could be the subject of a few chapters
or an entire book. Facilitating this process is best learnt though doing, but the
Time Session Objective Process/Notes
headline process looks like this:
60 mins Shared Vision To create a Shared Task 3: Flag the part of your individual model
Vision for the that’s most important (2 mins)
Define what Operations Support Task 4: Build the Shared Model
Operations Division Task 4: Build a Shared Model of what your After everyone has shared their individual models, they are asked to place a
Support will team will be famous for in 12 months time (15 LEGO® flag on the most important part or message of their model. The flagged
be famous for This exercise will mins) part of individual models must be represented on the shared model. If it weren't
(our vision) create a single shared then it would be hard for that individual to say that they share the final model.
model to describe Music - Nigel Stanford (You can see green flags in the photo on the next page.)
what the Operations
Support Division team Task 5: (Video) Ask at least 4 people to tell the Next, invite the group to move to the Shared Model building table (without chairs).
aspires to become story of the Shared Vision. Video record each On the centre of the table should be a large blank baseplate. This is what the
famous for in 12/18 round. Shared Model will be built on.
months time. It will be Ask people to recap on the flagged parts of their models so everyone understands
your Shared Vision for Task 6: Scale of agreement on Shared Vision the collective key ideas. Then invite participants to build a Shared Model using the
your team individual models as the source of ideas and bricks.
1. All: Select a position on the scale of
The scales of agreement This process is best mediated though the models, rather than debate. After
agreement will allow 2. Write gridcard (alone) you invite a group to build a Shared Model, encourage them to move individual
us to record and 3. Plus key question/concern models or parts of models to the big baseplate and start to discuss why they have
understand just how 4. Share (1 gridcard rule) and post placed the ideas/models where they have.
much agreement Make it OK for people to move each others models around the big baseplate as
there is on this vision. Photograph scale of agreement and model they describe the meaning and story that is emerging. In larger groups of 8+,
They also help to
beware of several conversations and constructions happening concurrently. If this
understand questions
happens ask the group to have one conversation or people will loose the meaning
or reservations people
of the part they are not involved with.
have about the shared
vision After about 15 minutes, a model that is beginning to look complete usually
emerges.
168
Mid-way through building the
Shared Model. Seeing all eyes
on the models is a good sign
that the conversation is being
mediated though the models using
the Enhanced Communication
techniques.

The first version of the team vision

model built from participants’
individual models.
A still from one of seven videos
Facilitation notes narrative
recorded during the Shared Model
story telling. This participant is Task 5: Telling the story and getting to common meaning
telling the story of the model as
they understand it. Others are It doesn’t matter if the Shared Model exercise feels incomplete before you move
listening for common and different to this next stage.
interpretations. Now invite one participant to tell the story associated with every part of the
Shared Model. Ask them to use a pointer, in this case a LEGO® ladder, to help
them focus on the model’s story (not one in their mind) and tell the story of every
part of the model.
Remind them there are no right or wrong answers, just different interpretations.
Suggest other participants actively listen because any of them might be taking
the next turn. Usually its a good idea to video this process, and there are several
techniques to do this (see Part 6 for more hints). It’s a good idea to remind
everyone this is being recorded to keep background noise and chat down.
After the first person has finished, invite another to tell the story. Suggest it’s not
a memory game; they don't have to tell the story they just heard, but tell the story
of the model as they understand it.
After they have finished, ask what differences people hear between the two
stories. Use the differences to ask the group which meaning they share. Repeat
this process and invite the group to amend the model as they go until a common
understanding emerges.
In this example seven of the eleven participants told the story and recorded
videos. The model was refined as they went. You can see the final model on page
176.
Task 6: Scales of agreement
We used another (non LEGO®) process called the 'Scales of Agreement' to
understand individuals’ key questions, reservations or concerns about the shared
vision.
Read about this brilliant tool on the ProMeet blog. http://bit.ly/ProMeet-SoA

172
Vision Shared IHG | 26th June 2015 | Timing 9:00 - 16:00 | Venue: Wallace Space Covent Garden | v9.0 SERIOUS WORK

Overarching Objective
The purpose of this part of the book To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and understand the positive and
was to enable you to understand how negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision.
the shared vision component of a
LEGO® Serious Play® workshop was
facilitated. Time Session Objective Process/Notes
45 mins Lunch
This workshop continued to also consider
values and behaviours. To illustrate what
30 mins Values To identify the key See Part 5.5 of this book to see a values and
followed, page 175 provides a shortened
values needed to behaviours case study
version of the facilitation notes for the
deliver the vision
remainder of the workshop.

The Values and Behaviours Workshop 30 mins Positive To identify the See Part 5.5 of this book to see a values and
behaviours behaviours that will behaviours case study
Part 5.5 of this book covers values and help realise the vision
behaviours in a different workshop if you'd like
to see that application in action. 30 mins Inhibiting To identify See Part 5.5 of this book for a Values and
behaviours behaviours that will Behaviours case study
block the vision
At the end of the workshop, after
the participants leave, carefully
15 mins Break
photograph all models before you
pack up. Once they have been
broken up, they are gone forever. 30 mins Your vision, To identify key Use the 'Scales of Agreement' to assess the
values and questions/reservations level of agreement and identify remaining
Of course the outcome you mostly behaviours concerns
want to create is ideas firmly lodged
in peoples minds that don't need 45 mins Action To create individual Individual 100-day actions plans on gridcards.
photographic reminders. Planning action plans 10 mins alone then share
Simple, powerful images, however,
like the 'DON'T PUT UP BARRIERS' 15 mins Learning To reflect and learn “Reflect, write and share” task. What have
model are great reminders of the you learnt about belonging to this team to-
negative behaviours the team said it day?
didn't want.
174 175
Photographing outputs
The workshop is over. Your client wants a record of what was built. It's not too difficult to
take reasonable photos on site with a good camera, tripod and flash.

All the photos shown here were taken immediately after the workshop using either a white
table top or a piece of flipchart taped to a wall.

Slightly overexpose the photos, use a narrow aperture (c f.18) and often do a quick tidy up
in Photoshop or Aperture afterwards to adjust exposure, white balance and remove crumbs
or flecks.

176 177
Team Vision Outputs
For someone who was not present
it is hard to know what the vision
model means. For the IHG Team,
the shared vision they have for
their team is...

We're We innovate We take risks We build We We are all We cascade We place

analytical and and and know bridges in ops, understand leaders and our our brands at
data driven... create there is rescue with hotels our challenges determine messages and the heart of
solutions... available if and across and learn own our success as a everything we
needed... IHG... from previous outcomes... team... do...
experience...

178 179
Workshop Outcomes If we had just gone to a traditional classroom
training setting, even if we'd managed to
get full engagement for the entire day, I'm
So, what happened next? 18 not sure that those lessons would still be
months after the workshop, resonating with the team over 18 months later.
the client Peter shared what Encouraging values
happened afterwards.
The team had cards printed that showed
Immediately after the workshop the team the LEGO® model of the values we built
got back to the office with high energy and on the front. When we see other people in
high engagement. We all had our '100-day the organisation exhibiting these values we
actions plans' but then we thought about write a congratulations note and send it.
how to keep the ideas of the day alive. To
help us with that we did three things.

