“Are you ready for serious fun?” says Steve Morris, a LEGO Serious Play® facilitator certified by the Association of Master Trainers. Şirin interviewed Steve on the power of LEGO Serious Play and you can join us at our upcoming webinar to ask any questions you may have for solving serious problems in a fun way that also helps thrive cohesiveness in teams.
What is Lego Serious Play and how long has it been around?
LEGO Serious Play is a facilitated meeting, communication and problem-solving method where participants are led through a series of questions and build their responses in 3D. The method is built around the concept that the knowledge exists already in the room, and the structure allows us to have that knowledge be surfaced as a creative way of solving problems that have no straightforward, or possibly multiple solutions. The methodology was developed by the LEGO corporation 20 years ago for their strategic planning process, and has been refined and field tested ever since.
How can businesses utilize this methodology for results?
The structured framework is the key to allowing a group to come together to solve a difficult problem. Traditional brainstorming techniques have been discredited years ago, and the LEGO Serious Play provides a way to unlock the team’s potential and get the group finding tangible solutions. It has been used successfully for everything from getting a team to come to a shared understanding of how they are going to work together better, to developing the organization’s guiding principles for their emergent strategy initiative.
Can you share some success stories from your practice?
One of the key advantages of the method is developing psychological safety, which is the most important trait of en effective team according to research done by Google on their own teams. Establishing this safety really allows the individuals and the group to go deeper, and I have personally found it very powerful in examining my own business. I have seen the method really allow people to share in ways they would never have done before and seen the unique insights that start coming up when people pick up bricks and begin building their ideas.
Why exactly does it work in unique ways?
Firstly, it is play, Serious Play, but still fun, and with that comes a relaxation from the participants that allows real creative thought to arise. To me the real magic is in the hand-brain connection as when we start building things with our hands we begin changing, rearranging and cementing knowledge structures in our minds. Finally, the structure allows everyone to participate, and we get 100% lean-in engagement in contrast to the usual business meeting dynamic where one person dominates with 80% of the talking and everyone else checks out.
What led you to training and consulting with Lego Serious Play?
I am passionate about helping people solve problems, and for over four years I have been exploring lots of paths to help people get their ideas out of their heads and to build them in 3D. The LEGO Serious Play method has been an instant winner for me because there is no barrier to having a group of adults pick up bricks and start piecing them together as their thoughts gel. I have really enjoyed working with the tension between Serious and Play, and seeing people light up as they get to do real work while having fun.
At StrategicStraits, we specialize in global business solutions. Our interconnected world poses more and more diverse problems, and the ability to solve these problems in creative ways is a critical leadership skill.
We thank Steve Morris for his insights and sharing his expertise, and look forward to connecting with everybody interested in this topic at next week’s webinar. Register for Free 30-Min Webinar with guest speaker at 11:00 a.m. EST on April 25, 2019. Please join with your questions or your own experience utilizing the Lego Serious Play ready to be posted in the chat box in Zoom. Share this post to be able to include as many as possible in this opportunity to connect.
Steve Morris is passionate about helping people with solving problems at work. Originally from New Zealand, Steve’s background is a creative design engineer. He started his career designing sail boats for the America’s Cup and Volvo Round the World Yacht Races, and created a makerspace workshop in Silver Spring, MD, to inspire and teach people how to be creative. The Catylator workshop taught hundreds of teens and adults how to actualize themselves as creative beings, and had notable success with helping young women open to pursuing STEM career paths, and providing unique professional development for organizations such as the DC Public School system. Steve helps teams in organizations work together more cohesively to solve problems rapidly, using his toolbox of time-saving and effective structured frameworks: LEGO Serious Play and Design Sprints.
Steve has a Masters Degree in Engineering in addition to an MBA from the highly ranked Smith School at the University of Maryland. He has been a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), is a LEGO Serious Play facilitator certified by the Association of Master Trainers, and is certified to facilitate Design Sprints.