I recently fulfilled a year-long ambition: to certify in the Lego\u00ae Serious Play\u00ae method. Ever since I read Michael Fearne\u2019s book last year, I knew I wanted to train in it. Fairly new into freelancing, and with a fairly hefty price tag for the course, I sat on it for a year before taking the plunge. So what is it, what\u2019s it for and why is it more vital than ever?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Developed over 20 years ago, within the Lego Group, it was originally used to support strategy development. A genius move of utilising the product a company was producing to develop its wider organisational strategy. About 10 years ago, the method went open-source, meaning a whole community of trainers and facilitators grew around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyone can train in the Lego\u00ae Serious Play\u00ae method, and there are a variety of ways you can those this. There are a number of training providers around the world who hold certification courses varying from 2 to 5 days long. The training provides a background of its origins, the science behind the method and a full immersive experience of designing and delivering in the Lego\u00ae Serious Play\u00ae structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s now recognised and used by organisations across the world \u2013 from BP and IKEA to Samsung and Virgin. Its a method that flexes to your sector and industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Firstly, it\u2019s fun! If you\u2019re going to have a meeting looking at your vision for instance, it\u2019s a lot better than post-its and flipcharts.
Secondly, it flattens organisational structures. No-one leads and no-one dominates. There\u2019s equal value, power and insight into everyone\u2019s thoughts and contributions. It\u2019s a democratic method that encourages everyone to be involved equally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thirdly, by using metaphor and story-telling, it can help us externalise our ideas and thoughts \u2013 it’s a powerful way of generating new insights across teams and organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The beauty of the method is its versatility. People build in answer to the questions you pose \u2013 each person has different experience to bring and different knowledge to represent. Together, when shared and explored in a group, new insights are generated. Lego\u00ae Serious Play\u00ae is about developing a new understanding on a topic or issue that individuals and teams can take forward, where they take responsibility for playing their part in the future they want to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opportunities to be creative, fun and playful are limited as an adult, and nowhere more so in than in the workplace. While there\u2019s increasingly recognition that having fun at work and being good at your job aren\u2019t mutually exclusive, we still have a tendency to err on logic, language and analysis. Lego\u00ae Serious Play\u00ae is different, novel, fun and tactical, and its a phenomenal way to tap into our feelings, intuition and imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using our hands unlocks a creativity that we don\u2019t often get to utilise, and its also easier to have harder conversations through metaphor. Lego\u00ae Serious Play\u00ae is a democratic engaging way to explore complex topics, and who doesn’t want to play with LEGO?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently fulfilled a year-long ambition: to certify in the Lego\u00ae Serious Play\u00ae method. Ever since I read Michael Fearne\u2019s book last year, I knew I wanted to train in it. Fairly new into freelancing, and with a fairly hefty price tag for the course, I sat on it for a year before…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[13,11,12,21,25,10],"class_list":["post-579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-facilitation","tag-charity","tag-consultant","tag-freelance","tag-non-profit","tag-self-employment","tag-start-up-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t