LEGO Serious Play: A different way to think about kits #legoseriousplay #lsp

I was taking part in a roundtable with other #LSP facilitators recently discussing LEGO®️ Serious Play®️ kits. There were four questions, and we only got as far as the first question, although the conversation did cover aspects of the other three questions.

The four questions were:

• Why would you want to create your own LSP kits?
• We all know that #LEGO discontinues product lines, and we've seen the mild panic or anxiety caused when LSP kits are out of stock, so what happens when LEGO discontinues the four #legoseriousplay kits?
•  If you were given the opportunity, which in a sense you all have every day, what new or different kits would you create?
•  Do we even need standard kits? Why can’t participants use any bricks they have?

What was interesting for me was the notion of a 'kit' and the implications that are intrinsically woven into it.

For me, the kits, developed a number of years ago, reflect the thinking and outlook of those who created them at a moment in time. A different time. A time back in the 2000s. Society, politics, the economy, global trends and technology were different. The way we communicated and engaged with each other was different. This was a world of classrooms and face-to-face workshops. Experiences were physical. Social media and the mobile phone were not as ubiquitous as they are today.

As such, the kits are of their time. Fixed in time. They reflect the fact that LEGO is largely focused on creating mementoes and sparking memories of our physical world. The bricks helps us create and build a physical representation of the landscape of the challenges we are trying to explore, understand and overcome. What I call the 'problem landscape'. They are less attuned to the people who inhabit that problem landscape.

The world of today is different. It is a world of subtle differences and nuances of meaning. It is a world where the focus has shifted from the organisation, the system to the individual within it. It is a world where the ability to navigate is key. Words and meaning matter. Pronouns matter.

The lexicon of LSP, as expressed through the existing LSP kits, needs to be updated to reflect these nuances and subtleties. A shift needs to take place from the system to the individual.

Perhaps we might need to think of the LSP kits in a different way. Perhaps we might need to think less about kits and more about bricks. If we think kits, we immediately force participants in our workshop to be constrained by a moment in time that is perhaps less relevant. We are forcing our participants when making their models to choose from a selection of bricks that is limited in meaning, limited in subtlety and nuance, limited in the metaphors that can be prompted and triggered.

If we shift our thinking to the bricks themselves, then we are considering each brick on its own merits. Its ability to meet or exceed the desired outcome of the workshop. Its ability to create new or different metaphors. Deeper metaphors. Richer metaphors. If we think about the bricks, and accept that bricks act as prompts or triggers for meaning, other meaning, different meaning, new meaning, then we offer participants greater possibilities perhaps. Possibilities unfettered, untainted by the past.

Possibilities that perhaps reflect the world of today to a greater degree.

The question then becomes not why don't you create your own kits, but rather: why wouldn't you create your own kits? And if your answer is cost and convenience, then perhaps, in unquestioningly accepting what exists, you do a disservice to those taking part in your (or their) workshops.

More to come on (creating your own) LSP kits in 2022!