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TeamLab

Brick by Brick with LEGO® Bricks

Looking for a different way to create real conversations, sharing and reflecting? LEGO® is the answer. Once confined to the kitchen table or living room floor, LEGO® has reached the office. There are years of research behind the methodology of using LEGO® to help teams share ideas, solve challenges and think differently.

LEGO® brings a tactile element to team building, enhancing individual and team creative thinking. With a given theme, the teams build 3-dimensional models in response to a posed question or statement. These questions or statements will be designed with you to ensure the session meets the outcomes you are seeking.

 

The use of LEGO® is approached from two different perspectives, literal builds and metaphorical builds. The literal build approach sees teams tasked with building something literal in response to a presented question, statement or theme. The build starts small and individual and gradually builds to be a model combining elements from multiple people.

 

The metaphorical approach is designed to tap into deeper thinking, problem solving and innovation as the models that are built are a representation of an idea, a feeling or a thought. Each model, or the parts in the model, have a specific purpose. For example, an elephant can represent something that is present but not spoken about (the elephant in the room), loyalty, long term memory, or even strength but not a literal ‘elephant’. In this approach, the group starts with building individual models and progress to combining those models into larger shared models bringing the teams individual ideas together.



LEGO® Play – 2 hours

Perfect if you are looking to bring the team together, get them working collaboratively on a theme and enhancing their communication, active listening and planning, then LEGO® Play is for you.

In LEGO® Play, the group will use the bricks to build a variety of 3-D models in response to a posed question or theme. After a couple warm-up activities and individual builds to get the creativity moving, the team is presented with a challenge to build something together. These literal builds may include: individually build a famous character and then in small groups build a story around those characters, or build a team model based on a where each of you fit in the team, or build a model that is then described by another person. They may sound difficult now, but once people start to touch the bricks, the ideas come to the surface. Think loosely of the TV-show BrickMasters with a team building twist.


Duration: 2 hours

Group Size: up to 20

Location: Indoor

Cost: From $1980 + GST


Facilitated session using the LEGO® Serious Play® methodology

LEGO® Serious Play®, or LSP, is used by teams to enhance problem solving, communication, innovation, and team building by using the LEGO® bricks as a tool. Teams ‘think with their hands’ using LEGO® bricks to build a 3-D model representing their ideas, insights or solutions to posed question. The use of 3-D models helps people articulate their thoughts as they use metaphors to explain what their model means. This hands on, minds on approach makes use of metaphors to explain and help visualise opportunities or challenges in the workplace.

A session using the LSP methodology follows the Question - Build - Share - Capture approach. The group completes an individual model first, and then comes together to combine all ideas into a group model. This aids in building team cohesion, communication and collaboration. The questions may include: what is your vision for the team, where do you see the team in 2 years, what is a key challenge for the team right now, what is needed to solve our key challenges.

We will work closely with you to design a session as the most important part of the design is the questions to pose. The session will finish with a team debrief and action planning.

By talking to the LEGO® models, participants are:

¬   better able to express their thoughts,

¬   less self-conscious of speaking in front of others (everyone is looking at the model),

¬   not judged on their model as it is a representation of an individual’s thought or idea, and

¬   able to tap into ideas and creativity that cannot be expressed verbally.

This session is perfect for a team that is comfortable with each other and when hearing the ideas and opinions of the participants is important. We particularly like that the LSP approach evens the playing field so the most verbally articulate or the most authoritative does not dominate the conversation or discussion. Everyone has an equal say and everyone is able to express their ideas. 



Conference taster with LEGO® Serious Play®: 60 minutes

Duration: 1 hour

Group Size: 10 to 200+

Location: Indoor

Cost: From $1980 + GST

A set of LEGO bricks per person to build with is an additional cost.



Facilitated Session using LEGO® Serious Play® : 3 - hours

Duration: 3 hours

Group Size: Up to 20

Location: Indoor

Cost: $2850 + GST for up to 20 people

Your activity will be lead by a Facilitator Certified in LEGO® Serious Play®


Why does this work?

Firstly, hands-on building stimulates creative thinking and problem solving. Our hands are one of two parts of our body that have the largest portion of the brain dedicated to processing motor and/or sensory functions. When we start to build with our hands, the brain has been shown to light up and become alert. The first several years of your life were dedicated to learning with your hands – hot, cold, soft, rough, wet, dry, etc.


Secondly, stories and metaphors are used to articulate the meaning behind the 3-D models. We all bring our own understanding and experiences, and the use of metaphors and stories help to explain what many of us cannot do as easily when relying on verbal explanations. As fast as a speeding race car gives more explanation that ‘very fast’, you can visualise a speeding race car – probably a red one racing around a track.


Thirdly, many of us associate using LEGO bricks with our childhood, a time when we used play to experiment, explore new things, and take risks. Using the idea of play, we reconnect with our childhood when we played without judgement. How many of us put on ‘performances’ for our families – singing, dancing, acting, modelling, etc.?





“LEGO, SERIOUS PLAY, the Minifigure and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this website”.

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