From the LEGO company itself:
The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology is an innovative process designed to enhance innovation and business performance. Based on research which shows that this kind of hands-on, minds-on learning produces a deeper, more meaningful understanding of the world and its possibilities, the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology deepens the reflection process and supports an effective dialogue – for everyone in the organization.
The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology is an innovative, experimental process designed to enhance innovation and business performance.
Some History
LSP was created in 1996 when two professors (Johan Roos and Bart Victor) worked with then LEGO Group CEO and owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen to explore alternative strategic planning tools and systems. The methodology bubbled around internal;y at Lego and externally through a network of affiliated practitioner but in 2010 the LEGO Group decided that they didn’t really want to run a consulting arm and decided to to offer the LSP Methodology under the Creative Commons License Deed effectively making LSP open source.
Since then there are no longer any license fees payable to the LEGO Group to use the method. This means that whilst the LEGO Group guarantees the quality of the methodology and the physical materials, individual practitioners are responsible for the quality of the delivery of the actual workshops.
As an agency with deep open source roots (most of our web development tech stack is open source) this is world we feel very comfortable with and in June 2020 Wayne McFetridge (We Are VA owner) undertook his LSP certification with well respected facilitator and trainer Michael from Pivotal Play.
VA now offers customised LSP workshops to interested parties.
The workshop is not about building space ships
In fact each LSP LEGO Kit is an odd mix of pieces deliberately designed make it very difficult to build literal objects but encourage the creation of models that rely heavily on metaphors.
For example this image is from an exercise to refine the brand values here at VA. The use of towers, connectors and spheres is a great metaphor for how we project our values to the world.
The first exercise in any LSP workshop is to illustrate the fact that even 5 simple 4×2 Lego bricks have 1 billion possible combinations. There is no right answer and no pressure to be a Lego Master and as the exercises are mostly about “working together alone” even the most reserved person in the workshop will get to express themselves.
Yes these sessions are fun but they are definitely not idle play.
If you are looking for a creative way to solve business problems and drive new ideas and brand then an LSP workshop may be for you.
Combined with our love for brands we know that LSP is great for:
- develop brand values/propositions
- establish vision/mission statements
- understand customer/user personas
Please contact us to discuss your workshop today.