Mission and Vision of the SeriousPlayPro.com Community

This description of the vision and mission of the evolving SeriousPlayPro community was developed through the collective work of a group of LEGO Serious Play practitioners who gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland during 27-28 September 2010, as a follow-up to the initial work carried out in Billund, Denmark, on 14 April 2010

The Full Story of SeriousPlayPro Community Vision and Mission:

This is our common understanding of the vision for the open, broad community of facilitators using the LEGO Serious Play methodology. It falls into different elements. Over here, it’s really about what this community is and the difference that it makes. So in a sense, we are the wake-up call about the way business works and the way organisations function.

Through the love of the brick, it takes organisations on a journey to a platform where they’re looking through a gate into a better future, the so-called “pax ludens” (the “pax romana” of play, so to speak). The community enables that transition to take place so that the world becomes a better place through play in organisations.

Looking at the way that we are, it’s actually very easy to access. There are clear and open doors to enter the community; this is one of the reasons that we are attractive. This is one of the reasons why the nice LEGO is also defining itself as a natural member of the community.

Core to the community is not only that we’re global but that we care deeply for the brick and what it stands for. That’s really central. It’s what ties it all together.

What characterises the way that we are is that we 1) want to have fun, 2) we play, 3) we explore, 4) we challenge. There is a free flow of knowing and of knowledge that one can access. We are here for the long-haul so even as we cross deserts, we have the stamina and the tenacity to keep on going and we know that about each other and ourselves.

We have a mentality of thinking that we will meet again; we will meet each other twice. We know that we will meet each other again; therefore, we behave in a certain way, we behave accordingly.

We have appropriate transparency, which means that we will share and be deep about things that are fitting to the given situation. We leverage. One of the things that is also leveraged, when appropriate, is this odd thing at the periphery, which refers to the playing out of odd things – testing things, doing things, and allowing for emergence. That is part of what makes us attractive, that little odd, fun thing. It is on the periphery, so we don’t have to worry about it.

There is an emerging external notion of us as well; but the external identity of the “community” is always combined with the identity of the partner — so it becomes a 2-headed monster, which is a really positive thing.

Ultimately, we are also in this community for value; this is the value that any given member seeks. So there is the space to find that value. At moments in our life, that value is really money; it’s fiscal. At other moments, it’s personal growth. At other moments, it may be … So you can find that within the broader community.

However, there are also elements of structure to it. We have “canaries” in our community; these are early-warning systems of when things aren’t happening in the right way. For instance, when someone is not demonstrating “the love of the brick” or similar the canary will faint when some of these things are violated. So we will notice it because we have early-warning systems.

So far, we do not have a completely defined system of governance that ties us together but there’s an underlying structure to it. We also have a collective leadership – notice how the elephants are completely aligned — with wisdom in the strong memory of the elephant. Having that sort of collective wisdom allows for a path of exit for the people who have “no hands” – symbolising that they’re not doing ……

Finally, this is relatively spacious. Therefore, within the community, which is large and open, there is actually room for smaller communities with a particular, unique drive.

Amongst those may be the ones that really hold the flag high and demonstrate world-class facilitation of LEGO Serious Play; they may be in a particular field, such as coaching. They may also be defined by geography. To enter those, typically there will be a steep ladder, i.e. some sort of qualification, some sort of entry barrier to meet. But they live and thrive within this larger community and there is mutual enrichment between them.