A stone for better communication

 

A method that simultaneously promotes communication, allows structured planning and helps employees to open up emotionally in terms of the work process...does it exist?

There is! And it has an advocate who has dedicated himself heart and soul to this method: the method is called LEGO® Serious Play® and its enthusiastic facilitator is Jens Dröge. Jens is the official trainer for LEGO Serious Play training and author of the three German-language books on LEGO Serious Play, as well as a pioneer for LEGO Serious Play Online.

At memox.world Taunusanlage, he was not only a guest to answer all questions about LEGO Serious Play, but also worked with us to develop a special room layout exclusively for the method, consisting of furniture, layout and tools:

 

 

Jens: "To exaggerate, you could say: I earn my money by playing LEGO(laughs), although of course you can't talk about "playing" here. Guiding people to develop their creative potential and to participate 100%, that's actually my job."

 

LEGO® Serious Play® - what is it?

Developed from 1996, LEGO Serious Play combines the benefits of play with business processes. By encouraging the development of new ideas, improving communication and speeding up problem solving through its use, it is used in companies, teams and communication in general.

Through the use of the bricks, which many may still be familiar with from their own childhood, creativity is encouraged; talking about one's own built LEGO models promotes communication; the wealth of knowledge and experience of all participants is taken into account, thus creating a shared knowledge of the topic under discussion.

 

LEGO® Serious Play® - a communication tool

Jens: "LEGO Serious Play is a tool, the brick is a communication tool. For me, it is first and foremost a tool to break down emotional barriers, to bring about 100% participation. Everyone in such a workshop is asked, is listened to, and there it doesn't matter if it's the board of directors or the warehouse clerk. It's a participatory tool because it's not an opinion amplifier where the alpha dog says, "This is how we do it." In fact, it's a leadership tool to explicitly get strong participation. And it awakens creative potential that lies dormant within us. LEGO Serious Play speaks with intuition, not with the head. And that's why incredibly fantastic and ever-changing results come out of it."

A democratic method that gives all participants an equal share of the vote. Lego Serious Play is used by a whole range of companies from a wide variety of industries: be it in the brand environment, in the boardroom, in large corporations, agencies...Jens can even tell you about an orthodontist among his clients.

 

No limits for communication

Jens: "I think most companies just never talk about the fact that they also work with LEGO. Yet the method is used in corporations like Deutsche Bahn and Daimler. It also always depends on the question or the objective: is it the right workshop tool? If so, you can use it and you are not limited to one industry. It depends on the issue, and that in particular is incredibly diverse: teams finding themselves anew, personnel selection processes, requirements for managers, employees returning to the office, corporate strategy, responses to times of crisis... ... There really are no limits to what you can do."

What do you actually need for a LEGO Serious Play Workshop? Depending on the objective, LEGO has put together four sets, some of which mix LEGO and DUPLO. In total, the sets contain up to 2631 parts. A distinction is made between the Window Exploration Kit and the Starter Set, which contain basic material and serve primarily to introduce the method, and the Identity Landscape Set and the Connections Set for larger groups and longer, more intensive workshops. That's a lot of material and for that you need above all: space and room.

 

The room as a co-facilitator

Next to the material, the space is the most important element in a good LEGO Serious Play workshop. The workshops are characterized by a lot of proxemics: the participants are active and move through the space. It must be possible to store the material, and there must be surfaces on which to build and assemble models.

Jens: "Space is not to be underestimated in LEGO Serious Play. When I have a physical workshop, a few things are very important to me. One is the room itself: it has to be bright, it has to be friendly, it has to have space. A bad room can ruin the workshop, can have a negative impact on the workshop. A good room supports the workshop, it is unobtrusive and not intrusive. For example, there are workshop rooms that are called 'cozy workshop spaces': the dominant element here is the room itself. Of course, you're impressed at first. But the room is not in the foreground here. What needs to sit is the moderation, and the room can help with that. The room supports through friendliness, through different work areas, through tables that are flexible, that can be put together modularly. Which are already prepared. I have different areas: the seating area where I work, I have my buffet where the stones are set up. People can move freely without anything falling down, without it piling up. I have my area where I can go without any fuss, without any remodeling, and continue working on what I call my shared model."

Take breaks when they are needed

High flexibility is important for Jens, also with regard to the arrangement of breaks. It is important here to retain "design sovereignty" over timing, structure and breaks:

"Having break rooms is a co-creative element in the workshop. If I notice that the participants' energy levels are dropping, then I can flexibly send people out for breaks. Of course, it's important not to depend on a caterer or staff to schedule coffee breaks in advance. If I need a few extra minutes, then I have to get a few extra minutes. If I'm faster, I need to be able to take a break a few minutes earlier. The space needs to provide that: to be flexible to my needs."

 

The room as a safe place

In LEGO Serious Play, results are achieved quickly. This is possible, among other things, because the participants also get emotionally involved in the process. Does Jens have a certain atmosphere, a certain mood that he wants to achieve for his workshops and that supports the participants in this?

Jens: "In a workshop with me, the participants should always feel comfortable. I create this feel-good atmosphere through good moderation and clarification of the task, but also through the possibilities of the room. In today's times, it is also important to keep your distance and still be able to move around. If it is dark, gloomy, there is no good atmosphere. It has to be bright, it has to be friendly. The temperature has to be right. You have to be able to drink coffee if you want to, and have a selection of different drinks. There has to be a feel-good atmosphere, a safe space. And that's what I want to achieve, because then a space can support."

Many requirements, but they ensure that the participants feel safe and get results in the end. How does Jens find his rooms, which ones does he use?

Jens: "When I'm in Frankfurt or Zurich, I like to use the rooms here(memox.world Taunusanlage, memox.world Europaallee, editor's note) because they have exactly what I want. An unobtrusive space, bright and friendly and still flexibly adaptable. And not this over-dominance, which is why I really like being here. In addition, the rooms are already equipped with the appropriate material, so I can arrive immediately and focus on the workshop. The bistro area allows us to stay in the room, even during breaks, which keeps the workflow up. They are centrally located, easily accessible from every station. And that's why I like being here; otherwise it's always quite hard to find good spaces, I would say."

 

Part of our Expert Community: not without reason

How many hours he has already spent in LEGO Serious Play workshops? Hard for Jens to say: "I can't count that. I've been doing this for over six years. I've trained more than 400 people in the method, for example, and I've certainly had just as many people in workshops. I can't tell you how many hours, but it's quite a few.(Laughs) I would consider myself very experienced in this field, some call me an expert."

He also makes this expertise available to us; exclusively for LEGO Serious Play, Jens has worked with us to design a room layout so that the space can meet all the requirements of such a workshop.

If you would also like to host a LEGO Serious Play workshop with Jens Dröge or if you are interested in the method, please visit us on our website www.memox.com/moderatoren-marktplatz. Jens is part of our Expert Community; we are happy to arrange contact and a personal meeting.

Jens, thank you very much for your visit and the interesting conversation!