At its core, LEGO® SERIOUS® PLAY® is about solving complex issues by building models using LEGO® bricks.

It is a facilitated all-inclusive process based on questions (building challenges), to which participants respond by building their three-dimensional LEGO® models. The metaphors in the models serve as the basis for knowledge sharing and problem-solving and help foster creative thinking and finding unique solutions.

The methodology is based on a robust set of theories originally developed by the LEGO Group. Building upon the inclusive and participatory nature of the LEGO System, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® rejects the idea that external ‘experts’ must be brought in to identify problems, and propose solutions; on the contrary, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® begins with the assumption that the answers are ‘already in the room’, and invites participants to ‘think with their hands’ to build their understandings.

It's called serious play because in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshops you're always playing with the purpose to develop new knowledge. There's a clear goal in your playing and though it can be fun, you play to find solutions to complex issues.

In short - the process of building and collaborating often produces insights that simply would not have appeared in regular discussions.

The creative, reflective process of making something prompts the brain to work differently and can unlock new perspectives. Research has shown that the process of making something, which is then discussed, can lead to much more valuable, insightful, and honest discussions. The idea that we need to ‘think with the body’ has gained support from a convergence of new evidence from psychology and neuroscience. These theories emphasize that cognitive processes such as learning and memory are strongly influenced by the way we use our bodies to interact with the physical world. These processes are supported by the use of LEGO bricks, because when a system has an inherent logic, and a set of constraints that can be grasped, it can support endless possibilities. It is easy to pick up and yet enables development, experimentation, and expansion. Our mental work is helped by being able to build visual reminders of different significant aspects of a problem. Neuroscientific researchers have called this ‘reduction of workload’ – reducing the number of things the brain has to deal with at once by off-loading the meanings into visible and tangible objects.

It is an excellent tool for externalizing participants’ reflections. The term ‘externalizing’ describes how the thoughts participants share during the process are distanced from the person because they are built as LEGO models. Externalizing individual reflections in this way distances them from the individual, making it easier to explore the reflections without challenging the person who expressed them. At the same time, the LEGO® models (as physical representations) help anchor what has been said during the process, which makes dialogue and subsequent reflection flow better between the individual and the group. If a discussion has gone off on a tangent, externalization provides the perfect method for getting it back on track, by leading the discussion back to the physical models in front of the participants and what they can ‘read’ from them.

Its history begins in 1995 when the family-owned LEGO® company was led by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, the grand child of the founder. Kjeld Kristiansen was dissatisfied with the results of the company’s strategy-building sessions. While his business was about imagination, the results from these sessions were decidedly unimaginative. Kristiansen connected with Johan Roos and Bart Victor - the two professors from IMD business school and over the next couple of years they practiced their strategy concept using LEGO bricks instead of the usual methods.

In 1999 Robert Rasmussen - director of product development for the educational market at LEGO® - started to systematically investigate the feasibility of using LEGO® bricks for strategy development. He realized that the concepts could be more than just theory and his work moved into developing an actual method - reproducible and robust.

In 2002, this work resulted in the launch of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method. From 2005 to 2007 Robert further developed and expanded the original version into a methodology that enables the facilitator to design customized workshops for a wide range of applications and varying complexity. He did this by creating a modular system consisting of a 4 step Core Process and 7 Application Techniques.

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is a tool that can be used in a wide range of contexts. Unsurprisingly, however, its use is more appropriate in some situations than in others. It works best if your challenge is complex and you can accept that there might be various good answers to your challenge. Choose LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® when you need everyone in your team to contribute their knowledge and opinions equitably and openly and when you're looking for a method that enables deeply honest dialog and collaborative communication.

It is best suited to:

• Team building, when a group of people works together (but do not necessarily know each other very well)
• Working out the best solution to a shared problem
• Strategy development, where all relevant individuals get the opportunity to contribute their vision of the aims and challenges and consolidate these with the ideas of others
• Creating a shared mindset about something
• Understanding each other’s points of view on a deeper level
• Having effective and constructive discussions where everybody is heard
• Unleashing creative thinking

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® has been used at companies worldwide as an innovative way to increase the commitment, confidence, and insight of their executives, managers, and employees. It has been used for a broad range of purposes, including:

• Strategy development and exploration – examining and evaluating relations to external partners and clients.

• Organizational development – for management, teams, and individual employees.

• Innovation and product development – unleashing creative thinking and transforming ideas into concrete concepts.

• Change management – facilitating and implementing structural and cultural changes and mergers.