Environmental reminders

We used the outputs of the workshop

and made some posters to put in the
office as environmental reminders.

This helped us remember what we did and

helped us sustain what we’d learnt and agreed.
It also reminded us of our behaviours and how
we said we would act towards to each other.

LEGO® and play

These cards give staff reward and
We also bought some LEGO® sets as a recognition. They say: 'I saw you
reminder of how play is something that helps do something that really lines
IHG used the workshop outputs
us to remember the ideas we created and up with our values, I just want to and created postcards, mouse
shared; team values of what we want to and
don’t want to. I think that element of play
say thank you and well done.' mats, wall posters and other assets
allowed the information and lessons to be to help keep the ideas alive in
Peter Brennan
sustained in the business and in the team. the minds of team members and
Denham
spread the values through the wider
October, 2016
180 organisation. 181
Part 5.5 Values and behaviours
22 people, 3.5 hours
Thanks to Jim Bowes, CEO
of Manifesto Digital, and
his team for allowing us to
share this case study.

Background
Manifesto Digital are an award winning
London based digital agency. They create
change though combining ideas, design and

Values & behaviours

technology. The outputs of their work are
often apps and websites that aim to make
people's lives better, easier and fairer.

Their CEO, Jim, had written their first 'business

plan' some years previously during the start up
phase of the business. He wisely thought it a
good idea to involve the full team in a workshop
to establish the values and behaviours they
would need for their next period of growth.

We agreed an overarching objective as:

To build a stronger team with shared

values and agreed behaviours: 'a
new manifesto for Manifesto'.
I suggested that LEGO® Serious Play®
would be a powerful tool to explore
values and behaviours and also create a
182 memorable set of tangible outputs.
Jim had come to a London LEGO® Serious An input: Shared vision model
Play® meetup group (see Part 7 for more
about meetups), so had experienced the As you can see from the workshop
methods involved and Sean’s facilitation of it. objectives opposite, the workshop included
He thought it could serve his teams needs well. a share of the Manifesto vision.

Objective driven workshop design We'd convened a small workshop for the
three directors just a few days before this
Exactly as described in Part 2 of this full team session, during which the directors
book, we used the 'objectives logic' and developed a Shared Vision Model.
developed a set of workshop objectives
outlining the actual tasks we would cover The directors built a Shared Model and
in the three and a half hours available. recorded videos of the Vision Model that were
to be used during the full team workshop.
Workshop Objectives
Brick selection
To share workshop objectives
The warm up used Windows Kits that were
To assess current level of team development
given to every participant in a zip close bag.
To build basic LEGO® Serious Play® Skills The values, behaviours and simple guiding
principles used a Landscape and Identity kit.
To share the 2017 Manifesto
Vision with the team Facilitation notes
To agree a lexicon for this workshop These objectives translated into the
To identify the core values of Manifesto facilitation notes below, which you can
download at serious.global/downloads
To identify the core positive and adapt for your own use.
behaviours Manifesto needs
A note on group size
To identify the core negative behaviours
Manifesto does not need This workshop has 22 participants. Managing
To identify the Manifesto such a large group takes additional skill
Simple Guiding Principles and experience. This plan will work well for
smaller groups of 6-10 and be much easier
To clarify what will happen next to facilitate. Don't try this larger group
size until you have developed excellent
LEGO® Serious Play® facilitation skills!
184
Manifesto Digital | 14th Aug 2015 | Timing 1:00 - 12:30 | Hoxton Arches | v2.0 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective
These are the workshop notes.
To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and understand the positive and
Mid-way through the LEGO®
negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision. Download and adapt to suit the Serious Play® Skills Build - 'The
objectives and desired outcomes of Tower' using Windows Kits.
Time Session Objective Process/Notes the group you are working with. Then
develop the questions and the process. Participants were instructed to use a
60 mins Set Up To get the room Sean to set the room up to support the needs of black baseplate and only green and
ready to support the the workshop. Set up to include:
orange bricks.
needs of the partici- Download this workshop plan &
pants and the • Screen/Computer/Speakers A limited selection of bricks helps
template
workshop • 4 tables of 5/6 people illustrate the huge difference in
• Tables for bricks
www.serious.global/downloads
possible solutions from just a few
• Tables for completed models bricks.

9:30 Arrival 9:30 for 10:00 start

5 mins Welcome & To share the Jim to welcome

Objectives workshop objectives Set the scene - run though objectives

40 mins LEGO® To build basic 1. Technical - Build a Tower

Serious Play® LEGO® Serious > Reflection: Use your model to tell your story
Skills Build Play® Skills Music - Snap out of it

22 x Windows kits 2. Metaphors: Explain this! - use slides

Afterwards, bag up > Reflection: You can make a brick mean
Windows kits and use anything. Technical ‘fancy’ builds are not
Landscape & Identity needed. Listen with your eyes!
kit.
3. Story telling: Build a model of your dream
holiday following an export trip
> Reflection: Trust and think with your hands.
A standard Skills Build - see Part 4 of Tell the story of the model, not the one in your
this book for detailed instructions head
Music - Love Vibration
Manifesto Digital | 14th Aug 2015 | Timing 1:00 - 12:30 | Hoxton Arches | v2.0 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective
To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and understand the positive and
negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision.

Time Session Objective Process/Notes

Jim Bowes describes the vision for
10 mins Manifesto To share the 2017 CEO, Jim, to talk through LEGO® vision Manifesto produced by all three
Vision Manifesto Vision model - Use the film and model. Questions for directors in a workshop a few days
with the team Clarification before the full team workshop.

5 mins Lexicon To establish a Input. Use Projector + Slides

Workshop Lexicon
Behaviours Terms like 'vision,' 'strategy,' and
Behaviours, Values The way in which one acts or conducts oneself, 'values,' as well as less familiar
and Guiding especially towards others terms like 'simple guiding principles'
Principles that will mean different things to different
help Manifesto feel Values people.
like Manifesto and Important and lasting beliefs or ideals shared by
achieve the vision the members of a culture about what is good or It is usually a good idea (especially
bad and desirable or undesirable. Values have in workshops with many languages)
a major influence on a person's behaviour and to offer a working definition for the
attitude and serve as broad guidelines in all purpose of the workshop.
situations
In this case the definitions were
Simple Guiding Principles projected and questions for
Principles. A fundamental truth that serves as clarification taken and answered
the foundation for a system of belief or precepts. before the team were asked to build
A rule intended to regulate behaviour or thought, models of their ideas.
e.g. "the legal precept of being innocent until
proven guilty," that guides an organisation
throughout its life in all circumstances,
irrespective of changes in its goals, strategies,
type of work or the top management

188
Manifesto Digital | 14th Aug 2015 | Timing 1:00 - 12:30 | Hoxton Arches | v2.0 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative
Overarching Objective
To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and understand the positive and
negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision.
With larger groups use a projector
@ProMeetings
#legomeetup

Time Session Objective Process/Notes for the build questions and a

countdown clock. Build a model of a core value
25 mins Values To identify the core Work Alone.
values of Manifesto Manifesto needs to achieve its vision
This ensures everyone can read and
Build a model of a core value that Manifesto understand the build question and
Important and lasting beliefs or
ideals shared by the members of a
needs to achieve its vision has a sense of how much time they culture about what is good or bad

have for the task. and desirable or undesirable.

