How to Upgrade Employee Development Through LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®
If you want to take your company performance to the next level, then try the innovative LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology.
Meetings, workshops, and group training are all different ways to discuss and increase performance and innovation within a company. They provide the fundamental tool to help everyone feel included and trusted, giving them the chance to contribute to the company running.
However, such business gatherings can quickly become dull and uninspiring if only a few attendees participate actively. For teams to perform optimally, everyone needs to get on board, contribute their ideas, and get their voice heard.
In this regard, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is a facilitation program that aims to achieve maximum productivity within a business through teamwork and the full potential of ideas generated. Each person in the team has a valued idea, skillset, and possible solution for any problem. This approach can help businesses improve their decision-making potential, identify hidden opportunities and overall stimulate entrepreneurship.
Also known as LSP, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is used by companies to promote team building in many different ways. With a better understanding of one another, it becomes easier for team members to put their thoughts together and create new, innovative ideas.
For the local audience, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® in Australia is offered via the services of various training companies that help businesses implement this strategic course.
How does the programme help?
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® helps in many different fields of entrepreneur expertise. It was initiated to enhance a business’ overall performance and helps construct an understanding of various real-life situations in a combination of hands-on and minds-on exercises. The programme enables participants to develop as a team and create efficient teamwork strategies during the program and on the job.
With the opportunity to rationalize stimulations with a 3-D analogy, participants’ problem-solving skills and decision-making expertise gets put to the test and improved. This is also a great way to understand where each participant stands in the team, and who has hidden potential for a greater position as an entrepreneur. By creating a scenario with a three-dimensional mindset, it becomes easier to uncover issues and conflicts that are not noticeable on paper or over presentations.
Everyone has an idea; this is basic knowledge. The only issue is that not everyone is ready to present their ideas. Some people can’t seem to find a proper way to explain or communicate their ideas while others are not motivated enough to speak out. This means you don’t have the full potential of ideas that you could be getting from your entire workforce.
With LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® you can rest assured that everyone plays their part by creating model ideas out of Lego pieces and trying to explain them through the metaphorical model they have stylized. It’s a great way to include everyone in the group and ensure that no one gets left out of your brainstorming session. Once the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® sessions take off, you can watch your team become more connected and perform better as a single unit.
What to expect from the program?
The main concept of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop is to create an environment where all thoughts, ideas, and mindsets are accepted. The LSP method allows all attendees to have the same weight and level of involvement when participating.
Some areas that this program facilitates include:
- Concept development
- Strategy building
- Improved decision making
- Team building
- Discover strengths and weaknesses
- Develop internal processes
- Implementing organisational change
- Integrating new team members
- Conflict resolution
All these aspects of business management call for more than one right answer and this is where LSP can be most effective. It gives participants a chance to deal with complex and multifaceted subjects, exploring available options to reach a unanimous decision. It is a way of increasing team understanding while avoiding frustration. It is also an effective strategy to gain new insight and learning along with new ways of thinking.
The process of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® can be deconstructed into four different steps.
- First, a facilitator presents a question to the participants addressing the challenge that needs to be overcome.
- Next, everyone in the group constructs their own answer to the question using LEGO® bricks. Using imagination, storytelling skills, and metaphors, each person in the group devises their ideal solution.
- Once the models have been made, participants go around and share their own ideas. To ensure everyone is engaged and participating, all models are presented and described. An even amount of knowledge and input is then given from each person.
- The final step is to distribute the opinions, feedback, and insights on one another’s models. This helps create a general idea of what a solution can look like that is adequate and accepted in everyone’s eyes.
The LEGO® pieces help you create a more material image of the ideas you have, making them easier to communicate to others. It also entraps your most attentive state when you are working with your hands as well as your mind. You have to concentrate on what you are creating and how effectively your idea is being demonstrated. Once you are done with your own, you’ll also be more interested in seeing everyone else’s ideas and what they managed to come up with.
This methodology is exactly what can help your business excel. There are a greater number of ideas being produced and everyone present contributes. This creates a greater, safer, and more welcoming environment for each participant who attends the programme.
LEGO® Facilitator Course
The effectiveness of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® establishes it as a great addition to any business meeting looking to help boost morale and motivation in its workers. There are two parties involved in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® session; the participants and the facilitator of the workshop.
A facilitator can’t just be anyone from management but has to be someone who can help the workers understand their own model or piece to clarify what they are trying to express.
There is a meaning to everything and it’s the job of the facilitator to know what questions to ask, what to take as important, and who to motivate with what. There is a LEGO facilitator course that any individual can take either for themselves as a person or for the team to make sure someone can help regulate workshops in a friendlier, more welcome manner.
The steps to becoming a facilitator are not hard. It takes only three days for someone to become a facilitator when they take the offered LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator training in Australia. This course will train you to perfect the technique of becoming the right facilitator for your business.
There are a variety of ways in which you can take these courses. The course can be done online through virtual training. You can have a personalized course to learn this technique as an individual, for your own skillset. You can also attend a three-day course which will credit you as a professional facilitator at the end of the course.
To help you get a better insight into what this course offers, here is a general breakdown of what the three days consist of.
Day 1
Day 1 will introduce you to the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® program in a light manner. This day is dedicated to the smaller factors that make a huge difference in each session. Ice breakers, brainstorming, project planning discussion starters, meetings; they are all discussed in the first day. You can get a brief idea of what you are working towards, what the end result should look like, and what are the objectives you can set?
Day 2
The second day will help you create a more natural flow to these sessions. You don’t want LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®to be the only thing done at meetings, but you do want to make sure your sessions can cope with some LEGO® once in a while. You’ll also be helped in understanding what type of feedback you should provide throughout this process. This will help you make it easier for participants to create models and constructions while understanding what they are trying to achieve.
Day 3
This is the day the certificates are handed out. On the final day of the training course, you are taught the advanced skills required to run a proper, full-fledged LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® session. You will learn how to cater an intensive session that isn’t focused on development, but pure results. This kind of training is ideal for strategic planning sessions, project planning, team-building, and innovative brainstorming.
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is a type of training that is multifaceted. You, as an individual, can personally develop your own skills through facilitation sessions. You can train to become a better leader and help your subordinates develop better team-working skills. Courses can be done online, personalized, and completed in three days!
At MCI Solutions, you can access the best that LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® in Australia has to offer. We have been servicing the APAC region with this facilitation programme for almost a decade now and are the only Master Trainer of this methodology in this area. Contact us today to get more information.
