Lego Serious Play

In our latest Creativity and Concept lesson, we had a Lego Serious Play activity which concluded of half the class playing with Lego for 4 hours. No, this isn't some silly task for 5 year old's, its a 'serious' matter!
Lego Serious Play (LSP) is a thinking technique that is now used among may businesses to hire employees or present ideas to large groups. The idea is that you are able to express yourself through play a lot better than in simple conversation. The famous quote we have learnt is:

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” 
― Plato


This quote seemed strange before I had taken part in the LSP experience, because I thought to myself 'well, how?'. This all soon became clear as we paced through various tasks and questions in the LSP technique.
We started with a task that required each individual to create some sort of tower; and the only rules were that we had to use the green bases for the bottom and also to have a Lego person on the top. We then discussed these pieces in detail and you soon realise that what you create is actually a representation of yourself - no matter what you are asked to do.
Here is a photograph of my tower that I created using Lego:

What I came across when analysing my tower, was that I liked symmetry; through this it became my organisation skills and my perfectionism within work and the quality that I bring. Not bad for a little five minute creation, ey?
Next we were asked then to develop this tower in to something that represents the skills that we bring to a team. I expanded on the idea that I like perfection and organisation and came up with this creation:

I created an area behind my tower, I thought it could be the place where the king on top of my tower (or castle) lived. It is all completely symmetrical and I spent ages trying to find all the correct pieces. I think it looks like something out of Lego Star Wars, but oh well!
This piece again was analysed by myself and my group. I further discovered that I like to look at the finer details of a project, I like to make sure everything is in order. This is true because in reality I love making lists and being on top of the work set. I never thought that playing with Lego would reveal so much about myself; it was like unlocking thoughts in my mind and making me say 'oh yeah!' about the things that I naturally do when working as part of a team.


Next, we had to create a completely new model representing a quality to have as a team member. It could be anything but I decided to stick with the theme of perfection and organisation. I made something that represented the final outcome to a project, with all its trimmings and the seamlessness of it all.
Here it is:

I created something that resembled a garden, with ladders climbing up to it and a victorious character standing at the top. To me, this shows the climb to final goals and products at the end of a project. It shows how perfect you can make something if you reach your full potential. And f course the pretty flowers add to my love for perfection :)


After all of the models were created, we then had to link all of the models through various ways so that it showed the workings of a good team. We included our first models to show the qualities we have, and the second models to show other qualities needed. We then added sticky notes to each model to let others who were not in our group know what they represent. We were taught that not everything has to be literal, and meaning can come from anything that inspires us. This allowed me to see that ideas and inspiration can come from anything around me, and learning and thinking is all part of this adventure.
Here is the final outcome of all of my groups creations:

To you, it may not look like anything that could possibly make sense; but to us it shows the workings of a good team and the progression that we go through when coming up with ideas and finally having an outcome.
I loved this exercise, besides the fact that I got to play with Lego for a day, I learnt so much more about thinking and so much more about myself. I hope the next job interview I have uses this, because now I know what it all means!

Speak soon!