Share: Form two groups of 10 people Values have major influence on a

person's behaviour and attitude
and serve as broad guidelines in
Individuals to share. Then ask group to vote, aim all situations.
to get top 5 values plus a further supporting 5 In large groups you will not have the
time for all people to share in one
40 mins Positive To identify the core Half the group on positive, half on negative big group. Divide large groups up
Behaviours positive behaviours into manageable sizes and ask each @ProMeetings
#legomeetup

Manifesto needs Work Alone: Build a model of a core positive group to vote to identify the most
Build a model of a core positive behaviour you
behaviour that you think Manifesto needs to popular ideas. Then share popular think Manifesto needs to achieve its vision
achieve its vision ideas in the large group.
Build a model of a core negative behaviour you
think Manifesto does not need
Vote
With 22 participants, split the The way in which one acts or
Negative Work Alone: Build a model of a core negative room into two groups, half work on conducts oneself, especially
Behaviours behaviour that you think Manifesto does not positive behaviours, the other on towards others

need negative. Invite participants to self

organise into two groups based on
40 mins To identify the core Identify a real negative behaviour that you have their affinity to the build topic.
negative behaviours seen, experienced or personally performed in
that Manifesto does the last week or month All participants voted on both sets
not need of models and individuals had the
Vote opportunity to suggest behaviours Download the slides.
they thought were missing. www.serious.global/downloads
Participants voting for the values
and behaviours. Each participant
has three bricks and three votes.

During the workshop we opted to

share the values as one big group
(not 4 small groups as planned).
Always facilitate the people,not
the process. If your carefully
prepared plan is not what the group
needs in that moment, adjust the
process and facilitate what the group
needs, not what you have planned.
192 193
Manifesto Digital | 14th Aug 2015 | Timing 1:00 - 12:30 | Hoxton Arches | v2.0 SERIOUS WORK
Facilitation notes narrative This photo shows the Simple
Overarching Objective Guiding Principles after being
To create a stronger team with a clear picture of our team vision and understand the positive and shared by all participants.
negative behaviours needed to realise our team vision.
Note that every model had been
summarised on a gridcard by Sean,
Time Session Objective Process/Notes who had checked if his summary
25 mins Simple To identify the This is the big one. Using everything said so far, words were an accurate synthesis
Guiding Manifesto Simple build a model to represent a SGP that you and of the meaning.
Principles Guiding Principles others can use as a 'North Star' Also note the bricks on the cards.
(SGP) Each brick is a vote. 'Get out of your
A SGP is NOT a rule. e.g. “If/Then…” comfort zone' got 8 votes and was
A SGP is NOT a single word value e.g. Trust selected to be one of the Simple
Guiding Principles.
It's more like a 'boid' than a rule. (Boids are
an artificial life program developed by Craig
Reynolds in 1986, which simulates the flocking
behaviour of birds https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Boids .) “Steer to avoid crowding local
flock-mates” is a good SGP for a bird in a flock

The key to SGP’s is to under-specify to allow

autonomy for a context-dependent reaction to
every situation.

Build alone: Build a model of a Manifesto

Simple Guiding Principle

Share in big group - then Vote

5 mins What Next? To clarify what next Jim

60 mins Lunch Photograph models

194
Workshop Outputs
Simple Guiding Principles
These models were photographed on a piece of flipchart taped to a wall. A
touch of post production creates useful and memorable workshop outputs.

196 197
Workshop Outputs
Values
These images show the values Manifesto Digital selected as those being core
to achieving its vision and developing the culture the staff wanted.

198 199
Workshop Outputs
Positive behaviours
These images show the positive behaviours the team wanted to encourage,
recognise and reward.

200 201
Workshop Outcomes 3. Excellence: Be committed to always
learning new things and using that knowledge
to drive positive change.
HEY MARK,
So, what happened next? This WELCOME!
workshop took place in August, 4. Change: Never stand still. Keep your eyes
open and spot opportunities before they arise.
WE’RE REALLY
2015. A year later, Manifesto Don’t be afraid to question; challenge yourself EXCITED TO HAVE A NEW
CEO Jim Bowes describes what and others. Nobody changed the world by
doing the same thing again and again.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
happened after the workshop. If you compare these with the LEGO® Change happens by getting out of your
ON BOARD!
workshop outputs, you can see the DNA of the comfort zone and setting new goals.
Growing organisations move forwards and You’ve joined a brilliant team of creatives and technologists
who just love to collaborate to change the world for the better.
things change. Sometimes quickly! Our values LEGO® Serious Play® Workshop ideas in our We cant wait to see how you’ll help us achieve our goals.

and behaviours workshop took place during a new brand values.

We have four values that guide what we stand for.
period of rapid expansion and growth. Let us introduce them to you…

New Brand Values

A few months after the workshop, we merged
with another creative agency. These new brand values are at the heart of
everything we do.
By December 2015, our team had grown by
another 12 people, which meant a third of the We use them as part of our induction manual
new bigger team had not taken part in defining for new staff (see opposite) and we use them to OUR BRAND
our behaviours and values. communicate everything we do on our website. LET’S CHANGE
We’re an agency with a brave name and a THE MENU
NOT THE
bold, brave brand to match. Our brand is how CLIMATE
We then had the challenge of creating a The LEGO® Serious Play® Workshop really we present ourselves to the world and how
Meat-Free Mondays,
Digital experience project

combined proposition for the merged agency. helped us develop our new service and develop Manifesto is perceived; the thread that runs LET’S CHANGE
through everything we do. THE DETOX TO
a more creative public-facing brand.
HELP CURE
CANCER
Sean suggested we take the outputs and make From how we talk to our clients to the products we develop for them, our brand
Cancer Research UK,
Brand, UX and build project

a simple set of brand values. So with the new The LEGO® Workshop has even become part
reflects our culture and values, and is present in the way we interact with anyone
on behalf of Manifesto.

larger team we developed a new set of values: of our company history on our timeline of key Our tone of voice is authoritative without being condescending; fun without being
flippant; knowledgeable without being pompous.
events that shaped who we've become today.
1. Collaboration: Be forward and share You will have access to our full brand guidelines which set out who we are, how we
talk and what we look like. Become familiar with them to keep our communications

knowledge; don’t wait until you’re asked.

consistent and our brand working as hard as it can for us all.
Jim Bowes.
London
2. Innovation: Help people to see something
October, 2016
different. We strive for efficiency through
simplicity.

202
Part 6

Camilla Nørgaard Jensen Dieter Reuther Kristina Nyzell

USA/Denmark USA Sweden

Practical tips
The objective of this chapter is to offer you practical tips to help you
understand how brilliantly LEGO® Serious Play® Workshops are run.

Learn from respected peers Mercedes Hoss Kim Pong Lim Patrizia Bertini
Germany Singapore Italy
We invited respected LEGO® Serious Play® Facilitators from around the
world to share their stories to emphasise the ideas in this book.

