Facilitating across borders with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

You never know exactly what to expect when you put something new in front of a live audience. So I brought a blend of nervous excitement into the room with me when I recently joined my friend and frequent collaborator Jennifer Hart to co-facilitate LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® sessions for two very different groups in short order.

In an LSP session, facilitators get the participants comfortable using LEGO – including longtime enthusiasts and those who have never touched a brick. We instruct the group to build models of growing complexity, and encourage everyone to explain the significance of what they have built. Then, the participants form connections among their models and tell the stories of those connections.

The first session was with an HR team for a federal agency, in DC just a few miles from home. This group was normally spread throughout the country and was gathering for their annual offsite. 

The following week, I was on my second-ever international work trip and in front of an LSP session for a global team in Singapore! (We’ll put aside my temptation to be a travel writer here and focus on the workshop.)

One engagement had a round trip of less than 20 miles, the other about 20,000. The participants in one room were describing issues, people, acronyms that the participants in the second room wouldn’t have understood. But a silent video would show both groups side by side looking very similarly. Both had diligence, thoughtfulness and a whole lot of laughter!

Here’s what I noticed:

1. LSP gets the participants out of their heads.

Build first, think later. This is the LSP way. Sometimes our hands gravitate toward a collection of bricks or a structure before our conscious minds can catch up. This can bring forward a novel way of looking at a situation, very differently from the standard mode of standing in front of a flipchart.

2. LSP cuts across sectors of the economy, cultures and nationalities.

It was public sector one week, private sector the next. The Singapore group included at least half a dozen nationalities, with about half participating in person and half virtually. Their LSP work helped cement a team identity for all, inclusive of every nation or language of origin. 

3. LSP creates a lasting impression.

When we laid out the rules of engagement in Singapore, Jennifer was quick to point out that our session was a no-judgment zone. We were thinking and acting in metaphor. She held up a gray wheel and said, “In this space, if I say this is a duck, it’s a duck.”

One of the participants told us days later that “If I say this is a duck, it’s a duck,” had become part of the office lingo!

Why it matters

To me, LSP is a nifty set of techniques for helping a team get to know themselves and each other very quickly – leaving everyone with a shared experience and a shorthand they get to call on in the future.

Want to learn more about building connections with LSP? Let’s get in touch!