Lego Serious Play

Workshop on Lego Serious Play demonstrates the efficacy of quick and playful making

Where? Design storm Lego serious play workshop organized by NASSCOM Design4India, held at WeWork, Embassy Golf Links Business Park, Bengaluru on 3rd December 2019. 

Brown (2010, 101) states that “play is like fertilizer for brain growth. It’s crazy not to use it.” While this is widely recognised especially for children, play is still often dismissed as a valuable learning and development strategy for adults.

Storytelling is a natural instinct, form Tralee to Timbuktu, with Shanachies and Griots. It natural for people to share experiences via stories, making them more memorable. This happens in an LSP workshop too, individuals quickly move from describing their models in a mechanistic way and turn to storytelling as this is the way we communicate and engage the attention of our audience. Moon (2010) notes that stories are powerful for the storyteller and the listeners and are important vehicles for reflection, sharing of messages, creating opportunities for conversation and learning as well as enabling us to connect emotionally with the stories and their creators.

The LSP process

The LSP method is premised on the idea that the solution is in the system, it encourages everybody to participate actively and become part of that solution. Everybody has a voice and shares their thoughts, reflections, ideas and feelings, to move the collective forward and become the solution to a specific problem or intervention through building LEGO® models. The models and their metaphorical meanings are owned by their creators and the creativity in expression has nothing to do with the representation of an idea from an artistic standpoint. There is no right or wrong way of doing it. Each participant is unique and expresses themselves in unique ways.

The LSP facilitator, Masumo plays a vital role in the use of LSP. The facilitator is tasked with carefully monitoring what happens during a workshop, to sense challenges or tensions and respond quickly and smoothly to maximise engagement and output. Facilitators do not participate in the building process; they assume a position outside the participants. Effective facilitators bring the best out of the participants and empower them to share their thoughts and ideas and become part of the solution, part of learning and learning itself.

The workshop process is based on a series of challenges set as questions, a visual response to these and the sharing of stories. Limited time, usually between 1 and 5 minutes is made available for model building as a response to individual questions,. More complex applications might require additional time.

The middle: The main LSP process is the following:

1. Posing the question: the facilitator asks a question which is addressed to the whole group. This acts as a trigger and helps participants to focus in on a thought, an idea or a situation. The question needs to be clear and open-ended so that participants understand what they are asked to do.

2. Building the model: Each participant makes a model individually as a response to the facilitator’s question. Building starts while everything is still messy in their minds. The models will emerge and become a visualisation of thoughts that have a specific metaphorical meaning for the makers. The model and their meanings belong to the makers.

3. Sharing the model: This is a very important part of the LSP process. The model acts as a hook to reflect and share our story with others and connect with the stories shared by others. It is important to give enough time to listen to all stories and to allow them to be heard.

4. Reflecting: the process of reflection kicks in as soon as building begins, continues through the building process and when the stories are shared. The facilitator and participants might ask open-ended questions to seek clarification linked to specific models or features and aid deeper reflection.

The process is repeated through a series of scaffold activities introduced through further questions which the facilitator has prepared until the desired outcomes have been met.The facilitator must always be flexible and responsive.