Eli de Friend Maria Stashenko Oliver Knapman

204 Switzerland Russia China
Camilla Nørgaard My key takeaways from the experience
Jensen Participants must build skills to become fluent in
 @CamillaJensen self-expression through models and metaphors,
especially on complex topics. I dedicated the
Specialties: first of the four workshops to Skill Building.
Wicked Problems
Science Communication Large groups must be subdivided into smaller
Design Thinking tables. I divided my twenty students into four
teams of five participants each. For research
Scholar of Serious Play purposes, ethnographic observers were
I use LEGO® Serious Play® to facilitate assigned to each table, but they also served as
cross-disciplinary communication on wicked my extension, clarifying prompts and signalling
problems. For my PhD research I applied to me when their team was ready to move on.
LEGO® Serious Play® to deliver a nano-ethics LEGO® is designed to make noise when it's
curriculum at Arizona State University. shuffled. It's part of the appeal, but in a large
During class, my students used LEGO® Serious room it can interfere with discussion. Seek out a
Play® to share their knowledge and values venue with good acoustics and use tablecloths
related to the implications and applications of to dampen noise whenever facilitating more
nanomaterials. In addition to increased topic than one table at a time.
understanding, students reported that using
When you end your workshop with a debrief
LEGO® Serious Play® incited creativity and
exercise participants take mental inventory of
improved communication, due to the playful
the experience. One way to prompt reflection
nature and because "you physically put your
is to ask them to write out what “squared” with
ideas on the table."
them (#square), three things that stood out
Even when struggling to combine their to them (#triangle), and something that is still
perspectives into a shared model, teams “circling” for them (#circle).
described these challenges as "fun frustration"
I use Twitter for this. It enables a public
that led them to be creative and think of stories
exchange of reflections to everybody’s benefit.
that effectively conveyed their multifaceted
If something is unclear to one person it is
considerations. Additionally, they felt they knew
probably unclear to others too. In consecutive
their fellow students in this class better than
workshops, the written reflections provide
peers they had spent a full semester with in
continuity, e.g. at the beginning of the next
other classes.
workshop I will clarify what they reported had
206 been circling for them. Photo: Emma Seager
Eli de Friend Facilitation tips:

 defriend 6. Use visual as well as spoken instructions for

announcing challenges, all the more so if either
Specialties: the facilitator and/or the participants are not
Leadership Development working in their native tongue.
Executive Coaching
Strategy & Learning 7. Check participants’ understanding of the
challenges and invite one participant to
Experienced LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator paraphrase the challenge to the others.
Eli de Friend shares ten wise suggestions. 8. Know your facilitation roadmap and timing
constraints. Occasionally, participants are so
Mastering the Flow
engaged in their conversation that they will
Preparation tips: not stop and insist that it is vital that they
continue. You need to know what you could
1. Understand your participants’ profiles scrap that is still ahead and assess whether the
(educational level, professional experience, current discussions are more critical to the main
psychology, preferences and background). objective than the future steps.
2. Identify the “real” sponsor of the workshop. This is where it is important to really know who
What types of relationships link the sponsor is the sponsor and what are the objectives.
and the participants (hierarchical, matrix, mutual
interest, etc.)? Be clear who is the client. 9. Respecting LEGO® Serious Play®
etiquette doesn’t prevent you from using
3. Establish the “real” objectives of the tasteful humour, theatrics and audio-visual
workshop. accompaniment. The more multi-sensorial, the
4. Always ask for more time than the client better.
first offers, even if this requires offering to give 10. While mixing methods may be useful from
some time for free. Up to a limit, the longer the a conceptual perspective, and mixing materials
participants have their hands on the bricks and may be fun from a participation perspective, for
are sharing ideas they care about, the more your own sake, never mix modelling clay of any
satisfied they will be. sort with LEGO® bricks. NEVER.
5. Tailor the Skills Building to fit the participants’ We are still separating out bits of Play-Doh
profile and theme of the workshop. from some of our bricks 7 years after they were
inadvertently united.
208
209
Maria Shashenko programs in companies applying SAP enterprise
automation decisions for fostering learning
 fb.com/stashenko effectiveness and efficiency.
Specialties: LEGO® Serious Play® helped:
Design Thinking
Human-Centred Design - Visualise existing hurdles and wicked
Innovation Development problems in employee education.
- Develop innovative ideas through fast and
Three short cases. Nine big benefits. exciting 'brick-and-figures' collaborative work.

LEGO® Serious Play® is a great tool to - Create simple and easy-to-grasp models built
visualise and model concepts such as to show 'new education processes,' 'new roles
strategies, ambitions, goals, business plans and of the educator' and 'educational programs.'
visions. Here are three example applications These models made communication of the
and the benefits LEGO® Serious Play® bought ideas better and implementation easier.
in each case.
Case 3. Project management office setup.
Case 1. Budget planning. Client: SAP CIS Client: Aeroflot

Objective: To create a new budget aligned with Objective: To integrate IT and Business
innovation priorities and future vision. processes for more effective collaboration.

LEGO® Serious Play® helped: LEGO® Serious Play® helped:

- Enliven routine budget planning practices - Explore and communicate painful business
through collaboration instead of individual work. problems.

- Release the creative minds of the participants - Break the barriers between IT and Business
to enable a fresh and innovative view on departments through representation of
spending areas. overlooked collaboration opportunities.

- Reduce the time needed for budgeting by - Create a new model of the office, which was
each department head. more sustainable and effective.

