Giving back to the greater community of Playfullness supporters is at the core of our support in the beliefe that we can create better businesses through play.

This year we stumbled across Creations for charity, a non profit where masterbuilders of lego donate creations for others to bid on, and where all the proceedings go towards supplying those in need with a playful experience.

“Creations for Charity is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that hosts an annual fundraising event where builders from all over the world donate custom LEGO creations that are sold in our store from October 15th to November 30th. The proceeds are used to buy new LEGO sets for underprivileged children around the world during the holidays.” – www.creationsforcharity.org

Make sure you secure the bespoke LEGO model of your choice in this years sale, or why not support by  donating on this Paypal page, no strings attached 

Hopefully this will lead to some great times for the children during the holiday season. And also will give them the chance to experience the power of play.

Passion for Projects is the biggest Nordic conference for Professionells in the Project Management trade, hoasted by the Swedish Chapter of the Project Management Institute

As a long standing Project Managment Professional PMP certified Facilitator of the Project Managment Institute, giving back to the wider community on these community events is a great honor. We have been asked back several times to support the Swedish Chapter events with some sessions of Hard Fun, in exploring how the Power of Play can be used to rune better projects.

PfP2019 – LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® – A POWERFUL FACILITATION TOOL

In a reality where people are getting increasingly informed and connected through various methods, it’s important to find an innovative way of communicating. The need to re-visit how the dialogue with consumer and supplier is lead within and by companies is important and it’s time for a new method in the field. Introducing dialoguing with consumers through LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®*.

Because of the very complex and over stimulated context in which we live, people are changing their relationships with time, their capacity to keep focus and their attention overall. With this in mind, a new way of leading change management and communication within and by companies is an essential part of development.

The LSP approach allows consumers to get out of their cognitive thinking and to access the unconscious parts of their minds through playfulness and storytelling. Through this, the answers to specific questions have a stronger link to emotions associated with product usage and are less rationalized. Another benefit is the individual sharing of answers by all the participants. The beauty of this method is that everyone has the same opportunity to explain their thoughts and ideas in a fun and safe environment.

This is the assumption we started from when we initiated the “LSP Focus Groups” project. We had already piloted this approach on an individual level, and thanks to last year’s conference in Billund, the birthplace of LEGO, we have got the chance to gather a small group of LSP facilitators from different parts of Europe and from different starting points, businesses and countries to lead workshops and change management at different companies.

The complete article can be found here: Dialoguing with consumers through LSP

Article written for the LSP Connect Magazine – Full magazine downloadable at: https://www.lspconnect.events/magazine

When I first heard about and encountered the 5 Bold Steps Vision Canvas it really triggered something, and I realised this could be used together with the LEGO® Serious Play® method.

The canvas is described as follows: “The 5 Bold steps vision® canvas (created by David Sibbet, of the Grove International) provides a guide to create a vision and strategy for your business or team by using the defined steps and model these onto a canvas to clearly visualize the needed steps, actions, stakeholders etc. to reach the goals.”

So how could this be adapted to work with LSP and how would a session setup look like?
Firstly, it is a canvas, and this can easily be represented on the sharing table using plates:

Sharing table setup with plates

5 Bold Steps Vision Canvas

Secondly, it has clear areas that is easily adapted into workshop steps.

As usual starting with skills building to level the playing field, but after that pose the questions related to each of the areas described on the canvas.

1. Build the Vision statement / Process / Team
2. Build the Themes / Resources Supporting 1
3. Build the Stakeholders / dependencies impacting 1
4. Build the Operations/roles/strengths supporting 1
5. Build the Threats/Challenges towards 1
6. Build the Steps/Opportunities to reach 1
7. Build the Foundations needed to reach 1

For each of the areas I used individual models and then moved to the sharing table for placement and discussions. And at the sharing table make sure to use the space as an indicator for how each model is impacting each other or related area. This will enable you to use all AT’s by building agents, making connections, and creating a landscape.

Each of the questions posed for the team to build will be focused on the vision. And will depend on the setup and expectations. A few examples would be:

If the vision is a process, I would ask the team to build “what are the resources need for the process?” these could be people, tools etc, and add these into step 2 Themes

if the vision is more a goal or actual mission then step 5 – Challenges would be “build agents that challenges the goal” here it would be more open with everything from the market to people to mindsets.

And as usual each workshop is unique and therefor can be adapted. When I did the first session, I added Connections to the table as well, to really highlight how any agents are connected to the themes previously created.

Making Connections between agents and themes

At the end of the session the team will have a complete canvas based on both the Canvas setup as well as the LSP methodology. For this session, the main goal was to identify the steps / actions needed to reach the vision, and at the end of the day the team had a common understanding and a clear prioritized action list that could be acted upon the next day.

Finished Canvas

Key aspects are as usual to ensure that you and the customer are aligned on the session goal.

Some more specific considerations:

• Should the Vision be created beforehand, and you focus on the areas to reach the vision?
• Given the amount of time spent around the sharing table its important, as facilitator, to keep track of the discussions.
• Use the canvas as a palette and change according to the customer’s needs.
• Expectations on reporting.

For the first session we spent about 6 hours, but this will of course depend on complexity and size of group. The whole session can be done with only individual and sharing models, or it can be built to use all application techniques.

For the first session I used individual starter kits, combined with both landscaping and connection kits. As well as some community bricks (old starter kits put in a pile) just to ensure that each participant was able to build the models, which can be quite a few.

Room setup

Based on feedback and observations during the session only minor changes was needed to the template and given that each session will be tailored to each customer anyway, they will all be different.

This session has been run with both management, investigating how to restart in the new normal world we are facing, as well as with a team needing help to define and examine new ways-of-working.

Looking forward to using and adapting this setup in further workshops as I can really see the potential in the canvas and its adaptability.

For more information, or if you are interested in this workshop setup feel free to contact us: Challenge@addends.se