We help companies use play to engage their staff

 

How do you get people of different ages, races, sexes, cultures, beliefs and talents to all work together harmoniously for the benefit of your organization?

You ask them to play!

Play that builds teams.

Play that develops leadership skills among your millennial employees.

Play that is about your serious business needs.

Play that promotes diversity engagement.

Play that helps guide difficult conversations.

Play that resolves conflict.

 

The one method that delivers this is through Lego® Serious Play® workshops.

And you thought Lego® was only a toy?

Well, it was until the company teamed up with learning and development professionals to see if the bricks they make could be used to help dig them out of a sales slump. Faced with severe competition from electronic toys, Lego® used its own bricks to create a strategic thinking method that turned them into the world’s largest toy company today.

They discovered that by “playing with Legos,” they created a communication and problem-solving technique whereby adults could gain deeper insights and engagement. Lego bricks allow you to build structure and possibilities. They found a new way use play for business growth and purposes.

Play that is structured.

Play that is goal-oriented.

Play that is strategic.

Play that is fun.

 

 

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” – Thus said Plato.

When you introduce your employees to the Lego®  Serious Play®  (LSP) method for strategic team building, millennial leadership development or diversity engagement, you are acquainting them to the concept of “hand-mind knowledge.” It is a different way of thinking than the passive PowerPoint presentations, or fill-in the blank personal assessment or the color-coded personality exercise.

You are asking them to “think with their hands.”  When people build things, they simultaneously construct theories and knowledge in their minds. The LSP method of “thinking-by-building” gets deeper insights and engagement with the topic under discussion by the participants. It doesn’t seem like work because they have objects that they consider “toys” in front of them; the exercise totally transforms and opens up their imagination and launches their creativity and new thinking.

You have just brought play into problem-solving and added a smile to the day’s business at hand.

How does this work?

Mark Hurst, president of Creative Good, a company based on customer experience, says: “There’s a huge difference between ‘asking’ people what they think and ‘finding out’ what they think”.

The LSP method “finds out” what people are thinking because they build stories around the bricks throughout the exercise. These stories represent their understanding and engagement with the topic and form their commitment to the goals uncovered.

 

What Is a Lego ® Serious Play ® Learning and Development Session Like?

 

A typical session goes like this:

First, the facilitator poses a question.

Next, the participants construct the bricks that represent their interpretation of the question.

Then, they share the meaning of their building with the group.

Finally, everyone reflects on what it means for the organization and the role they will play in the solution going forward.

This unique workshop methods using Lego® bricks create an experience that encourages personal commitment and motivation to move an idea into visual reality. After constructing the bricks, they develop images that have meaning.

At the end of the workshop, the participants should have a roadmap for themselves about what they will do to grow the business, engage more with the team, share their ideas, participate with more transparency, offer more solutions, see their teammates as equals and feel better about the organization.

Find out how the Lego Serious Play method can help your Learning and Development efforts. Give us a call at 347-743-7045 for a mini-session at your office to show you how the Lego® Serious Play® method will work for your needs. Or email: yla@SeriousBusinessPlay.com.

Find out what you can learn through play!