Case 2. Education program development. I hope these brief stories show that LEGO®
Client: SAP CIS Education Serious Play® has few limits in applying to any
area of business development, and also show
Objective: To create new employee educational that it brings real value in fostering innovation,
210 creative thinking and team collaboration.
Dieter Reuther Why did our clients fall in love with the
outcome of some of our work while the project
 @DieterReuther was on time and within its budget? Why did
Specialties: some projects require reworking, go overtime
Innovation and lose money? Why were there so many
Design Thinking frustrated staff?
Team Empowerment The Six Sigma Program analysed 60 projects
and scrutinized their schedule performance,
My path, passion and commitment budget adherence and rates of client return to
to LEGO® Serious Play® either confirm or disregard initial assumptions.
Was it the project size, the client size, the
As an engineer I believe in the power of tools location of the client, or maybe the level of
and processes. innovation? None of this seemed to have a
significant impact.
For every problem, engineers can find a
technological solution. With this mindset, The factor responsible for the outcome of
I implemented endless tools, systems and our projects was the success of the pairing of
processes to foster creativity. I also sought to the project leader with the project team and
support the business aspect of creative project the individual team members. Some pairings
work during my 13 years in Design Operations worked well and others just disrupted the flow
at one of the leading US innovation and design of projects and led to failure. The human aspect
consultancies. of our projects made them succeed or fail.
These process and technology-based This insight that the human aspect of project
approaches, however, often only worked for work can play such a powerful role drove me to
a short time or were bypassed by the creative explore the power of LEGO® Serious Play® to
staff after an initial success. The struggle to help teams be more successful.
maintain a certain level of creative chaos versus
too much structure seemed to be the problem. This play-based facilitation methodology
helps uncover what is happening in the space
I had a hunch that all the efforts to throw between people and lay the groundwork for
processes and technology at our project teams successful project outcomes. I love it when
were a lost battle. I therefore initiated a Six people forget their daily routines and dive into
Sigma Project to get to the root of why some a safe environment of play and interact on a
of our projects were successful and some were level playing field to rediscover their creative
not. potential and solve complex problems.
212
Kim Pong Lim and helps them focus and create outcomes that
would otherwise have taken days or months.
 limkimpong
The method is both the art and science of
Specialties: facilitating seriously rich and real conversations
Culture Building between people. We love using it to enable
Leadership Coaching people to understand and be understood,
Team Engagement to create openness to challenges and be
challenged and to instil the belief that creativity
Building culture is at the heart of is not the domain of some but the domain of all.
everything we do in Asia. So far, all of our plays have been conducted
We use LEGO® Serious Play® to help our in Asia and two things stand out: 1) Asians are
clients articulate, breathe and live their culture; generally less outspoken than their Western
to engage their employees and allow everyone counterparts; 2) Showing respect for seniors
to achieve their best productivity. and leaders is highly esteemed. Hence, in Asia,
"giving face" is an age-old expectation and
We have often seen that the best plans, speaking one's mind in an environment where
strategies and ideas are resisted and thwarted there are others more senior than you, is not.
by entrenched enterprise cultures. Many
organisations and teams sincerely want growth, It is in this space that LEGO® Serious Play®
innovation and change in their businesses. Yet has its greatest role as a leveler, enabler and
many of them resist the very people, ways encourager for real and needed conversations.
and ideas that could create those desired new It draws out the unspoken thoughts and serves
growths, innovations and changes. What often them with dignity and respect from everyone
stands in the way is the inability to articulate around the table.
what is on our minds, listening to what others Finally, here are five of my own personal
are saying or finding a way together to achieve "guiding principles" for conducting the
shared goals. facilitation:
LEGO® Serious Play® removes those 1. Keep the play simple and uncomplicated.
inabilities. It facilitates rich and actionable
conversations. It allows participants to face 2. Help clients learn and not just build.
up to the complex realities of their work and 3. Don’t be afraid of silence. They are thinking.
relationships in a safe environment, eases them 4. Love the process. Trust the models.
into describing difficult issues in greater detail
5. Keep it moving.
214
Mercedes Hoss tool that allows you to describe, design,
challenge, invent and pivot your business
 @offtimeeu model. By thinking of yourself as a one-person
Specialties: organisation, you can also use this tool to define
Business Modelling and modify your own personal business model.
Future of Work It can help you to take advantage of your skills
Cultural Intelligence and aptitudes, to grow both personally and as a
professional, and to reveal new, more satisfying
career and life possibilities.
Turning my favourite childhood toy
into a key tool for facilitating fertile Personal business models are to do with who
and rewarding workshops we are and how people see us as well as the
as-yet untapped potential in us. Thus, creating
I came across LEGO® Serious Play® by them requires both initial self-knowledge and
chance. Using LEGO® to resolve problems and further self-reflection.
to help identify the things that we already know
but do not know that we know initially sounded The business model canvas is usually
too good to be true. completed using post-its to record our insights
along the way. This helps us both to focus and
'It’s a technique without content,' Robert to better understand what is key in why, what
Rasmussen would say at the beginning of and how we do what we do, as well as how to
our Facilitator Training. 'The facilitator asks a take the next step in our career. I believe that
question, then the participants build the answer adding a third dimension using LEGO® models
to that question with LEGO® bricks, using them to define areas that are more on the “soft side“
metaphorically to add meaning.' could be useful in helping generate insights/a
deeper connection with our emotional (YOU)
After I had worked with Tim Clark to organize side, and in understanding and defining a
and co-facilitate Business Model You® compelling and congruent value proposition
workshops in Europe, I started combining the that is based on a unique professional identity.
two methodologies.
Taking time to consciously work on what is
A business model describes the process and next for you in your career can be a tiresome
rationale behind how (and in some cases, why) process. Adding LEGO® to this process helps
an organization creates, delivers and captures ease anxiety, put a smile on people´s faces,
value. The Business Model Canvas1 is a strategic build new levels of trust and collaboration and
1. https://strategyzer.com/ enables you to feel and see 'a-ha' moments.
216
Patrizia Bertini Would LEGO® Serious Play® change this? It
did. In fact, my first interviews were a revelation.
 @legoviews
I asked participants to build the world as they
Specialties:
saw it, keeping the questions open, unbiased,
Innovation
and broad to allow their point of view to emerge
Creativity & Co-creation
spontaneously.
Systems Thinking
I acted as a Socratic midwife, asking questions
Inside the minds of others about their models, playing with them, moving
and taking bricks away, challenging their points
Can you imagine how many stories are packed of view in a playful and non threatening way.
into the models participants build? Have you It was not me leading the interview, but the
ever had the temptation to delve further and get bricks. I was careful in crafting the questions,
more stories from the models? avoiding leading clues, and tried to make sure
participants were not biased by my point of
I did. I wanted to explore the universe of view or expectations.
meaning and stories hidden in those models
and learn more about how people see the Participants shared their inner worlds and
world. So I asked myself, what if I used the thoughts, feeling using the bricks. The bricks
LEGO® Serious Play® approach for one-to-one acted as a powerful medium and allowed
interviews? people’s universes to become stories and
narratives.
The first question I had to answer was: Which
bricks can I use? The Window Exploration Ever since, I have applied this maieutic
kit looked to be a good starting point; small approach in countless cases. I’ve tested it in
enough, yet with sufficient metaphorical political contexts such as Palestine and Israel,
elements to boost storytelling. Then I found I have used it to explore complex concepts like
volunteers during the Occupy London colour, and I’ve talked to artists, activists, and
movement. business men through this approach.

As a former journalist, I had always felt the The result is always the same. I can see the
question and answer game was inadequate world through other people’s eyes through their
to really see the world through other people’s stories and words, and my role is just to guide
eyes. Journalist questions often function as a them, through their models, to open up their
filter. universe to me in a journey we build together.
218
Oliver Knapman We designed a workshop to help identify
‘guiding principles’ and ‘the spirit in which
 @Oliver_LSP things are done.’
Specialties:
During the workshop, however, it became clear
Brand Identity
that the client HRD was becoming increasingly
Change Management
frustrated with her perception of 'the lack of
Process Mapping
concrete outcomes.'

A useful lesson It turned out that the client wanted us to

augment participants’ job descriptions with
This is a story about a workshop that created two lists; good behaviours and bad. Instead, we
a team that understood themselves, their were facilitating a workshop to surface feelings,
colleagues and their work better. It also created values and mindsets.
a very disappointed Human Resources Director.
Extremely useful for the team, but not, it turned
The client was the Director of a purchasing out, what the client wanted.
department in a large multi-national company.
Her team was undergoing a big structural We took a few lessons from this experience.
change, making the transition from a collection It is vital that you are clear about what the client
of business units spread across the globe to a wants to get out of the experience. They must
unified system. know that you will not be making decisions
We took great care to prepare the session. We for them. Corporate clients can be used to
managed expectations about the process and consultants; people who will interpret their
method, and used LEGO® in pre-meetings to problems and then sell them a solution.
gather requirements and share understanding The great thing about LEGO® Serious Play®
of what we were going to do. is that it completely subverts that process, but
We agreed the session was to help the be prepared to address the gap in expectations
management team to rethink their position that this creates.
within this system and set out a new way of Before you start, make sure you have a
working that would carry them forward. Exactly complete mutual understanding of the
the type of scenario a LEGO® Serious Play® objectives and you will save yourself a rather
Workshop can make a positive impact on. painful workshop experience.