Experience also shows great relevance of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method in other areas such as scenario development and testing, mergers and acquisitions, branding, leadership and team development, turnaround and restructuring, market entry, operational efficiency, and competitive analysis.

The truth is, there are as many possible applications of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method as you can imagine. After the initial interview, together with your facilitator, you will decide on the exact topic which will best serve the needs of your team. There are never two identical LEGO SERIOUS PLAY workshops.

There are four basic phases of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® process.

Phase 1: The Challenge, in which the facilitator poses the building challenge to the participants;

Phase 2: Building, in which the participants build a LEGO® model representing their reflections on the building challenge;

Phase 3: Sharing, in which the participants share the meaning and the story that they have assigned to their models;

Phase 4: Reflecting, in which the participants reflect more and share more about their thoughts and ideas with each other.

This sequence – challenge, then building, then sharing and reflecting – is repeated several times in any LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® session.

Building a process with several consecutive building challenges that form layers often works well to move teams on in their exploration and learning. Questions forming layers are questions that move from one level of reflection to another. The aim of constructing several layers into building tasks is that several ‘rounds’ of reflection on the same theme from a variety of perspectives will expand the scope of participants’ reflections and produce a more nuanced dialogue.

It depends on the details. The workshops can take as little as 4 hours or be as thorough as two days. The rates differ for corporate clients, individuals, SMEs, Education, NGOs and are arranged independently. I am open to pro-bono work in not-for-profit areas.

A LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop typically involves four to ten people. Groups of more than ten tend to be too big and the process of going around the table hearing about constructions might become tiresome (or might put pressure on individuals to speed up), and can make it difficult for participants to remember all of the meanings and stories.

It is possible though to use the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method to coach someone in private or to have a session with a couple about their relationship goals. It is also ok to present the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method to a broader audience (at a conference or a lecture), as long as all the participants can be equipped with some LEGO® bricks to play with. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is very versatile and the applications have by far exceeded the initial intentions.

Note that one workshop group requires one facilitator. It is not possible to facilitate two groups ‘side by side’ (for example, two tables, each with eight participants, in the same room) because each group would need focused attention from the facilitator, at the same time – so this is not possible. Please let me know if your team might need more than one facilitator and I'll work out a solution for you.

A LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop typically takes at least one day. At its shortest, a LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop takes three or four hours. Unsurprisingly – as time is tight in business, and everywhere else – efforts have been made, over the years, to reduce the length of time that LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® takes. But it has been found that shorter workshops are ones of significantly lower quality. If a facilitator was to leave out the skills-building exercises and leap straight into a complex task and encourage participants to race through it quickly – this is simply not effective

The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator has the task of planning the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® process. In advance, they need to prepare building challenges relevant to the particular workshop.

Facilitation is the process of helping people to explore, learn and develop. The facilitator’s main task is to help the participants express themselves, listen to each other, and take each others’ reflections into account.

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshops should always be run through facilitation. Facilitating a LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop is a skill and a craft and prescribes a certain way of handling the process which is taught during the certification courses.

The fundamental meaning of the word ‘facilitation’ is, ‘making something (difficult) easier’. The facilitator’s task is to get the group’s dialogue to serve its purpose and make the participants capable of expressing the
reflections and ideas that are needed for the group to reach their goal (for example, to resolve their issue, to plan their strategy, or to implement company values). The role of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator is, therefore, to make the reflection and dialogue processes easier.

There are several reasons why LEGO bricks are particularly well suited to this kind of process. The material makes it easy for participants to put together satisfying models which represent something that they wish to communicate. They do not need significant technical skills; the LEGO System is familiar to many, and even if they have not used LEGO bricks before, most people find it quite easy to build meaningful constructions.

Random LEGO is fine, but there are special sets designed by LEGO that are better for LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshops. They provide a great mix of pieces to help promote the creativity and insights the method is capable of bringing out. The LEGO® sets developed for LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® processes are recommended as ideal for this purpose, as they contain many different pieces, shapes, animals, and other useful parts. It has been found that using only the most basic rectangular bricks can be frustrating for participants, who do not necessarily want a difficult building challenge. Instead, animals, flags, minifigures, domes, and a wide range of other attractive shapes make it easy for people to pick out metaphorical elements.

You can buy LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® sets from me or directly from the  LEGO.com website . You can also rent them from me if you prefer to choose a more economical solution instead. I will be happy to chat with you about the options and make recommendations for what will best serve your team.

No, you're set. But if you wish, you can choose some fun additional LEGO® accessories to make the experience even more special. Surprise your team with a gift, check out our LEGO notebooks, pens, storage, and many more exciting LEGO® gadgets in the STORE.