Serious Play Pro

I welcome all new members introduce your “personal self” to the rest of the community – in addition to your business profile that we can see on your profile page.

It would be also nice if you could comment – how did you come across LSP and what caugth your attention to become LSP fan?

Let me start:
Besides consulting work I am interested in research and teaching – working on final chapters on my PhD currently and teaching a couple of courses at our faculty.

Having lived in Estonian countryside for most of my life I mostly enjoy outdoor hiking, swimming, running, cycling, skiing. From my grandfather – who was avid photographer – I took up photo- and videography. Adding music education I combine moving images with music: http://exposureroom.com/members/markorillo/

In terms of LSP. As a strategy consultant I tried looking for possibilities to turn strategizing activities more creative. When a friend of mine introduced me to LSP method I realized its vast potential. I read a bunch of research papers on LSP, play theory etc and decided to give it a try. I experimented and ran numerous self-taught LSP seminars since 2007 and ultimately decided to get fully certified in 2009.

Marko

If you want a full description of my professional experience, like Frode, I would direct people to my professional profile, which is most up to date at http://www.caprese.org/EN/WhoAreWe_EN.html#EliDeFriend & http://www.caprese.org/eli/Eli%20De%20Friend%20-%20Caprese%20Format.htm

You can also find me on linkedin.

As for my private life, I live and work with Joyce Miller in a charming little town surrounded by the vineyards on the shores of Lake Geneva. We can do our shopping in France, get a pizza for lunch in Italy and drive to EuropaPark in Germany for the day. We have the luxury of not deciding to not go skiing, if the weather isn’t perfect, which meant no skiing at all this season! Usually I start in December and do my last slopes in March.

As for hobbies, I still let my right hand finger nails grow long, while keeping the left hand nails shorter, although my flamenco guitar was broken last year by one of my 5-year old daughter Julia’s friends, which I didn’t notice for months – to give you some idea of how frequently I play. The last time I was on stage was on Christmas Eve in Firenze in my friend’s music club. When I was living in Belgium, I created a theatre company with some friends and had fun directing and acting – every night was sold out!

To finish off the rounds of my immediate family, my second son, Lionel, is still waiting for me to teach him to play his Stratocaster. My oldest son, Jeremy, also likes the stage and is currently Swiss Junior Hip-Hop Champion and came 12th in the World Championships in Poland in 2009. He still lives with his Mum, who is Belgian.
As I write this, I have just started implementation of a New Year’s resolution for 2009 – I don’t really dig diets, because I really appreciate good food and wine, but I’m not investing in any larger clothes, so, I have the choice of dieting or going naked and starting up a new market in consulting for overweight naturists. The latter could be very lucrative, and although I like thinking and living out of the box, there are some limits.

To summarize then, I feel my life is a sunny one, with a decent dose of beauty, creativity and intellectual stimulation

Hi All,

My name is Karen Cohen. I am a Program Manager with the University of Houston in Texas, U.S.A. My website is http://www.core.tech.uh.edu. I am fortunate to wear many hats in this education and outreach program. The variety keeps me hopping. My program uses LEGO based robotics to excite kids about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Besides hosting robotics tournaments and camps, I train teachers and adults how to use LEGO robotics in their classrooms, their community groups, or their mentoring programs. Many of these adults have been working many years and find unleashing their creativity a challenge. But beyond learning the programming and construction, they frequently ask me how to teach the bigger life issues, like problem solving, critical thinking, project management, and leadership. In the other part of my job, I build relationships in the community. These include helping companies begin outreach, community and mentoring programs. I also bring together partners of mine such as NASA, industry and education for collaborations in education. Surprisingly, these partners have also inquired about teaching these same topics to their management and staff.

I was a corporate trainer and quality manager in the aerospace industry for 15 years, prior to joining the University. Before that I worked in the non-profit sector developing programs, writing grants, and facilitating boards.