220
Kristina Nyzell else and take turns in playing and learning
from each other) and Collaborative Group Play
 @disruptiveplay (where the brick is used within a community to
Specialties: co-create, collaborate and co-innovate to solve
Strategy & Innovation sticky problems).
Stealth Learning
There is so much scope to play, so my advice to
Dialogue Partner
people working with LEGO® Serious Play® is:

Play. With LEGO® Serious Play® 1. Build your own personal community of
trainers, coaches, mentors, sparring partners,
The same four things that I enjoyed doing as client ambassadors, former workshop
a child, I still enjoy now. I enjoy playing sports, participants, critics and workshop collaborators.
playing music, using creative material to Work together to create workshops that have
build something to solve problems and create an impact and that help to solve the challenges
communities with which I share my passions humanity is currently facing. Think big and think
and joys in life. outside the box. LEGO® Serious Play® is a
clever tool that has the power to unlock system
The difference between children’s play and level challenges.
Serious Play® can be boiled down to a few
things: the type of questions we ask ourselves, 2. Collaborate, co-create and co-innovate
the size, scope, risk and impact of the game as to grow sales opportunities, co-develop
well as the complexity of the rules of the game proposals and co-deliver LEGO® Serious Play®
itself. Ceteris Paribus (all other things being programs. Share the rewards, reflect on what
equal). The game process itself remains the went well and not so well and continuously
same regardless of what kind of play we do. learn and share learning with your trusted
community. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
There are many types of play, including Tool
Play (where we learn to master the brick 3. Grow the methodology by tinkering with
and the building system), Imaginary and it. Combine and recombine it with other
Metaphorical Play (where we imagine the brick game-based learning methodologies and
to be something other than a brick and use academic disciplines. Don’t be afraid to
metaphors to put words to what is not yet fully experiment, for you may have the idea that
understood or known to us), Rule Play and takes the whole system to the next level.
Role Play (where we begin to use the brick and
the building system together with someone For me, the spirit of LEGO® Serious Play® is
community, collaboration and play.
222 223
Other Practical Tips Cut the waffle Learn from our mistakes
Marko's tips for share and reflection time
'Waffle.' Verb. To talk or write a lot
How to manage time without giving any useful information
So far in this book we've already covered
One of the biggest challenges for some mistakes we've made (see poor clarity of
Facilitate the people, not the process or any clear answers. any facilitation situation is to plan objectives (page 65)), and poor question design
adequate time for sharing stories and (page 64).
Meeting and workshop facilitation is not about Its easy to loose time due to waffle, especially
reflecting upon the results. I still tend to
driving a process. For a book that has dedicated waffle that is off topic. As facilitators are not It's interesting to note that our book partners
under-estimate share and reflection time.
many pages to describing and narrating plans it involved in the content, it is easier for them also highlighted these risks. Eli de Friend's third
might seem like a planned process is primary. to pay attention to drifting topics and ask the tip was to establish the real objectives, and
Share time seems to depend upon three
individual or group if this is the time to be Oliver Knapman paid the price of not having
main conditions. Firstly, cultural norms.
In fact, skilled facilitation is all about dealing with that off topic issue. clear objectives with his client.
People in Germany and Switzerland
facilitating the people, not the Sometimes some people can take a long time tend to be faster than people in Nordic As Part 2 of this book is all about trying to
process. to make a simple point (or no point at all), so countries. Participants from Italy are more establish clear objectives, it could be worth
we sometimes use sticky notes or gridcards to talkative than people from India. Share another read.
Facilitation notes and workshop plans should ask people to summarise ideas. With a marker time also seems related to the phase of
be used as a guide, rather than a fixed map. or fat pen you can only get 20 words on a development of the team. Teams at an Two final mistakes we'd like to share so you
Experienced facilitators prepare detailed plans, card. Ask people to use the 'one gridcard rule' early phase of development seem to don't have to learn the hard way.
and are prepared to abandon or change the spend a greater amount of time sharing
plan in-the-moment if the process in no longer than those who are already 'performing.' Rooms that are too small
meeting the needs of the group in that moment.
Small, hot and cramped rooms make people hot
Share time also depends on company
Use facilitation notes as a guide and bothered. Sean made this mistake once and
culture and the habits of participants.
the participants were revolting.
Some participants are results and
Sometimes some things you expect to be short
objective oriented, whilst others take their Well not quite that bad, but as Winston
take longer, sometimes longer planned activities
time to contemplate and debate. Share Churchill, the British politician said in a speech
are completed remarkably quickly.
and reflect time depends on context, in the House of Commons on October 28, 1944,
We often write the real start and finish time dynamics and topic. Use the planning
on a paper print out of the facilitation notes stage to plan time allocation that fits the 'We shape our buildings, and
and adjust timings as workshops proceed norms of the group. afterwards, they shape us."
to ensure we don't suddenly arrive at the
end of the workshop with only half the plan To regulate 'share time,' try controlling Pay attention to the room or space that you
When participants can only read out the words the size of the group. Small groups are intend to work in before your workshop begins.
completed. You'll loose and gain some time as
on the cards it is easy to hear the key ideas, but faster. Consider asking participants to
the workshop unfolds.
briefly! summarise ideas on sticky-notes or
224 gridcards. 225
Insufficient set up time is random, so a random distribution of bricks is
no bad thing.
You want a calm and collected mind at the
outset of a workshop, so give yourself more Let there be order
time that you think you need to set a workshop
up. The worst that will happen is you'll have an For smaller workshops Sean uses the one big
extra 15 minutes to be calm and collected. pile approach and selects bricks from his big
brick box (page 81).

