Why Lego Serious Play? It’s a question that comes up more often than not in our line of business.
You need to consider bringing Lego Serious Play into your organization if you are asking yourself these questions:
- Why can’t we agree?
- Why am I going to endless meetings and getting nothing done?
- Why isn’t anyone asking me for my opinion?
- Why is everyone talking at the same time?
- Why is he/she talking all the time?
- How is it that you don’t understand?
- Are you listening to what I am saying?
- Am I the only person bored at these meetings?
Maybe you’ve asked those questions before. Or maybe, it’s just a matter of time before you do.
That’s where Lego Serious Play comes in.
Let me explain.
Meetings: A Necessary Evil…?
Meetings are notoriously conspicuous in our corporate life. You can’t live without them. And you want to live without them.
We will meet anywhere. Onsite, offsite, Skype, Whatsapp. Whatever it takes.
And you know sometimes all it takes is a quick phone call to get the concurrence and go make that decision!
But we all “love” our meetings! Why else would we meet?
And yet, we would push ourselves to attend those gut wrenching, and often long meetings of eyeballs. Wait! I bet most of the time people are not even looking at each other during meetings.
I bet they are leaning away from the table, fidgeting with their phones, and occasionally smiling at some innocuous and inappropriate moments.
Do All These Sound Familiar?
Now, if you resonate with all that I am saying so far, then you seriously need to consider Lego Serious Play for your teams and organizations.
Why Lego Serious Play, you ask? It’s simple.
Lego Serious Play is a methodology that helps people in teams and organizations discover and articulate complexities and in the process, find real time solutions. Fast!
Lego Serious Play is your gateway to learning how to have rich and rewarding conversations with your teams and organizations. Real!
Lego Serious Play is the Yoda of communication. It will inculcate in your people the lost art of speaking and listening to one another. Respect!
I don’t want to overload you with the details of Lego Serious Play.
But if you want to find out more details, you can follow this link HERE on Lego Serious Play to see what we can do for you.
In the meantime, let me share 3 simple reasons why you would need Lego Serious Play in your teams or organizations: –
Reason #1: Leaders Do Not Have All The Answers
If you are a leader, you will resonate with this. Seriously, do people really expect you to have all the answers? Unfortunately, yes. Mindblowing I know! That’s why you often find your folks keeping quiet or not contributing during meetings.
They are looking to you for the foolproof answers or they are looking to you to tell them where to get the answers. And if you are really honest with yourself here, you would admit that half the time you have no freaking idea on what’s going on!
Lego Serious Play Changes That.
It is probably the only thing that you need to do to get your people to realise that you do not have all the answers and yet not lose their respect for you as a leader. The process of Lego Serious Play guarantees opening up your meeting, empowering your people and freeing them to share their thoughts, ideas, fears, and convictions.
Reason #2: Lego Serious Play Levels The Play Field
Some people are just more vocal and directive than others. In a typical meeting, 80% of the conversations is dominated by 20% of the people. But what about the rest of the other 80% of the people in the meeting? Are they important? A big jaw-dropping yes!
Just because people are quiet, it does not mean that they have nothing to say.
Lego Serious Play Gives A Voice to Everyone.
The Lego Serious Play process ensures that everyone has the opportunity to discover the joy of speaking what you mean, and meaning what you say. The process of giving a voice to everyone in the room does something that normal meetings cannot do. It gives people the surefire, ultimate power. When you get to express your views on something in your team, and you know that people are listening to you, it drives bigger and greater ownership and commitment for what you say, what you think and what you stand for.
Reason #3: Lego Serious Play Questions The Model, Not The Person
Often, few people challenges or raises questions on what is being shared at meetings. Or if they do, it may often be polite and perfunctory. A key reason is because we do not like to offend or get other people defensive. And because of this, we are unable to find the true gems in our meetings. That’s why the failure of meetings to be productive is so high!
Lego Serious Play Eases Conversations.
In the Lego Serious Play process, It guarantees protection for people to ask and answer questions without feeling offensive or defensive. How? By letting you have full control in the conversations. In Lego Serious Play, the way people respond to questions or challenges is not just by talking, but by building a representative model.
Simply put, it is a 3-D answer to your questions.
Actions Tend to Speak Louder Than Words.
In other words, people do not need to guess what you mean. They can see what you mean.
And every time they ask a question about what you are saying, they are not directing it to you. They are directing it to the model. This simple redirection forever changes the power of control in the conversations. It lets both parties have the power to ask and the power to answer.
What you get is greater clarity, greater meaning and better answers to the questions in your team.
So there you go!
These 3 simple reasons underscore why so many meetings can be so ineffective, and why Lego Serious Play is your best option to mitigate these problems before they get out of hand.
We have been too used to expecting leaders to have all the answers, letting others do all the talking and not having the courage to challenge important issues and ideas.
After running Lego Serious Play interventions with so many organizations all these years, here’s a little secret many people discover through the process, that gets them excited about the process…
I didn’t realize we actually have all the answers to our questions!
This is what Lego Serious Play can do for you and your team!
It helps you find answers through your team members and in the process, it helps your team discover that they all able to talk about difficult and complex things in rich, productive and constructive ways. And ultimately, it brings everyone together.
Now, wouldn’t you want that?
If you like this article and want to find out more about Lego Serious Play, feel free to download the free guide we have prepared for you below.
Kim Pong is the CEO and Founder of StrengthsAsia, Creator of the REFRAME MasterClass and the first 20 Gallup Certified Strengths Coaches in the world. He is based in Singapore and works with organizations in Asia in creating an engaged workplace culture for leaders, managers and executives to thrive.