Time to get serious….with Lego Serious Play!
Yes, you read it correctly: This month, we’re shining the spotlight on our WeWent provider – Ms. Mandoki talking about Lego Serious Play.
Alexandra currently offers two events on WeWent.com which you can book directly by following the links:
***FULL DAY TEAM WORKSHOP WITH LEGO SERIOUS PLAY***
***THINK WITH YOUR HANDS! TEAMBUILDING WITH LEGO SERIOUS PLAY***
Check out our interview with Alexandra and learn more about her work with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®
- Please tell us a bit about yourself. What is LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® , and what do you do?
I am Alexandra, Chief Guide of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. We support team collaboration and results, with unique workshops.
My 20 years of career so far have been all about motivating teams and generating ideas, this is what my current business is all about as well. I use a lot of different tools and methods, one of them is LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. It is a facilitated workshop methodology, where 100% participation and 100% contribution is guaranteed, and a lot of LEGO® bricks too.
- What 3 words would you use to sum up LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®?
Think with your hands!
- How was the idea born?
The idea was developed by the LEGO company, and they have been using this workshop method ever since. For a few years it is available to the public, and practised by certified facilitators like me.
- What is your vision for LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®?
That it gets known, acknowledged and used even more by teams in various business situations. And I would love to be the guide in this journey for many-many teams, as well even to launch it in the field of education in Switzerland.
- What can the people/groups that book your event, expect to get?
A new way of experiencing their team-members and the whole team. Plus a unique upbeat workshop which they just cannot get enough of.
- How do you see the before/after effect of your event on the participants? Do you try to measure the impact the experience had?
Usually beforehand there is curiosity and a bit of surprise in the air, when they come into the room and don’t see the usual “workshop” tools, just a lot of LEGO® bricks.
Afterwards: happiness, a lot of stories to take-away and some teams even take the LEGO® models with them and place them in their offices. What is also guaranteed: high motivation.
We always measure the experience, in a combined way: qualitatively the results which we achieved on the topic of the workshop (right after the workshop and after a couple of months) and quantitatively there is always a participant questionnaire to fill in as well.
- What would you say is your main goal when you prepare to host a team building event?
To design the most effective workshop, it is vital for me to understand the challenges the team is facing, to really grasp “the now state” and the desired “future state”.
Also crucial is to find the right venue, which very often is not the usual meeting room – so let’s keep this as another surprise for the teams!
- Can you share with us your most unforgettable memory/moment that you experienced in a team building/group event?
As this method is all about great stories, where shall I start? It happens very often, that the participants enjoy the workshop that much that they don’t want to stop seriously playing.
Another time, the workshop included feedback by the participants to each other about their previous year, and it became very emotional, in a positive way. I still get goosebumps just remembering it.
- What makes LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® special and different?
To start with, there are the LEGO® bricks of course. And there is play, which brings positivity into the workshop. When we think with our hands, we use a much bigger part of our brains, so the results will be much more creative. And there is no technology involved, so I can highly recommend it also as a cure to the “death by powerpoint” phenomenon.
As LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® uses the language of the bricks, we naturally eliminate hierarchies, organizational barriers and the differences between extroverts and introverts.
- What are typical and not so typical team challenges this technique can solve?
A few examples are developing team cohesion, improving communication, establishing a new organization, onboarding a new leader, company culture. Or other topics like “what are our values?” and “how to cope with change?”.
- What other uses are there, addition to team building?
Where we would like to involve everybody from the team and we are open for all the ideas and opinions. For example: innovation, ideation, design thinking, Business Model Canvas.
- Is it something teams typically do once or do you have returning teams?
To solve a team challenge, usually the team works on the topic once and we may come back and check-in after a while. Usually when teams get to know the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method, they return with other challenges, sometimes from a totally different field to use this new way of collaboration and communication.