The bricks - how store them For multi-day workshops at Build Levels 2:
Shared Models and Build Level 3: System
If you don't have a huge pile of bricks to deal Models it can be helpful to have an ordered
with, it might seem odd to be reading about approach.
something as basic as storing bricks. Once you
have a growing set, however, you might find Build levels 2 and 3 use specific bricks for
yourself vexing over the brick storage question. specific purposes: Baseplates for building
shared models, flags for identification
Firstly we are sure there is no 'right' way. You'll of priorities and special rigid and flexible
find a solution that works for you. There do, connections to build system models. It's best to
however, seem to be two ends of the storage keep those separate.
philosophy, from:
If someone is looking for a key, a
One big pile <<<>>> Neatly ordered and stored
magnifying glass, a rocket pod,
One big pile money, a diamond, or a shark to
A LEGO® Serious Play® Facilitator friend of
tell the story the have in mind, its
ours embraces the 'one big pile' idea. Jane has easier to locate these bricks if they
a big wheelie case that contains all her bricks, are compartmentalised, not just
plus a few random objects. hopefully in the pile somewhere.
Depending on the workshop setting she makes The plastic trays that come with the Landscape
one big pile or several small piles of which ever and Identity Kits and Connections Kits are not
bricks randomly appear. great for travel. The clip close trays shown on
page 227 (with lids removed) make transport of
The benefit of this approach is not needing to organised bricks very easy. Another good tip is
spend time sorting bricks and as Jane says, life to buy a good quality, large wheelie bag!
226 227
Serious LEGO® Movies In both options there is a skill
required in operating the camera
The visual nature of LEGO® is one its strengths.
People are better able to remember ideas that
to make sure the camera doesn’t
have been communicated with models than shake, that you record the right
ideas shared verbally only. part of the model, and the picture is
sharp and the audio clear.
As you have seen in part 5, the models can be
used on posters and other assets to keep the Unskilled camera operators create shaky
ideas alive after the workshop. videos that makes people feel ill when they
watch the screen and the video is not so usable
Video is another way to remember what was afterwards.
built and what the models meant.
You also need to ask everyone in the room to be
When you video each story and project it on to quiet so you can record good quality audio.
a big screen, the whole room can see the ideas.

This is helpful in larger meetings or workshops

If you upload video's to YouTube
to help share ideas, either to a larger group or afterwards you can share them with
from one table with another table. If you also workshop participants via a private
record these videos you have the key ideas on link, and YouTube can remove
film forever more. camera shake and enhance lighting
WebCam or WiFi for you if the videos were not as
good as you hoped for.
A technically easy solution is to use an external
USB webcam with a 10m extension cable If you plan to record videos, allow at least
plugged into a laptop that is connected to a another 20 minutes for set up and take many
projector. kinds of connectors and cables with you to
cover all options. Note some wi-fi networks
Another option is to connect a mobile phone don't like video transmission. For that reason we
to a wireless network via an Apple TV that is now take our own wi-fi hub.
connected to the projector.
See example videos
This has the advantage of less cables. The
photo on page 229 shows this set-up. We have put a selection of videos taken from
workshops at: serious.global/videos.
228
Part 7

Becoming a virtuoso
practitioner
OR THE ALTERNATIVE SUBTITLE IS:
"WITH CONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE"

230 231
Imagine you want to abseil. You could read a how-to
book about that.

Reading this wouldn't make you able to abseil safely

or competently.

To really understand how to abseil you'd need a

helping hand from a wise teacher who knows how to
tie knots and can guide you in real world practice.

Some 'hands-on' skills are best acquired by

'hands-on' doing.
Part 7: Becoming a We suggest that readers who have not
experienced LEGO® Serious Play® might have
virtuoso practitioner been at Stage 1 of the Competence Matrix as
they began reading this book.
Stage 1 Stage22
Stage
The objective of this chapter is to Most people who have read the whole book
outline three paths to becoming a attentively might now be at Stage 2 (some
readers, already skilled in facilitating hands on UNCONSCIOUS CONSCIOUS
CONSCIOUS
skilled facilitator processes might feel they are now at Stage 3).
INCOMPETENCE INCOMPETENCE
INCOMPETENCE
Some skills can only be mastered though doing. User testing of early drafts of this book
So called 'experiential knowledge' is the only suggested that reading alone was not enough
way to learn how to competently perform some to skilfully facilitate (get to Stage 3) and there
You're unaware of the You'reaware
You're awareofofthe
the
hands-on things in practice. How-to books like maybe some facilitators, including our teachers,
this one offer 'propositional knowledge.' who might think it's folly to produce a 'how-to' skill and your lack of skilland
skill andyour
yourlack
lackofof
book to try and teach such a hands-on process.
proficiency proficiency
proficiency
You could read as many books as you like about
how to drive a car, perform CPR (cardiopul- We had two objectives in writing
monary resuscitation; 'the kiss of life') or abseil, this book: to enable you to
but this alone would not make you able to do
these things safely or competently without real
understand how to facilitate
world practice and help from a wise teacher. LEGO® Serious Play® based
meetings and workshops, with a
'Propositional knowledge,'which is Stage 4 Stage 3
deeper purpose to help legitimise a
the kind of knowledge you get from brilliant and powerful method.
reading a book, can at best make
aware practitioners consciously Explaining how things work makes some UNCONSCIOUS CONSCIOUS
incompetent.
people interested to learn more. That is what
we hope this book has done. We hope it has
COMPETENCE COMPETENCE
helped you understand enough that you'd be
This book has an alternative subtitle, "with
interested to want to learn more.
conscious incompetence" because to become
a competent LEGO® Serious Play® Facilitator, Performing the You can use the
And we hope that by explaining the LEGO®
or even a virtuoso facilitator, you'll need to learn Serious Play® process it has gone some way to skill becomes automatic skill but only with effort
by doing. legitimising what we know to be a brilliant and
powerful method.
234
With luck, we might have made some progress Learn from your practice LEGO® Serious Play® MeetUps
towards achieving the two objectives in your Questions you might ask after
mind. With any test session, including one-to-ones your first meeting or workshop
ensures you evaluate your performance. might include:
Three practice paths
Be wise On a scale 1 to 5 (5 being high) how
There are three obvious routes to developing would you rate the workshop?
your LEGO® Serious Play® skills. You would indeed be wise to include a learning
review of some kind after each of your practice What needed to happen to be a 5?
1. Practice the ideas alone. sessions.
2. Experience the process with a trained What, if anything, was unclear or
This will be a chance for you to workout what confusing?
facilitator. went well, but more importantly get some
3. Participate in a training program. feedback on what could have gone better. If we did the workshop/session again,
what small thing would you change to
You might find a combination of these paths to Make it OK for people to be honest in their make it (even) better? 'MeetUp is an online social networking portal
be the best way to develop your skills. feedback. In groups, spoken feedback tends to that facilitates offline group meetings in various
norm to what others have already said, which What could I have done better? localities around the world. MeetUp allows
limits the range of useful feedback. You might
1. Practice the ideas alone consider putting the questions opposite on a How effective was the session in
members to find and join groups unified by a
common interest.'1
feedback sheet to get BRIEF written answers. achieving the objectives?
This book has been written with the intention
We founded the LEGO® Serious Play®
of enabling you to develop your Build Level 1: Where (if anywhere) did I look like I was MeetUps in London in 2014 and encouraged
Individual Model Building skills alone.
2. Experience the process with a struggling (in my facilitation)? our peers to set up LEGO® Serious Play®
We encourage you to find, or create a low-risk trained facilitator What strengths did you experience using
MeetUps in other cities and countries.
and friendly environment to: LEGO® Serious Play®?
A great way to get experiential learning is by There are now over 40 all over the world.
- practice a goal setting meeting. being a participant in a workshop run by a What weaknesses did you experience www.meetup.com
trained LEGO® Serious Play® Facilitator. using LEGO® Serious Play®?
- try a Skills Build workshop.
Be aware that there is no quality control;
You can both experience some of the ideas in Is there anything else you'd like to tell
Before then setting up a safe space to explore we know of some LEGO® Serious Play®
this book (no doubt with sightly different twists me?
a topic that is important to your group or MeetUp's that are run by people who have not
and emphasises) and observe a facilitator in
organisation. undertaken LEGO® Serious Play® training
action. Sometimes you'll get better feedback if
courses. LEGO® MeetUps are not meant to
it's written, but don't leave it until later. If
You might buy some bricks and try some of the If you live in a country or city where LEGO® you plan to get feedback, allow 5 minutes be sales pitches, so best to read reviews of
simpler exercises and see how you get on. Serious Play® MeetUps happen its a great way at the end of the allotted time. MeetUp's before signing up.
236 to learn more. 1. From Wikipedia 237
@legomeetup @legomeetup
Playcamps and conferences Learn the skills you need
Facilitation of Build Level 1: Individual Models
Another way to experience LEGO® Serious enables you to enhance communication on any
Play® is at conferences. The Agile Community issue, unlock learning, set goals, offer feedback,
has picked up on LEGO® Serious Play® so you mentor or coach. You can facilitate many kinds
might find opportunities to attend a session of meetings with just this Build Level.
www.playcamp.net.
However, if you need to help teams create
If you are organising the kind of conference
common understanding on shared concerns
where people exchange practices, you could
like team vision, you'll need to understand
consider inviting a LEGO® Serious Play®
how to facilitate Build Level 2: Shared Model
Facilitator to run a session. If you live in the
Building.
same city as the contributors of this book,
consider asking one of us to come and run a
Remember this book has focussed on Build
workshop.
Level 1 facilitation techniques. This is the
foundation of all LEGO® Serious Play®
3. LEGO® Serious Play® Training meetings and workshops, and you can do a lot
Training programmes are a recommend route to with Level One.
learning more, especially for professionals who
spend their lives helping people work together. There are longer and shorter training offers
available on the market from which you can
choose the most appropriate.
If you are considering taking a
LEGO® Serious Play® Facilitator We advise that it's worth being clear about
Training Course, ask: What kind of what you think you might want to facilitate
meetings, workshops, projects or before deciding on what kind of training course
applications do I plan to facilitate? might serve your needs.