As for hobbies, I have a teenage son who doesn’t drive yet. Chauffeuring pretty much takes up any spare time. He’s a good kid, an Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America) so no complaints there. I do like to kayak and fish along the gulf coast. Although its very pretty here, its also very muggy. But all that humidity keeps us Southern women looking young, so I will not complain! My first book, the Marvelous Mid Life Adventures of Gemini Tucker, a collection of humorous and poignant short stories was published recently and I really enjoyed the experience of book signings, talks, etc.

I have no LSP history…… yet. Looking forward to learning more.

Karen

Hi Jody,
I’m really happy to answer you because I’m in an experiment. Can I run a consultancy business in Switzerland from a holiday home in Southern Spain? Until an hour ago, I was thinking that the answer was a definitive “NO” and that I would have to pack my bags and head back to the shores of Lake Geneva, but finally the dude with sweaty armpits showed up and I’m online. Yay!
On the subject of boundaries for the business, LEGO has been fairly clear: no use of the LEGO or SERIOUS PLAY logo in our marketing material. When referred to, the official term is “LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®”. Some suggestions have been submitted to LEGO as to how people who have successfully completed a full LEGO-organised LSP training programme should be referred. I’m sure you’ll find the info on this web site as soon as LEGO has made its decision.

You are more than welcome to attend our community of practise workshop on 27-28 September which is being held in Lausanne, a stone’s throw from IMD, where a lot of it all started.
Have an excellent weekend,
Eli

Hi Jody, could you please be more explicit on what you mean by tapping in to the open-source process.
Cheers,
Eli

hi Alexandra

I believe that Robert Rasmussen (& Associates) will be doing one on the east coast end of November this year. Check his website for more info
(if you want to try the method, then I will be doing a pre-conf workshop leading up the this years Pegaus system thinking conference in Boston. We will be combining LSP with scenario development. However, it will not be a training session, rather a workshop,http://www.pegasuscom.com/levpoints/lp.html)

It is great to see the smiling faces of people I have known only by name!

I connected with Robert Rasmussen and LEGO SERIOUS PLAY in June 2003 and we have been collaborating ever since. At the time I was looking for partners for a fledgling non-profit I had co-founded called Center for Balance by Design. The mission of CBD is to apply design thinking and design processes to optimize teamwork. Our work was based on research conducted at MIT by SPORG (Space Planning and Organizational Research Group). Robert immediately became intrigued with our mission. He donated bricks and training.

Founders of CBD participated in a full LSP strategy session. We had passion and felt that, together, we could transform workplaces and the world. The biggest challenge was that we could not figure out the “IT” that we had. Recent finding about collective intelligence (see my post earlier today) describe a group wisdom that far exceeds individual intelligence. I have experienced the impact of this dynamic energy many times, but did not have words or a scientific term to describe what I saw and felt.

I completed certification training both in 2003 and 2006 and have supported Robert during several of his U.S. workshops.

LSP can give voice to the emotional and social intelligence in all of us. It is such an honor to be able to give people the gift of LSP.

In terms of my personal interests, I love to travel, garden, paint with water colors, bird-watch, square dance and plan and attend parties. I mentor young women through Big Sister, Rotary International and a group I co-founded called WELL (Women’s Exchange for Leadership and Life). I have been married for thirty-four years to Bruce Conklin, and environmental engineer. The first two years of our marriage, Bruce and I lived and worked in both the Philippines and Egypt. I always say we had a two-year honeymoon.

hi Luis

Welcome

The open source is good place to start, as is the “official” seriousplay.com web, but you probably have already had a good look at that. You might also look for some of the old papers from the Imagination Lab. These are academic papers based on data gathered through LEGO SERIOUS PLAY workshops. Whilst not exactly practical, they may give you an idea as to why the method works.

Obviously, it also makes good sense to get the full training at some point

Good luck, and feel free to raise any question in this forum or to send a message directly

Per