What is the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method?
First of all, for explaining what the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method is and what it can deliver, we have to clarify what it is NOT:
- - It is not frivolous play with LEGO® bricks;
- - It is not just another team building game from another consultancy company;
- - It is not the next 'Kicker' (soccer table) in the office;
- - It is not a break from work;
LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is playing with an explicit purpose and that means hard work.
The method can be used to find unknown answers to a problem or to empower participants to create a robust business strategy.
LEGO SERIOUS PLAY relies on the concept of “hand knowledge”, meaning that our hands know more than we realize, and guided construction with LEGO bricks gives us access to this knowledge. This concept in inherited from our own experiments, as children, when hands-on interactions was our way to learn from the world.
Participants have to be in the flow, meaning being challenged enough but not too much, in order to unlock the hidden knowledge and to be able to solve the given problem.
What is the role of a facilitator?
LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is a facilitated process, and the results and sustainable impact of a workshop are directly tied to the quality of the facilitation. It requires a high quality of facilitation to deliver full value.
I have been trained by the Association of Master Trainers in the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method, created by Per Kristiansen and Robert Rasmussen, who have been driving the development of the method when working for the LEGO group. The Association regroups today more than 13.000 trained facilitators worldwide.
My role, as a facilitator, is first to design and create unique workshops based on the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method in order to answer to the specific challenges of my clients. I'm not bringing the solution to the problem, I'm rather making it possible for the solution to arise from the workshop participants interactions. This approach empowers the participants by giving a sense of ownership on the solution, and a deeper and more sustainable commitment.
What does it mean to be a facilitator of the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method?
While designing and facilitating a workshop based on the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method, the facilitator has several responsibilities in order to bring the full value of the method to the participants.
The LEGO SERIOUS PLAY facilitator isn't bringing a solution to a problem but rather makes it possible for the solution to arise from the interactions of workshops participants. The facilitator achieves this by designing the specific workshop which enables the participants to find the solution of their problem. This approach empowers the participants by giving a sense of ownership on the solution, and a deeper and more sustainable commitment. The facilitator role isn't that of a consultant, or a coach, who already knows the answer.
To bring the full value of the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method, the facilitator first has to create a clean and safe space in order to ensure that everybody in the room has a voice and an opinion worth being heard and understood by all others. The facilitator ensures this space is respected and preserved by all participants throughout the whole workshop.
In the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY process, everyone builds an individual model, shares its meaning, and expresses one's own insights. When all the participants then build a shared model, they have to ensure that no important facet of each personal contribution is forgotten, unless there is some redundancy. This contributes to each one identifying oneself more with the result and, when decisions are taken, this leads to a longer-lasting and more sincere commitment from everyone. In these steps of the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY process, the facilitator is going to adopt several facilitating styles to ensure the objectives are reached.
The questions asked by the facilitator during the workshop are both open, so that there is no one obvious unique answer, and challenging, so that new insights can emerge from the individual models built as answers by the participants. The art and quality of the facilitator lies in crafting the most appropriate questions to guide the participants and in being ready to explore new tracks resulting from the revealing of new insights.
As a Project Manager, why should I use the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method?
The start of a new project can sometimes be a delicate phase: people might have different understandings of the objectives, different expectations, or a different sense of complexity. There might be a lot of uncertainty.
Some people might see the project as an opportunity to prove their capabilities: they involve themselves strongly, or they try to take over the lead. Some others might be a little bit reluctant to get involved: they lean backward and wait for decisions to be taken for themselves.
These reasons, among others, can cause the project to be delayed, or worse, to fail.
What brings the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method in this context?
The LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method is a facilitated thinking, communication and problem solving technique. It changes “lean backward” meetings with only 20% participation into “lean forward” with 100% contribution: everyone constructs one own perspective and expresses one own insights. All the knowledge in the room is collected. Everyone is given a voice.
The method goes further with the construction of a shared model where the important facets of each personal contribution are incorporated. The process is inclusive: everyone participates in reaching consensus, no one is let aside.
When decisions are taken, this process leads to longer-lasting and more sincere commitment from everyone.
To our project manager colleagues: are you convinced?