Assess what you plan to facilitate Once you are clear about what type
A good way to assess the kind of training you of meeting you want to facilitate,
need is to consider the applications or kinds of head to www.serious.global/
meeting or workshop you'll lead or facilitate. learn to learn to find information on
There is a table on the pages that follow that
might help you assess the kinds of skills you
training options.
A happy Justin during a Serious Work Level 1: might need for different applications.
Individual Model Building Training Workshop 241
Considering training? Ask, what do I want to facilitate? ... then what level of LEGO® Serious Play® skills do I need?
The kinds of skills you'll need for different jobs or responsibilities.

Scenarios LEGO® Serious Play® Advanced Skills

BUILD LEVEL 3 Build Level 3: System Modelling
Strategy System Models
Create and use scenarios to explore dynamic systems and 'real time strategy.'
Understand, change and develop simple guiding principles. Model, analyse and
redesign processes and systems. Understand how external and internal factors
Vision influence goals.

BUILD LEVEL 2
Innovation Shared Models LEGO® Serious Play® Intermediate Skills
Build Level 2: Shared Model Building

Team Building Create common understanding on shared concerns. Develop shared vision
and goals, shared direction, plans, strategies and mental models. Build teams,
design new services and innovate. Use LEGO® Serious Play® to create deeper
agreement processes.
Idea Development BUILD LEVEL 1
Individual Models
LEGO® Serious Play® Core Foundation Skills
Values & Behaviours Build Level 1: Individual Model Building

Enhance communication on any issue. Develop ideas and build trust. Manage
Coaching staff, set goals and offer feedback. Mentor and coach. Explore and agree values
and behaviours. Unlock both individual and group communication and learning on
any topic.

242 243
Read More So much more
Books It has been a fun experience writing and
designing this book, and yet it only really
At time of going to press with this book there scratches the surface of the LEGO® Serious
is only one other book written about LEGO® Play® world.
Serious Play®.
There is so much more that has been unsaid in
Building Better Business Using the LEGO® this book. LEGO® Serious Play® has incredible
Serious Play® Method, published by Wiley, power at the higher build levels and as the
sets out the history, territory and science that method grows and combines with other brilliant
underpins LEGO® Serious Play®, and provides processes its potential as a tool expands.
some brief case studies.
We hope this book helps contribute
If you would like to know more about the
to the inevitable evolution and
Learn more: history, development, science and context of
LEGO® Serious Play®, it's a good read. development of LEGO® Serious

serious.global/learn
Play® practice and pedagogy.
Case studies

There are a growing number of case studies of Connect

LEGO® Serious Play® in use in a wide range of
applications on the ProMeet website: If you'd like to connect, you can find us here:

meeting-facilitation.co.uk/lego-serious Serious Work

-play-london  @SeriousWrk
[email protected]
Join an online community
Sean Blair
A great place to go to read case studies, post
 @ProMeetings
questions, and learn more is SeriousPlay-
Pro. Whilst there are a couple of other online  https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sean-blair
communities for LEGO® Serious Play®, the
best and most active is SeriousPlayPro.com. Marko Rillo
 @MarkoRillo
 @SeriousPlayPro
 https://ee.linkedin.com/in/markorillo
245
Final word
Thank you for reading this book. We hope you Thirdly there is the knowledge from the heart
enjoyed it. that soars or aches with people we love.

We started this book with a hypothetical Finally, there is knowledge of the spirit or soul.
foreword from the future. In our vision we
sincerely hope to see that LEGO® Serious LEGO® Serious Play® for its brilliance appeals
Play® will eventually become as common as a to knowledge of the brain and body. Knowledge
flip-chart and markers. We hope to see LEGO® of the heart and soul is more difficult to touch
Serious Play® applied to businesses and with a plastic cuboid. Yet, combining LEGO®
schools, as well as taken up by coaches and Serious Play® with deeper human-to-human
councillors. We also hope that it will become interaction helps to create a dialogue and reveal
a tool used by a new generation of leaders; insights into the kind of insight LEGO® system
leaders who value participation and who preach models can reveal. Insight that can touch our
and practice a facilitative mind-set. feelings and enrich our spirits - now that’s a
tantalizing prospect.
We live in challenging times.
What if we could all become better and more
Humanity has not yet learnt how to live in participatory leaders and use the systems
peace with each other, or in harmony with the power of LEGO® Serious Play® to generate
incredible planet Earth we are so very lucky more meaningful, deeper and sustainable
to call home. One of the biggest underlying world-views and ideas. Then we could indeed
challenges is to truly and deeply understand come to a situation where LEGO could turn into
each other and to change the way we perceive a serious tool that saved the world.
the complexities we face.
A fanciful vision?
We think that humans have four type of
knowledge. Maybe, just maybe!

First is the dominant mode of knowledge, which

is with our thoughts and mind. Hey brain! You
sure do think you rule the game.

Then there is knowledge from our bodies, such

 @seriouswrk
as feelings, intuition and wise hands.

247
WWW.SERIOUS.GLOBAL

PUBLISHED BY PROMEET
e-Book

ISBN 978-0-9956647-1-5