I must confess that I’ve sucked up LEGO® with the vacuum cleaner more often than I’ve played with it. That was until I heard about LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and wanted to learn more about the ‘hand-brain connection.’ About the power of play and the remarkable results it can achieve in business. Whenever I mentioned it in the past ten months, every architect immediately embraced this idea. Now, I’ve achieved my goal: I am a certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator!
But LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is not just a game. It’s about thought processes and challenges, about developing innovations and strategies, enabling new insights, and fostering the imagination of each individual. And all of this happens in real-time. With selected LEGO® bricks, hands can model what the mind has yet to fully understand. The quote from organizational theorist Karl Weick sums it up:
‘How can I know what I think until I see what I say?’
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® aligns perfectly with my coaching ethos. While coaching processes challenge thinking with concise questions, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® involves hands that, like search engines, provide impulses to the brain and support the thinking process. The stories told through the model bring more clarity, aid in decision-making, and promote effective meetings. I’m passionate about the combination of creativity and efficiency.
What I appreciate about LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®?
1. With LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, the focus of communication is clearly directed to the table. It’s not the kind of meeting where half the team leans back comfortably, distracts themselves with smartphones, or doodles aimlessly. Instead, it’s the type of meeting where everyone contributes, has their hands on the table, and the focus is on the model.
2. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® combines different forms of communication – kinesthetic (model building), visual (looking at the model), and auditory (telling the story). This combination helps communicate more effectively and eliminates misunderstandings. For a visual industry like architecture, this makes even more sense.
3. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® operates on various levels. Who in your team rarely or never participates, and who always dominates the conversation? It doesn’t matter if you’re the director or the apprentice, the architect or the engineer; LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® demands participation and communication from everyone.
4. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® enables a collective understanding and fosters a shared vision. At the end of the process, the team is bound by their commitment and jointly defined conditions for future discussions and decision-making. No more ‘No, I never agreed to that’ meetings.
5. It’s fun.
I’m convinced that the business of architecture needs some serious play, and LEGO® is the perfect medium for it.
Zur Autorin:
Karen Fugle (London) ist dipl. Personal & Business Coach und zertifizierter LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator.
Sie arbeitet mit Architekten, Innenarchitekten, AEC-Anbietern und mit deren Organisationen.
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