Building a Better Business Using the Lego Serious Play Method

243 Pages·2014·2.98 MB·English

by  Per Kristiansen

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BUILDING A
BETTER
BUSINESS
USING THE
LEGO
SERIOUS PLAY
METHOD
Per Kristiansen
Robert Rasmussen
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Coverillustrationanddesign:C.Wallace
Copyright 2014byPerKristiansen,RobertRasmussen.Allrightsreserved.
PublishedbyJohnWiley&Sons,Inc.,Hoboken,NewJersey.
PublishedsimultaneouslyinCanada.
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Contents
Preface v
Introduction—The Journey! 1
PART I The LEGO SERIOUS PLAY Territory
1 The Need for Building Better Businesses 13
2 The LEGO® Brick 25
3 Defining Serious Play 37
4 The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method 47
5 Contemplating the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Territory 65
PART II LEGO SERIOUS PLAY : The Science Platform
6 Building Knowledge—Giving Your Mind a Hand 77
7 Neuroscience—Understanding the Builder’s Mind 95
8 Flow—The Joy of Effective Learning 109
9 Imagination—Seeing What Is Not 117
10 Play Is about Process 129
iii
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iv CONTENTS
PART III LEGO SERIOUS PLAY at Work
11 LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® at Work in Business 145
12 LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® at Work in the LEGO Company 185
13 LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® at Work outside Business 195
14 Contemplating LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® at Work 205
15 Pushing the Boundaries with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® 211
Notes 221
About the Authors 225
Index 227
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Preface
®
Our aim in writing this book is to give you a hands-on introduction to the LEGO
®
SERIOUS PLAY method. We will explain why and how it was developed and what
theories came together in order to support it, and offer a number of examples of how
thisapproachhashelpedorganizationsallovertheworld.Thisbookisnotmeanttobe
a handbook that provides you with five easy steps to improve your business by using
theprocess. Rather,itisajourneyintotheworldofLEGOSERIOUSPLAY.
Withthatinmind,youmightbewondering:whyreadthisbook?
Well, you may read it because you have this nagging feeling that you are not
making the most of the potential with which you were born. Maybe you’ve observed
children—yoursorotherpeople’s—atplay,andwonderediftherewasawaytobring
the power of that interaction into organizations. Perhaps you believe that creativity is
ateamprocessandyouwanttofindawaytounlockit.Maybeyou’vesimplyobserved
well-meaning individuals pulled in different directions in professional projects time
and again. Or perhaps you are simply curious about what this serious play thing is all
about.
Any of these are good reasons to read this book. We’ve made it our goal to help
you find answers to these issues—and, we hope, also to others that might emerge as
youreadon.
Butwhydidwedecidetowritethis booknow?
As you will find out in the Introduction, LEGO SERIOUS PLAY has traveled a
challenging path—one that has been far from straightforward. The business model
and supporting organization have changed numerous times. But perhaps the most
important challenge has been developing an understanding of what defines the
method. Eventually, the definition proved itself robust; and from this, it has become
clearer exactly what LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is, what it does, and how it can create
valueforgroups ofpeople.
v
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vi PREFACE
Naturally,thisunderstandingwillcontinuetoevolve;morewillbecomeclear,and
new learning will emerge. However, we have reached a sort of plateau at this point.
It has been more than 10 years since we trained the first facilitators, and the method
has been put to work in organizations of all sorts all over the world. It has been used
by local governments, global service companies, big banks, start-ups, international
manufacturing companies, and other entities. We will, throughout the book and in
particular in Chapter 11, offer a varied set of examples. In short, LEGO SERIOUS
PLAYisreadytoshareitsstory withalargeraudience.
The next obvious question: why are we writing the story of LEGO SERIOUS
PLAY?
Both together and on our own, we have been part of the story since its begin-
ning. We have spent the past decade working on projects and initiatives intricately
interwovenwithLEGOSERIOUSPLAY.
We were part of developing the method when it was still a research idea, and
managed it when it was owned by an independent company, Executive Discovery,
and when it was a business unit inside LEGO. We developed and delivered the first
facilitator training programs and the first facilitator manuals. Over the years, we’ve
facilitated workshops and conducted training programs for teams all over the world,
initially as employees of Executive Discovery and then of LEGO itself. We are now
partners,andeachownsandrunsanorganizationthatspecializesinLEGOSERIOUS
PLAY. Robert is the principal of Rasmussen Consulting and Per is a partner in
Trivium,bothheadquartered inDenmark,andworkinggloballywiththemethod.
Our work remains focused on LEGO SERIOUS PLAY. We develop and deliver
customized workshops to global organizations, and run facilitator certification pro-
gramsinthemethod.Theseprogramsarealsodeliveredgloballyandpartlyunderthe
shared brand of “the Association of Master Trainers in the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY
method.” Finally, we act in an advisory function to LEGO, a role that allows us to
workcloselywiththecompanytosupport themethod’scontinued growth.
It is clear upon looking back at the history of LEGO SERIOUS PLAY that there
have been moments when something special was required—when the approach
needed practitioners, believers, friends, allies, ambassadors, and the tenacity of these
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PREFACE vii
peopletosurviveandmaintainmomentum.Thoughtherearecountlessexamples,we
will limit ourselves here to mentioning Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, LEGO owner and the
grandson of its founder. It was Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen’s vision of a different way of
leading that gave birth to LEGO SERIOUS PLAY. He has always seen the LEGO
bricks as a language that can help unlock human potential, and he quickly realized
that LEGO SERIOUS PLAY could bring that language into the boardroom. Kjeld
Kirk Kristiansen’s belief in the immense potential of the method has helped steady
the ship several times. Without him, there would be no story to tell about LEGO
SERIOUSPLAY,and,hence,thisbookwouldnothavebeenpossible.
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